Venkaiah Naidu calls for preservation of native languages, literary heritage

Former Vice-President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu has called upon the public to make all possible efforts to protect native languages and literary heritage, and to pass them on to future generations.

Mr. Naidu, accompanied by High Court Judge Justice Venkata Jyotirmayi Pratapa, Collector Sridhar Cherukuri, Yogi Vemana University (YVU) Vice-Chancellor Bellamkonda Rajasekhar, and Central Sahitya Akademi award winner Rachapalem Chandrasekhar Reddy, visited the C.P. Brown Research Centre for Languages at Kadapa on Sunday to participate in the centenary celebrations of renowned scholar Janumaddi Hanumath Sastry.

Speaking on the occasion, he lauded the contribution of English scholar Charles Philip Brown in preserving the glory of the Telugu language and praised Hanumath Sastry for carrying forward that legacy by painstakingly building the library and research centre.

“By collecting over 50,000 books and 200 manuscripts, and by deciphering and digitising their content, the research centre has rendered a great service to literature,” Mr. Naidu said, describing it as a ‘must-visit destination’ for budding linguists and literary enthusiasts.

Fondly recalling Hanumath Sastry as “Brown Sastry” for dedicating his life to the development of the C.P. Brown Library, Mr. Naidu presented awards instituted in his memory to theatre artiste Gummadi Gopalkrishna, Sahasravadhani Medasani Mohan, avid reader Anke Gowda (who has collected 20 lakh books), and litterateur R. Ananta Padmanabha Rao, among others.

At the research centre, which is a unit of Yogi Vemana University, Mr. Naidu browsed through the collection of books on display and spent time reading some of them. He later announced a contribution of ₹5 lakh to the library from the Swarna Bharat Trust.

Jammalamadugu MLA C. Adinarayana Reddy, YVU Registrar P. Padma, RDO John Irwin, and KMC Commissioner Manoj Reddy also attended.