B. G. L. Swamy

B. G. L. Swamy
Born	Bengaluru Gundappa Lakshminarayanaswami (1918-02-05)5 February 1918 Bangalore, Mysore State, British India
Died	Mysore, Karnataka, India
Occupation	Professor, Botanist, writer, historian
Nationality	India
Genre	Fiction, science, history
Literary movement	Navodaya
Notable works	Hasiru Honnu, College Ranga
Spouse	Vasantha

Bengaluru Gundappa Lakshminarayana Swamy (1918–1980, also known as B. G. L. Swamy) was an Indian botanist and Kannada writer who served as professor and head of the department of Botany and as Principal of Presidency College, Chennai. He was the son of D. V. Gundappa, an Indian writer and philosopher.

Education and career

Swamy studied in Central College, Bangalore, and obtained his bachelor's degree in botany. He obtained his PhD from the University of Mysore in 1947, and had a brief post-doctoral period at Harvard University, under Irving Bailey. From 1953, he served as professor of botany (and later Principal) at Presidency College, Chennai. Swamy Botanical Club has been formulated in his commemoration in Bharathidasan University at Tiruchirappalli.

Research

Swamy's primary research area was Plant anatomy, particularly the structure of connections between plants' roots and stem. He also discovered a few plant species that were unknown until then – examples are Ascarina maheshwarii and Sarcandra irvingbaileyi, named for two of his teachers. In 1976, he was awarded the Birbal Sahni gold medal by the Government of India for his work in botany.

Writing

Swamy's literary works encompass a wide range of topics. A large number of them are related to botany, and introduce botanical concepts to the layperson. A few of his books cover common plants used in everyday life in a scientific manner – such as Namma hotteyalli Dakshina amerika ("South America in our stomach").

Other works by Swamy pertain to literature, and some are partially autobiographical, dealing with his experiences as professor and principal. Apart from being an acclaimed botanist, B G L Swamy was also widely respected in the history and literary circles.

He extensively studied and researched the histories and literatures of both Kannada and Tamil languages. His book Tamilu Talegala Naduve ("Among Tamil heads"), is devoted to examining theories pertaining to language's origins (examining the claims that were being made in those days by the Dravidian parties) and mostly debunking them. In this book he debunks some of the theories put forward by Tamil linguists and historians such as Iravatham Mahadevan and Nilkanta Shastri, to name a few. He raised several questions regarding gaping holes and contradictions in their theories.

His book Hasiru honnu("Green Gold") won him the Kendra Sahitya Academy award given by the Government of India. With that, Gundappa and Swamy, became the first father and son duo to win this prestigious award.

Hasiru honnu is a treatise on some familiar and unfamiliar botanical specimens, but it is also a travelogue enlivened by human drama and humor. Students of Advanced Botany undertake scientific tours in the company of their teachers for the identification and collection of botanical specimens. Swamy was a gifted man of letters with an observant eye and a sense of humour, and at the same time, deeply interested in history and the fine arts such as music, painting and architecture. Thus, as an artist and a scientist, he could explore and explain the world of botany in the light of a wider understanding. He describes the externals of a specimen with vivid precision and technical detail but his account of the genus and species is only a prelude to a livelier non-technical account of its appearance, its locations and practical uses. Sometimes the reader is treated to an excursion into the past to discover how the specimen claimed attention by figuring in well-known literary works of antiquity.

The book thus unfolds before the reader the abundant riches and the endless variety of the botanical world and the hundred ways in which it helps humans. The human variety and the different characters all memorably visualized provide ample scope for portraying dramatic situations of all kinds, from the comic to the romantic. The book primarily deals with the world of plants but it deals also with the world of humans. Hasiru honnu is as informative as it is delightful. It won him the 'Sahitya Akademi Award' in 1978.

His works include:

• Hasiru Honnu – "Green Gold"
• Colleju Ranga
• Colleju Taranga
• Pradhyapakana Peethadalli
• Tamilu Talegala Naduve
• Diary of a Botanist
• Namma hotteyalli Dakshina amerika
• Panchakalasha Gopura
• Americadalli naanu
• Maisooru dairy
• Dourgandhikapaharana
• Brihadaranyaka (published in 2006)
• Chidambaram and Nataraja
• Beladingalalli aralida molle ( Translation from Tamil: U. V. Swaminatha Iyer)
• Jnanaratha ( Translation from Tamil: Subrahmanya Bharathi)
• Haridihe Balou Kaveri ( Translation from Tamil: Chetti )

See also

• D. V. Gundappa

External links

• Remembering B.G.L.Swamy on Kamat.com