Mangaluru: Signature, they say is a reflection of who you are. If that is true then Pejawar seer Vishweshathirtha Swamiji was unique!
Many facets of the seer are known to all, but very few know that Pejawar seer used to sign in Tulu lipi, a script that many believe is dead.
At a point in time when efforts are on to save the Tulu lipi, which has almost landed in the pages of history, the seer used the lipi to sign. It is said that, though the seer did not know to read and write Tulu lipi, all that he knew was to write his name ‘Swami Vishweshathirtha’ in Tulu.
The seer himself had once said that he does not even remember who taught him to write his name in Tulu and when. However, the unique sign was used by the seer for glorious 89 years of his well-lived life.
“I believe it is the ‘Guruparampare’ because I was initiated into Sanyasa and somebody taught me to write my name in Tulu. Those day the relevance of Tulu may have been declining and the Sanskrit hymns, which were once written in Tulu lipi may have been drafted in other lipis, I believes. I may have been hence symbolically taught to write my name in the lipi, which was once a compulsory learning for the ‘Vatus’ (young Brahmin disciples) initiated into Sanyasa as all the important documents of the Ashtamutt were in Tulu lipi,” he had said.
The seer, who was born as Venkatrama at Ramakunja in 1931 was ordained into Sanyasa at an earlier age of eight.
“It may be a ‘Guruparampare’ (a culture passed down from the teacher to his disciples) that I am following,” the Seer had told.
People who had close association with the seer too say that he never made an attempt to shift to any other lipi.
Pejawar seer passed away on December 29 after short period of illness.
