Telugu is expected to retain its Classical language tag as the State government is making a strong case in support of it while fighting a Public Interest Litigation filed in Tamil Nadu, said top officials of Department of Language and Culture.
Due to continual efforts, the government has submitted that Telugu is neither a borrowed language nor is it a language which is less than a 100 years old, said Principal Secretary, Language and Culture, Burra Venkatesham at the award ceremony of Telugu Pratibha Puraskaram here on Thursday.
“Telugu, an original language is over Sanskritised now with Telugu speaking people using a lot of Sanskrit words instead of pure Telugu equivalents,” said Mr. Venkatesham at his keynote address. Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University honoured 12 people who excelled in various fields from literature to music, art performance, fine arts and journalism in the function held on its campus. If the government wins the case, a total of Rs. 100 crore will be bestowed towards the development of Telugu Language and literature.
The case was filed six years ago in a Chennai court with those supporting Tamil as a classical language challenging the decision to confer classical status to Telugu, Director of Culture, Language and Literature, A. Harikrishna said. In the award function, those honoured include, Jupaka Subhadra (Poetry), Dr. Dilawar (Criticism), Anjani Reddy (Painting), B. Srinivas Reddy (Sculptor), D. Seshachari and D. Raghavachari (Hyderabad Brothers) (Music), D. Keshava Rao, C.V.K Rao (Theatre). Mogulaiah (Folk Culture) V. Rajalakshmi (Women’s writing), S. Kantarao (Novel and Story) and T. Srihari Sharma (Spontaneous Poetry).
