The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : No bar on learning Vedas, says Dasarathi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 20, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

No bar on learning Vedas, says Dasarathi

By Our Staff Reporter

TIRUPATI, NOV. 19. Dasarathi Rangacharya, renowned litterateur and a Telangana revolutionary, has opined that none should be barred from reading the sacred Vedas as the right is not vested with any particular sect.

"The hoary Vedic literature was being misinterpreted as the tenets and their essence did not reach the masses, much to the detriment of our national culture''.

Defying the "sectarian tendency'' that kept the Vedas out of bounds for women and other communities, Dasarathi presented his work on Vedas to a dalit woman, J. Rajeswari. "I feel very happy now,'' he said amid a rousing applause from the audience.

He was speaking at the inaugural of the "Sankarambadi Sundarachari Saahithi Vaarotsavalu'' organised by the Tirupati Urban Development Authority (TUDA) here on Friday. Rajeswari lit the lamp to inaugurate the event.

Recalls his plight

Recalling his plight in Nizam-ruled Telangana when he had to go all the way to Vijayawada to see Telugu alphabet, Rangacharya said it was deplorable to launch a movement for protection of the language once again after 56 years. "No race that failed to protect its language and traditions survived. All Telugus should be grateful to Sankarambadi''.

Janamaddi Hanumacchastri, another prominent name in Telugu literature, likened Sankarambadi to the Greek poet, Homer, who died penniless, but on whom seven countries staked claim later.

Expressing happiness that the adage "No prophet is honoured in his own country'' did not work in the case of the great son of Tirupati, he urged the TUDA to try to salvage the lost works of Sankarambadi for the benefit of posterity.

The TUDA chairman, B. Karunakar Reddy, presided over the meet. Sundarachari's contemporary and a friend, Y.K.V.N.Acharya, Dasarathi Kamala, literary figures of the town, Samudrala Lakshmanaiah, Singaraju Sacchidanandam and Premavathi were among the others present.

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