About the event

Arivaame is a celebration of Kodava culture and heritage. It is an opportunity to experience through performances, conversations, and food the richness of Kodava’s oral and literary traditions and reflect on what it means for a minor language to carry such a vast cultural world.

Arivaame grew out of Noorakke Nooru Karnataka (NNK), a Kannada podcast series created by Radio Azim Premji University that explores the diverse culture, heritage, and icons of Karnataka. Each episode of NNK highlights a figure, practice, or tradition that has shaped Karnataka’s identity.

Arivaame is based on an episode of NNK that focused on Haradasa Appaccha Kavi (1868 – 1944), the Adikavi of Kodava literature and a cultural icon of Karnataka; on how Kodava Takk continues to live in song, story, and ritual and with fewer than 150,000 speakers, is classified by UNESCO as an endangered language; on Pattole Palame, the monumental collection compiled in 1924 by Nadikerianda Chinnappa, one of the earliest attempts to record Kodava culture in writing; and on the linguist, Dr I.M. Muthanna, who created a 26-character script for Kodava, designed to capture the language’s distinctive sounds.

Hosted by IHA in collaboration with Radio Azim Premji University

Our panellists

• Kavery Nambisan, surgeon and novelist, will speak on the fragility of Kodava identity and culture.
• Revathi Poovaiah, Kodava scholar, will talk about keeping creativity alive in a vulnerable tongue.
• Nidhi Subbaiah, film actress, will share her opinion on what it means to be part of Kodava culture.