History

Sahitya Bhandara

Sahitya Bhandara was founded by my father, Mangaluru Govindarao, in 1934. At the age of eleven he left his parents' village near Mangaluru and moved to Dharwad to continue his studies. While a student, he started a lending library at his school and sold newspapers at the railway station. Later he began selling books, traveling throughout what is now Karnataka State. In 1934, he opened a bookshop and began publishing in Hubli. After opening his shop, he brought his younger brother, who was washing dishes in a hotel, to join him in Hubli. In 1968 he moved his business to Bengaluru and opened the current shop in Balepet.

Govindarao was always more driven by his love of Kannada than by his desire to be a business man. He would encourage people to write and speak pure Kannada. His teacher, D. R. Bendre, along with others, inspired this love of language, and Govindarao continued this tradition by encouraging and publishing the works of noted authors such as S. L. Bhyrappa. Sahitya Bhandara in Bengaluru continues to this day to be the sole publisher of Bhyrappa's original Kannada works.

In 1994 Govindarao passed away; two years later, his business associates, friends, and relatives compiled a book about his simplicity and honesty. If you want to know more about this man who devoted his life to Kannada, please read Shresta Pustakodyami and S. L. Bhyrappa's Bhitti.