Kannada literary buffs have a reason to rejoice. Aniketana , the quarterly journal of Kannada language and literature, which was being brought out by the Karnataka Sahitya Academy (KSA), has been revived after a gap of nearly six years.
The academy was unable to bring out the literary quarterly owing to technical and administrative problems.
But now, thanks to the efforts of Malathi Pattanshetty, chairperson of the academy, two volumes of Aniketana , in English and Kannada, are now available.
When he was heading the academy, poet K.S. Nisar Ahmed in 1984 launched Chandana , a platform for translation of works from Indian and foreign languages to Kannada and vice-versa with the aim of introducing these works to readers. Chandana transformed into Aniketana as the academy got approval for the title when G.S. Shivarudrappa became chairperson in 1988.
But owing to the change in chairperson once in three years for administrative reasons, the academy could not bring out the journal on a regular basis. The post of the chairperson of the academy was also vacant for a long time. “There was an inordinate delay by the government in filling the post after Geetha Nagabhushan’s term ended,” said Prof. Pattanshetty. An attempt to revive the journal was also made during M.H. Krishnaiah’s term. “H.S. Shivaprakash and two other English teachers took the responsibility of bringing out the English version of Aniketana . But, their efforts failed owing to technical reasons,” he said.
Prof. Pattanshetty told The Hindu : “We have decided to bring out five combined editions, covering the period from 2009 to 2014. The first edition was released recently.”
It is time for introspection of the three-decade-old ambitious literary endeavour. We will be cautious about committing mistakes of the earlier kind. The journal will be the voice of the Kannada literary world,” she said.
Following the tradition, literary personalities have been asked to edit the journal. Litterateur and screen writer Lakshmipathi Kolar edited the 2009–10 edition of the journal, which contains works of Ismat Chughtai, Rabindranath Tagore, M.T. Vasudevan Nair, Taslima Nasreen, Sitakant Mahapatra and others.
The English edition for the same period is edited by the author of A life in three octaves, Deepa Ganesh.
The issue is based on the theme — ‘Rural consciousness in Kannada literature’.