Basavakalyan Development Board has decided to support the development of Vachana Sanchaya, an online research tool created by a group of Bangalore-based IT enthusiasts. It is a searchable database of all Vachanas by all Sharanas of the 12th century.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah gave in-principle approval for the project during the BKDB meeting in Bangalore on Monday. Ishwar Khandre, MLA, sought government support for the project and other members of the board agreed, according to officials present in the meeting.
“The Vachana Sanchaya team gave a demonstration at Vachana Vijayotsava in Bidar last year. We were immediately convinced of the potential of the project,” said P.C. Jaffer, Deputy Commissioner and BKDB Special Officer. “We will not only support them with funds, but also help them get access to the best libraries in the State and outside.”
“The tool holds a lot of promise. With regular, crowdsourced updating, it can be the go to tool for Kannada linguistic or literary research,” said Hephsiba Rani Korlapati, Commissioner, BKDB. “It can also connect institutions and scholars working on Sharana literature and other classic forms around the world.”
“The tool has the capacity to redefine literary research,” said O.L.N. Swamy, retired professor of Kannada from Bangalore University and head of the project. This opens up avenues for multidimensional and meaningful research about the 12th century cultural revolution,” he said.
“The website was born out of our efforts to make literature searchable in real time,” said writer Vasudhehndra Shroff, who is a member of the technical team behind the website. “This is a unique tool. If you happen to recall one word from a Vachana, you can get the full text,” he said. Vachana Sanchaya is built on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).
