If you want to know the history of Karnataka in a nutshell, you should take a walk around Ravindra Kalakshetra on Tuesday, which marks the 61st Karnataka Rajyotsava.
The Department of Kannada and Culture is marking the occasion by holding an exhibition of famed pictures that illustrate the recorded history of Kannada — starting with Halmidi inscription dating back to 5th Century to its most recent milestones. Several firsts, including the first prose work ( Vaddaradhane ), poetry work ( Aadipurana ), encyclopaedia, Kannada type sets, and talkie film ( SatiSulochana ), will be on display in panels on the premises of Ravindra Kalakshetra.
“Each frame will be 21x15 in size and will be the real attraction for visitors,” said K.A. Dayanand, Director, Kannada and Culture Department. The frames will have a description of its historicity. There will also be 21 panels that provide a basic history of the language and land through graphics, pictures and text.
The digital route
To commemorate the 50th year of the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award, the department will bring out a volume with profiles of all 3,000 award recipients over the years. To begin with, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will release an e-book of the volume and hard copies will be out in 10 days.
The day will also mark the launch of a digital library of important Kannada works. “The digital library has over 300 important Kannada books brought out by various Kannada institutions, including the department. There is a plan to digitalise all important works in Kannada,” Mr. Dayanand said.
Mr. Siddaramaiah will also launch Akshara Dani (Text to Speech) project developed by students of Kammavari Sangham Institute of Technology, which will help in developing works in the digital library to audio book format.
