Karnataka - Bangalore   

Beyond regions and religions

Bangalore: All regional languages of the country have the potential to blend with Sanskrit, English and European languages and extend themselves beyond regions and religions, writer and Jnanpith Award-winner U.R. Ananthamurthy has said.

He was delivering the keynote address at the inauguration of an international conference to mark the birth centenary of the writer Raja Rao. The conference was organised by the Delhi-based Sahitya Akademi in association with the Indian Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (IACLALS) here on Saturday.

Prof. Ananthamurthy said that because of his command over Sanskrit and Kannada, Raja Rao, the pioneer of Indian writing in English, was able to create a new idiom in the English language. He had the conviction to write English not like the English, but as an Indian. Since he was also well-versed in the Vedanta system of knowledge, he was able to translate the Vachanas into English with the literary merit they deserved, Prof. Ananthamurthy said.

Explaining Raja Rao’s ability to create and employ idioms, Prof. Murthy said the excellent description of a marriage in his novel Kanthapura could be matched only by Kuvempu. Although Kanthapura was written in English, “it is written in Kannada and no Kannada novel of that quality has been written in the context of the freedom movement”, he said.

Referring to the selection of books for international awards, Prof. Ananthamurthy commented that many publishers had started playing a major role in the selection instead of the literary merits of a book being assessed by serious readers and sound literary critics. The literary achievements of stalwarts of Indian writing in English such as Raja Rao, R.K. Narayan and Mulkraj Anand were above such awards, he said.

Sahitya Akademi secretary A. Krishna Murthy welcomed the gathering. IACLALS chairperson Harish Trivedi made the introductory remarks. A paper on Raja Rao was read out on the occasion on behalf of his wife, Susan Rao. Akademi president Sunil Gangopadhyay presided over the event.

The conference is being held at the Senate Hall of Central College here. It will end on Monday.

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