Karnataka’s Kolar region is known for its hero stones – stones that memorialize individuals who died fighting in the battlefield or shielding their communities from attacks. A stonemason from Kolar recently built a memorial, not in Kolar but about 300 kilometres away in Gundlupet for a hero who grew up in this small town. This was an intellectual hero, though, whose battlefield was Mysuru, some 60 kilometres away and who fought valiantly to free the minds from what Jotirao Phule called the ‘virtual fortress of fabricated falsehoods’ passed down from one generation to another over centuries through brahmanical texts.
Prof B.P. Mahesh Chandra Guru (31 January 1957 – 17 August 2024) was born to a Dalit couple in his maternal home at Ambedkar circle, Gundlupet, in the foothills of the Western Ghats. After the death of his father, a revenue inspector, when he was still in his mid-teens, his maternal grandfather raised Guru. His paternal grandfather incidentally had converted to Buddhism along with Babasaheb Ambedkar in Nagpur on 14 October 1956. Guru studied journalism, worked briefly for a newspaper, took up various positions in the central government before settling down to teach, first in Bangalore University, followed by Mangalore University and finally in the University of Mysore, from where he retired as Professor of Media Studies in 2019. On 17 August 2024, he succumbed to a heart attack, having been discharged from hospital just a few days earlier.
Dr Dileep Narasaiah, now a mass communication trainer, was one of his students. Dileep saw and heard Guru for the first time when the professor spoke at a public function he happened to attend in Mysuru. Dileep went on to do his masters and PhD under Prof Guru in the University of Mysore. He said he never missed a class. Prof Guru was known for his holistic teaching methods, which could include a foray into criticism of the protagonist Ram in the epic Ramayana in a seminar, or celebrating Mahisha Habba in the city. Prof Guru was arrested for his comments on Ram. From the Eighties until a year before his passing, he organized Mahisha Habba every year on Dasara.
The Chamundi Hill overlooks the city of Mysuru. Atop the hill is a temple of goddess Chamundi and a statue of Mahisha. Mythology has it that Chamundi killed the demon Mahisha, which sounds suspiciously similar to the Durga-Mahishasur myth. Scholars believe that this story was concocted by the Aryans/Brahmins to erase memories of the egalitarian reign of Mahisha and to lord over his people. One of the early Wadiyar kings who ruled this region named the city ‘Mahishura Nagara’ (city of Mahishura) and later inscriptions refer to the city as ‘Mahishuru’. Why would any king name his city after a demon? Drawing on studies based on historical sources, Prof Guru turned the popular myth on its head and started a movement to reclaim the Buddhist king Mahisha, which took the form of Mahisha Habba. To demonize an egalitarian king of the past is to disempower the descendants of his subjects and have them accept their present exploitation under the caste system. To rehumanize a demonized egalitarian king is to re-rempower them and restore their dignity and have them question the injustices they face today.
Dileep says Mysuru misses this courageous and knowledgeable intellectual. The movement is not the same without Prof Guru. His absence was keenly felt in 2024 Mahisha Habba, held a couple of months after his passing.
Dr Gowtham Devanoor, now a lecturer in a private university in Bangalore, was three years Dileep’s junior in the University of Mysore. Prof Guru’s uncompromising rationality and his extraordinary commitment to justice has left an indelible mark on Gowtham. They would be protesting wherever there was injustice of any sort, be it on the university campus or outside. Mahisha Habba, lit up by Prof Guru’s fine oratory, continued, despite the crackdown by the previous right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state government. Even the imposition of CrPC Section 144 couldn’t stop the celebration.
Prof Guru is survived by his wife, C. Hemavathi, a professor of Botany in a Mysuru college. Prof Hemavathi and former students of Prof Guru sat down to plan for the building of the memorial. They decided to model it on Ambedkar’s Chaityabhoomi in Dadar, which in turn is modelled on the stupa in Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh, commissioned by emperor Ashoka. They contacted the stone craftsman in Kolar. He took a couple of months to cut and prepare the stones, after which these were transported to Prof Guru’s familial property in Gundlupet, where he was buried, and installed. This patch of land is about three kilometres to the south of the town centre, off the road to Ooty. The installation took about a week and the entire project cost about Rs 980,000. The property now boasts a Sanchi gateway, a walkway that starts at the gateway and leads to a plaque that gives a short biography of Prof Guru in English and Kannada and then turns left and ends at the stupa-like tomb. As you enter the Sanchi gateway, a little to the left, three slabs commemorate Prof Guru’s mother and maternal grandparents, who too were buried on this property (his father, who died early, was buried in his own village nearby). All structures, including the walkway, have been made of white Sadarahalli stone. The two acres of land on which the memorial has been built will soon open to the public and also be made available for Dhamma and educational events.
On 17 August 2025, Buddhist monks led a prayer meeting and dedicated the memorial. Family, friends, students and colleagues of Prof Guru’s turned up. Students took great care to decorate the tomb with flowers – gratitude for their teacher, guide and father figure evident on their faces. A group sang songs venerating Buddha, Basavanna and Ambedkar. The dedication ceremony was followed by a non-vegetarian lunch (chicken biryani, mutton curry, boiled egg and raita as the main course and khir for dessert).
Prof Guru’s heroes were Buddha, Basavanna, Periyar, Ambedkar and Kuvempu. He carried their legacy and has now passed it on to a new generation.
(Edited by Amrish Herdenia)
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