Mangalore: District Kannada Literary Conference Inaugurated
Pics by Dayanand Kukkaje and Sphoorty Ullal
The Hindu
Mangalore, Mar 16: Speakers at the inauguration of the 16th Dakshina Kannada Sahitya Sammelan said that the hopes of saving Kannada from decline now rested with children.
Poet H.S. Venkateshamurthy, who inaugurated the three-day conference here on Monday, said that parents should encourage their children to speak Kannada and not English at their early age.
He urged the Government to make the teaching of Kannada mandatory till the 10th standard in all schools.
Mr. Venkateshamurthy said that Kannada sammelans, processions, speeches and seminars would not help save Kannada.
He said that most parents now taught their children nursery rhymes in English and not Kannada songs. The habit of reading Kannada books, including novels, was on the decline among children.
“If our children continue to speak in Kannada, there will be no threat to Kannada,” he said.
President of the sammelan Padekal Narasimha Bhat said that literary critics had pointed out that Kannada had grown through a method of give and take from other languages such as Sanskrit, English, Malayalam and Tamil.
Although people talked about classical status now, Kannada had attained that status much earlier.
“The Kannada work ‘Kavirajamarga' proves that Kannada is a classical language. Poets like Pampa, Ranna and Kumaravyasa have proved their originality in their works,” he said.
Pejawar Math seer Visvesha Tirtha Swamiji said that study of literature had the power of awakening the subconscious mind.
The president of the 15th sammelan and poet Subraya Chokkadi spoke. S. Pradeep Kumar Kalkura, president of the Dakshina Kannada unit of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat, welcomed the gathering.
Procession
Earlier, a procession was taken out from Bunts Hostel to the Town Hall, the venue of the conference.