The simplicity of the last line in each verse carrying an intrinsic moral message while enshrining the essence of the whole verse makes every verse a treasure-trove of wisdom. The charm of these four-lined verses lies in the vastness of insight and understanding of the God, universe, world, life, humans and their materialistic compulsions, morality etc. It just so happened that out of the numerous verses that Dr.DVG had penned, these 945 stanzas were selected by Dr.DVG for publication. Sri.Ramaswamy stated that the number had no significance. I asked Dr.DVG’s pupil, Sri.S.R.Ramaswamy (who is now managing the functioning of Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs which was set up by Dr.DVG himself) as to why Kagga contained only 945 verses – neither more nor less. Interestingly, Dr.DVG has dedicated Kagga to his close friends – Sri.T.S.Venkannaiah ( to ) and Sri.Mokshagundam Krishna Murthy ( to ).
Srikanth has written a well researched reference manual called “Mankuthimmana Kagga - Thaatparya” with foreword by Sri.Nittur Srinivas Rao. Lakshminarayana Bhatta has written a unique treatise titled “Thimmaguru Darshana” (or Gundopanishat). Lakshminarayana Bhatta, Dr.Gururaj Karajagi and many more. Some scholarly commentaries include the ones by Shataavadhaani Dr.R.Ganesh, Chinmaya Mission, Prof.H.S.
Kagga has seen numerous re-prints, the maximum for any literary work in Kannada! There are numerous commentaries (in writing and as lecture series) on Kagga by learned men. Kagga was written in verse form over a period of several years and finally published in 1943. Mankuthimmana Kagga is a collection of 945 four-liner verses of profound intellectual content written by Dr.DVG. Dr.DVG’s Kagga has mesmerized, humbled and inspired millions over the decades of it’s benevolent existence. I could only appreciate Raghu’s interest in this literary master-piece acclaimed as “the modern Bhagavad Geeta” penned by the great Kannada poet “the Kannada Geetacharya”, Dr.D.V.Gundappa ( to ). Recently, my friend Dr.S.Raghunath, a professor in BMSCE, said that he planned to spend the next two or three years in studying Dr.DVG’s “Mankuthimmana Kagga”.