The Hindu : Karnataka News : He has enough for a museum

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Karnataka

Karnataka

He has enough for a museum

T.V. Sivanandan

A retired teacher explores the history and culture of Gulbarga

Carefully preserved: Some of the coins collected by D.N. Akki, a retired teacher.

GOGI (GULBARGA DISTRICT): Retirement from service may give rise to various anxieties, insecurity and hopelessness, but the case of D.N. Akki, a former drawing teacher in a government high school, belies such assumptions.

A lover of history, archaeology, writing as well as numismatics, he has collected a rich repertoire of old coins, archaeological material and rare manuscripts over the years.

Mr. Akki, who won the coveted National Best Teacher Award in 1997 and the State Best Teacher Award in 1996, did not confine himself to drawing, but was popular among students for inspiring them to explore history, archaeology and more.

Mr. Akki, who has penned more than 10 books on the history, archaeology and culture of the region, has an incisive intellect as well as a deep thirst for knowledge. This prompted him to travel extensively and collect rare manuscripts from abandoned temples and deserted villages that throw more light on the history and culture of Gulbarga.

One of his recent finds is a manuscript from an abandoned Jain “basti” (temple) at Malli in Jewargi taluk called ‘Ekakshara Nigantu”, written by an unknown person in Hale Kannada. The manuscript provides insight into words in Kannada that have multiple meanings.

Mr. Akki, along with historians Sitaram Jagirdhar and M.P. Siddharth, has taken up the arduous task of translating the manuscript into understandable Kannada. They also hope to have the work published. “We have completed translation work and the book will be published soon,” he said.

During his quest, Mr. Akki collected some rare coins made of lead during the Satavahana period, a gold coin minted in the treasury of the Vijayanagara kingdom, silver coins of the Adil Shahi and the Bahamani dynasties and copper and silver coins that were in circulation during the period of the Nizam.

His small museum in his ancestral house consists of many rare books, old coins, manuscripts, terracotta items and other archaeological material collected over the years.

He told The Hindu that his dream was to establish a full-fledged museum in Shahapur in Gulbarga district and exhibit his finds there. Many collectors from across the State, he claimed, had requested him to part with his material, but he had refused to entertain their requests. He said he wanted to do something that could be called his own.

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