Compiled from public sources: the college and Bapuji Educational Association websites and press reports. Awaiting confirmation by the trust and the family.
Late Dr. Shamanur Shivashankarappa (16 June 1931 – 14 December 2025)
Few people shape a city the way Dr. Shamanur Shivashankarappa shaped Davanagere. Educationist, industrialist, philanthropist and public servant, he gave more than six decades to the town he was born in, and much of what our alumni call home — the college, its hospitals, the wider family of Bapuji institutions — carries the mark of his work. This page is the Alumni Association’s tribute to him.
Early life
He was born in Davanagere on 16 June 1931, the son of Shamanur Kallappa. His formal schooling ended at the intermediate level, yet he went on to build businesses, institutions and a public life on a scale few ever reach.
He married Smt. S. S. Parvatamma, who predeceased him. They had three sons and four daughters.
The vision: an educational hub for Davanagere
The Bapuji Educational Association was founded in 1958 by a group of eight Davanagere citizens led by the philanthropist Rajanahalli Maddurayappa, beginning with a single first-grade college. In 1965 the Association established Jagadguru Jayadeva Murugarajendra Medical College, with the consent of the Government of Karnataka, the Medical Council of India and the Central Government, so that the district could train its own doctors and care for its own people.
Dr. Shivashankarappa served the Association for decades as its Honourable Secretary and led it as Chairman. The Association itself credits his “vision and the forethought to build an Educational Hub” as the driving force behind its evolution. When he took charge, it ran five colleges. By the end of 2021 it had grown to fifty-four, spanning primary schooling through postgraduate study, and today the Bapuji family counts more than fifty institutions, over 30,000 students and more than 5,000 faculty.
What he built
For our own college, that growth meant a teaching institution of real depth. JJM Medical College today admits 245 MBBS students each year, offers postgraduate degrees across its clinical and non-clinical departments, and runs fellowships in Perinatal Medicine and Paediatric Anaesthesia. It is affiliated to the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences and recognised by the National Medical Commission. Its students train across a network of hospitals: Bapuji Hospital, the District Chigateri General Hospital, SS General Hospital, the Women and Child Hospital at Mandipet, the STJ Rural Hospital at Channagiri and the Community Health Centre at Kukkavada.
He took particular care over the education of young women. He founded AVK Women’s College, which graduates some 3,400 students a year, and built a girls’ hostel with room for more than 2,000 residents. He also instituted gold medals and cash prizes to reward academic achievement across the Association’s colleges.
Beyond the college
His work reached well past the campus. He established the Bapuji Co-operative Bank, and through the Shamanur Group he modernised and ran sugar factories that became a mainstay of the local economy. He had Kunduvada Lake restored as a source of drinking water and groundwater for the city, and he argued for Davanagere’s selection under the national Smart Cities Mission. In June 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he paid for 60,000 vaccine doses for people who could not otherwise get them. Through the Dr. Shamanur Shivashankarappa Janakalyana Trust, set up with a deposit of ₹5 crore, he funded scholarships for students irrespective of caste or creed, including a ₹1 crore fund for the meritorious children of Davanagere district’s journalists.
He also served the public in elected office. He represented Davanagere in the Lok Sabha from 1998 to 1999, and sat in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly for Davanagere from 2004 and for Davanagere South from 2008 until his death. At the end he was the senior-most legislator in Karnataka and one of the oldest serving anywhere in the country. He was the State’s Minister for Horticulture and Agricultural Marketing from 2013 to 2016, treasurer of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee for three decades, and President of the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha.
His honours included an honorary doctorate from Kuvempu University in 2008, the Suvarna Karnataka Best Industrialist award, the Bharath Gaurav Award, and a Paul Harris Fellowship from Rotary International.
Farewell
Dr. Shivashankarappa passed away in Bengaluru on 14 December 2025, at the age of 94, and was brought home to Davanagere for his last rites. He is survived by his three sons, among them Shri S. S. Mallikarjun, and his four daughters. His family continues his work: Shri S. S. Mallikarjun serves as Joint Secretary of the Bapuji Educational Association, and Dr. Prabha Mallikarjun is a member of its governing body.
Remembered
Every doctor who has graduated from this college has, in some measure, walked through a door he helped to open. Generations of JJM alumni now practise across India and around the world.
The Alumni Association invites every graduate to share a memory of him — a meeting, a convocation, a word of encouragement — so that his story is kept by the community he served.