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Pavanje Guru Rao was born in Dakshina Kannada district and became famous for his extra-ordinary contributions in enriching the Kannada literature.

His services may be broadly classified into six sub-categories:

-          He painstakingly converted Haridasa literature which was till then popular through oral tradition (word-of-mouth) into written format . Udupi being a hub of religious pilgrimage was frequented by devotees of Sri Krishna or Haridasas, who used to sing devotional songs composed by Purandara Dasa, Kanaka Dasa, Vadiraja Teertha, Vijaya Dasa, Jagannatha Dasa and so on. Pavanje Guru Rao made these Haridasas and many ladies sing these songs and he made a written documentation of these and then through the help of experts edited these songs, printed and published them in the form of books. This was no mean achievement and he was solely responsible for the survival of these songs in posterity.

-          Pavanje Guru Rao was also mainly responsible in the publication of Prasangaas of the folk art of coastal Karnataka called Yakshagaana. He published and popularized more than 75 such Prasangaas. During his time all lovers of Yakshagaana folk art made it a point to collect these Prasangaas printed and published by Pavanje Guru Rao.

-          Pavanje Guru Rao was also responsible in preservation of rare Sanskrit works which were in the form of manuscripts preserved in Mutts and other religious institutions. Pavanje Guru Rao with the help of Sanskrit scholars of his time, performed extensive research of these manuscripts, edited and published several rare works, such as “Sumadhva Vijaya Bhaava Prakaashika” of Narayana Panditaachaarya, “Sampradaaaya Paddhati”, to name a few.

-          Another field which Pavanje Guru Rao worked on is the Kannada translations of useful Sanskrit works. He engaged Sanskrit scholars to do this translation. Some of the books translated by him to Kannada include Sri Venkatesha Kalyaana, Sri Harivaayu Stuti, Sri Raghavendra Stotra,  and so on. The simplicity and beauty of these translations are appreciated by one and all.

-          Pavanje Guru Rao was also known for publication of books relating to daily religious rituals (Nitaanushthaana), like Sandhyaavandana, Devapooja etc. These books were extremely popular and ran into several reprints.

-          Lastly, Pavanje Guru Rao also published religious books which are general in nature, such as the “Udupi Kshetra Mahaatme”, “Purandara Daasa Charitre”, Tulu Kanyopadesha and so on.

He established in Udupi Sri Krishna Press, with modern machineries of his time, to print these books and the book stall by the name Sri Manmadhwa Siddhaanta Granthaalaya to market these books.

It is quite astonishing to note that he printed and published books totaling to 500 with more than 10,000 pages. This Herculean task was performed singlehandedly by Pavanje Guru Rao, which is impossible even by large institutions with deep pockets.

It should be noted that the road for achieving these feats were never smooth. He faced stiff resistance from orthodox religious quarters, who believed that these religious texts were sacred and has to be secretly transmitted. Printing these books were considered as sacrilege.

Despite all these in early twentieth century, his works went largely unrecognized and never got much deserving awards and recognition during his lifetime, which he never sought. He carried on with his duty of publishing  books like an unsung hero.

On the occasion of the 75^th Remembrance Day (that is on Saturday 23 September 2023), his relatives and admirers have decided to organise an event in honour of the invaluable literary service rendered by Sree Pavanje Guru Rao, at Rajaangana of Sri Krishna Mutt, Udupi.