Mysuru, (DHNS): The 83rd Akhila Bharatha Kannada Sahitya Sammelana, scheduled to be held on 24, 25 and 26 of November is the first one to be held in the 21st century in the city. It is being held after a huge gap of 27 years in Mysuru city. Writer Chandrasekhara Patil, known widely as Champa, will be the chairman of the sammelana.

Mysuru is all set to play host to the mega event for the fifth time. The city has already hosted four Akhila Bharatha Kannada Sahitya Sammelanas — 1917, 1930, 1955 and 1990 — and also the first Vishwa Kannada Sammelana in 1986.

The 102-year-old Kannada Sahitya Parishat, founded by then king of Mysuru state, Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar, has so far organised 82 Akhila Bharatha Sahitya Sammelanas. It has been skipped during 19 years, due to various reasons, while it was held twice during two years — 1981 (Chikkamagaluru and Madikeri) and 1990 (Hubballi and Mysuru).

Belagavi tops

The undivided Belagavi district has the credit of hosting the meet for the highest eight times. It is an irony that Belagavi, where people complain of Marathi chauvinism, has played host to the conference so many times. Even the bifurcated Bagalkot district has hosted the event thrice — Jamakhandi, Mudhol and Rabakavi.

The mega event is held five times in Dharwad (twice in Gadag including once after becoming district headquarters), Hassan, Raichur (Koppal and Gangavathi before division) and Dakshina Kannada (Manipal and Udupi before bifurcation).

After the November event, Mysuru would join the toppers’ club. However, Mysuru will be closely followed by Bengaluru (once in Kankapura, now in trifurcated Ramanagaram district), Ballari and Chitradurga (twice in Davangere and once in Harapanahalli before division).

Tumakuru (once in Siddaganaga), Mandya (in 1974 and 1994), Chikkamagaluru (after a long gap of 1921 to 1981) and Kolar [also after a long gap from 1924 to 1984 (in Kaivara before division)] have hosted the event twice. While the first two sammelanas were held in Bengaluru, Mandya took almost 59 years to host the event in 1974.

The sammelana has also been held outside Karnataka — Kasaragod in Kerala in 1948; Solapur in Maharashtra in 1950; Mumbai, again in Maharashtra in 1951; and in New Delhi in 1978. The Delhi event was the 50th sammelana.

The new districts of Haveri, Chamarajanagar, Bengaluru Rural and Yadgir are yet to open the account.

H V Nanjundaiah, a scholar and the first vice chancellor of the University of Mysore, was the president of the first three sammelanas and he himself inaugurated the meet. But since independence, chief ministers have been inaugurating the meets, even though eminent writers and scholars have been the chairpersons.

The events were earlier funded by the Wadiyar kings of Mysuru and later taken over by the state government.

All the four presidents of the earlier meets held in Mysuru were stalwarts in their own way — 1917 H V Nanjundaiah, 1930 Aluru Venkata Rao, 1955 Shivaram Karanth and 1990 K S Narasimhaswamy.