Bollera Jajie Mandanna (94), one of the outstanding Kodava women of the 20thcentuary, passed away in Mysore on Wednesday.
She was a pioneer in the consumer protection movement and held many important posts in the area.
Jajie Mandanna would go down in history for her yeoman service to the Kodava community as the president of the Bangalore Kodava Samaja. She had taken a Kodava cultural troupe to Delhi which performed in the national capital before a VIP audience.
Before moving to Mysuru, Jajie lived in Bengaluru with her famous son and theatre personality Ashok Mandanna. When this writer visited her home in Bengaluru, he had the opportunity of meeting Jajie’s daughter Sukanya and her husband Pattamada K. Bellippa, famous Ranji cricket player who had captained the Tamil Nadu team. Jajie told this writer that her other son Bharath was helping her in putting together a book on Kodagu. She readily accepted to write a chapter on Kodava wedding for the book ‘Discover Coorg’.
According to a report quoting family sources, her body would be donated to Mysore Medical College and Reseach Institute.