HUBLI: Though Ganayogi Puttaraj Gawai lived in darkness, he brought light to the life of hundreds of blind children with his exceptional humanitarian vision. Becoming blind at a tender age did not stop him from reaching incomparable heights in the field of music and literature. Being the head of Veerashaiva Punyashrama, Gawai never distanced himself from the mainstream. He mixed with people of every strata and never tethered himself to social constraints. Besides religion, he dedicated his life to enrich art, music, literature fields without any selfish motive.
Born on March 3, 1914, to Siddamma and Revayya Venkatapurmath at Devarhospete village of Haveri district, Puttaraj lost his vision six months after birth and lost his father a few days later.
He had his initial music lessons from his mother's brother Chandrashekharayya. At the age of 8, he became a disciple of Pandit Panchakshari Gawai.
Under his guidance he mastered the tabla, harmonium, sarangi, veena, sitar and violin. Apart from Kannada, he mastered Hindi, Sanskrit and Braille.
He started a drama company 'Sri Kumareshwara Krupaposhita Pandit Panchakshari Gawai Natya Sangh' and was instrumental in popularising various kind of plays. The money earned from the shows helped Gawai run the music school and Ashram. After the demise of Panchakshri Gawai in 1944, he took the responsibility of running Punyashram. The music school produced famous artistes in Hindustani music, including Pandit Chandrashekhar Puranikmath and Pt Venkatesh Kumar. Though blind, there are over 80 volumes of work to his credit. They comprise plays, prose, poems, books related to music and Braille language. He had also written books in Hindi and Sanskrit. The Central government conferred the Padma Bhushan award on him this year. His other awards include Central Sangeeta Nataka Academy Award, Emirates Fellowship, Rasharapati Award for Composing Basava Purana, Outstanding Achievement Award form Cambridge University, Kalidasa Samman Award of Madhya Pradesh Government etc.
He won the Rajyotsava Award in 1970 and Karnataka University conferred an honorary doctorate on him in 1972. Rajya Sangeeta Vidwan, Kanaka Purandara, Nadoja by Hampi Kannda University, T Choudaiah and Basavashree were his other awards, which exceed 50.
His name features in the Guinness Book of World Records and Limca Book of Records in connection with over 200 Tulahara conducted for him.