Mangaluru: The death of US-based scholar Peter J Claus, a name that every Tuluva always remembers, has saddened folk artistes and scholars from Tulunadu.
Peter, basically an anthropologist, who hailed from the US, had come to Dakshina Kannada to study the Bunt family system and kinship as part of his thesis. During his stay in the district, he developed love towards the rich Tulu folk culture.
The anthropologist-turned folklore scholar was one of the pioneering scholars in Tulu folklore.
Peter had come to Dakshina Kannada district which then included Udupi in the 1970s and was here for over 15 years. “He was basically an anthropologist. But his interest turned him into a folklorist. He was a great scholar and a down to earth person,” Hampi Kannada University former vice-chancellor B.A. Vivek Rai says.
Prof Rai, who is a Tulu scholar, was closely associated with Peter, who stayed in his house for some months.
“He studied ‘Siri’ and other holy spirits such as Kod-dhabbu and Rajan Divas of the region. He got his Ph.D in the US but continued to study our folklore. He was also interested in the folktales of the region,” Prof Rai says.
Peter had published articles on ‘Pad-dhana’ (folk songs) and other folk arts in the coastal region.
Though many western scholars had studied Tulu, Peter, who had come here as early as 1970s, was a pioneer. He was in touch with the scholars from the coastal region till about six years ago. Peter was invited to Mangaluru University by the Kannada Department under Fulbright Teaching Award programme in 1988. Peter taught students of the university for six months.
He also taught students at the Regional Research Centre in Udupi during 1988-89.
