Accent on spreading T language and literature worldwide

Hyderabad: The upcoming World Telugu Conference (WTC) would be an assemblage of all Telugus so that whatever language and literature we have in Telangana can be made known to people cross the world, according to K.V. Ramanachary, Advisor to the State government on culture. He is among those extremely busy organizing the WTC to be held from December 15 to 19 in Hyderabad.

Sharing his plans with The Hans India, Ramanachary said that as a matter of fact many people had been under the impression that there was not much of propagation of Telugu language in Telangana.

On the contrary, Jinavallabha, brother of Mahakavi Pampa, had written first verses in Telugu, going by the inscriptions available in Karimanagar district in Kurikyala village that form the basis for the origin of Telugu padyam in Telangana.

“Several historians and the people who have been making a lot of research on inscriptions say that the Kanda padyam of Kurikyala Shasnam of Jinavallabha is the basis for the origin of padyam in Telangana,” he said.

On prosody, he said it was a fact that Palkuriki Somanatha had done a lot of work on Diwpada as it belonged to Desi kavita. “Before padyam originated, before intellectuals began writing poems and verses, Palkuriki Somanatha had taken care of the native language available in that arena.

The first Dwipada kavya written by him was ‘Basavapuranam’. The first sataka, vrshadhipa satakam from him belonged to the Palkurthi village in present Jangaon district,” he added.

Regarding the influence of Telugu literature of Telangana, he said that there have been several poets and writers in Telangana, though the present generation may not be knowing about them. The poet Malliya Rechana wrote Kavijanasrayam and it was not known to everybody, he said.

Kalidasa’s Abhiganan Shakuntalam, Mehgasandesham and Raghu vamsham had been popularised only because of the Vyakhya (comment) given by Mallinatha Suri. But, he belonged to Kolacharam of Medak. His surname is Kolachalam.

The village was named after him, and subsequently from Kolachalm it became Kolcharam, he said. The people of Medak district and others were not aware of this and the great wisdom of Mallinatha Suri.

“There were several other people who flourished in Telangana, but they had not been given much importance for the last 60 years for various reasons and factors. But, now that Telangana has been carved out as a State, it is the responsibility of the present government to make all the people and younger generation know about all the great people of the State.

“In this conference, we were going to make all-out efforts to bring such people into the limelight,” he said. His role in the conference would be that of a catalyst. Answering questions on what would be the priorities with regard to language and literature at the conference, the advisor said: “We were giving utmost importance to ancient literature and Vangmayam (moukhika gnayanam).

Before literature came into being, there were several people who had been through person-to-person communication i.e. vangmaya flourished in the forms of padaalu, geyaalu, sankirthanalu, he said. “Annamayya had written several sankirthanas that became popular worldwide. Ramadasu also has written songs, but they are not as much popular as Annamayya’s kirtahanaas.”

National and international artistes
Apart from Annamayaya, Ramadasu and Kshetrayaa, there were several Vangmayamkaras in Telangana whose names need to be known. Therefore, a special session on Vangmayams will be held,” he said. Telangana paata (song) is peculiar; for, while watering, during the time of harvest, seeding, making the paddy and when the produce goes to the houses, every time there are songs, further he said.

Regarding cultural activities to be performed, Ramanachary said that several people from different parts of the country and world would take part in the cultural programmes being organized during the World Telugu conference. In particular, Ragasudha Vinjamuri from London would give a dance performance during WTC, he said. She had given a dance performance in Britain parliament some time back, he mentioned.

“Cultural artistes from Malaysia will also take part. Artistes from Pune, Mumbai, Lucknow, Kharagpur, Delhi and other places are interested in taking part in the WTC. Apart from Raja Reddy and Radha Reddy, Hyderabad Brothers and Hyderabad Sisters had also been given importance. “As a policy, we have been trying to accommodate several nationally and internationally reputed artists,” he said.

On how the WTC would contribute to the development of literature, he said the very objective of the conference was to see that the present generation, especially youth and students, would get inspired by our mother tongue. “If you are good at your mother tongue, you can learn several things. Nowadays several people are very much attracted towards English.

When it comes to people who are giving Telugu its due, this WTC will provide a lot of motivation and inspiration,” he said. “It is our responsibility as Telugus to see that our mother tongue is preserved, propagated, and very much implemented in the State in an effective manner, he added.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has announced that Telugu would be made a compulsory subject from Class I To Class XII. While implementing this announcement, the government should work hard, he said. He added that since 1996 onwards, despite Telugu being the official language, not much progress had been made.

Even today Telugu is not being implemented at the Secretariat level, though maybe at the mandal and district levels, there is some sort of implementation in administration. His request to the government was that Telugu should be implemented as official language from the Secretariat to the village level.

By V Naveen Kumar