NEW DELHI, MARCH 17: A South Indian folk epic, Siri, containing almost as many verses as the Iliad will soon come into print.Siri, hitherto orally rendered in the culturally rich Canara belt of coastal Karnataka, will be released this month-end in Tulu and English as a culmination of an Indo-Finnish project.With 15,683 lines - five short of the Greek classic - the printed version of Siri will be brought out in the two languages by a couple of Indian institutions in association with a Finnish university. Audio and video tapes of the epic are also being codified by the University of Mangalore, the Udupi-based M G M College and University of Turku, Finland, which are involved in the decade-long project.The epic, focusing on a valiant woman Siri and her fight against male domination, will be released by Finnish Ambassador to India M Benjamin Bassin at MGM College on March 28, Embassy of Finland here said.The collaborative work is based on renditions of Gopala Naika, a Siri exponent. Hailing from Tulunaadu in South Karnataka, Gopala Naika's recitals were audio and video-taped during a nine-day performance at Ujire near Belthandy in December 1990. That was for the first time the artiste rendered the entire epic in the vocal mode of performance, Embassy sources said.The Indo-Finnish team, which completed the project, comprises Professor Viveka Rai and Dr Chinnappa Gowda of Mangalore University's Kannada Department, and Prof Lauri Honko and Anneli Honko of the Department of Cultural Studies, Turku University. The Helsinki-based Alfred Kordelin Foundation and Academy of Finland have offered financial support to the project.
