Malayalam can attain greater heights: Chandy

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Minister for Culture K.C. Joseph, linguistand translator R.E. Asher, and Puthussery Ramachandran at a functionorganised in honour of Mr. Asher in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday. Mr.Chandy released Mr. Ramachandran’s Kannassa Ramayanam on theoccasion. Photo: S. Mahinsha.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said that the government does not propose to rest on the attachment of ‘classical’ status for Malayalam.

Speaking at a function here on Tuesday to honour renowned linguist and translator R.E. Asher and release poet-scholar Puthussery Ramachandran’s interpretative study of Kannassa Ramayanam , the Chief Minister said the government’s efforts now would be to ensure that the limitless possibilities of the language were realised. Malayalam, he said, had the potential to rise to higher levels of global recognition, he said.

Chairing the session, Cultural Affairs Minister K.C. Joseph said Malayalam had received the ‘classical’ status because of its innate strength rather than political intervention, though that too played a part in the entire process.

Responding to the felicitation accorded to him, Prof. Asher said he was happy that Kerala now had a university exclusively to promote Malayalam. Dr. Puthussery Ramachandran said

Kannassa Ramayanam , written long before Ezhuthachan came out with his work, had functioned as a catalyst for Ezhuthachan’s Ramayanam .

State Institute of Languages director M.R. Thampan, linguists B. Ramakrishna Reddy, M. Sreenathan, Ravisankar S. Nair, S.K. Shanawas and P. Sreekumar, among others, spoke.