‘Music is the mother of literature’

For use in the issue of July 02
 Vice Chancellor of Karnataka State Dr Gangubai Hangal Music and Performing Arts University Sarvamangala Shankar addressing press persons in Hubli on Tuesday.

Sarvamangala Shankar, Vice-Chancellor, Karnataka State Gangubai Hangal Music and Performing Arts University, Mysuru, on Wednesday said music is the ‘mother of literature’ while literature is the basis of all performing arts.

During her address at the valedictory of the 9th refresher course in Indian literature with the thrust area of Indianness, organised by the UGC-Human Resource Development Centre, Mysuru, Dr. Sarvamangala spoke of the richness and vastness of Indian literature and culture starting from Ramayana and Mahabharata, the great epics.

She said Kannada literary history, which begins with ‘Kaviraja Marga’, is the most significant body of Indian literature with Jnanpith awards, 58 Central Sahitya Academy awards, including Saraswati Samman accorded to novelist S.L. Bhyrappa, are the recognitions given to the vitality of Kannada Sahitya.

Research is the most important area of higher education today and citing the example of her own research, the Vice-Chancellor said teachers should engage in path-breaking researches instead of repetitive and derivate. UGC-HRDC Director Lingaraj Gandhi said the greatness of Indian literature rests in the moral, spiritual and human values it propagates.

Teachers of literature have important role in imparting and advocating these values in the academia and society, as literature is a weapon of humanism and an agent of social change, he observed.

Sunanda Shelake from Maharashtra and Suma Priyadarshini from Bengaluru, the participants of the course, who spoke on behalf of the participants, expressed their happiness over the usefulness of the course.

A total of 37 teacher participants from various universities of Assam, Haryana, Kerala, Maharashtra and Karnataka took part in the three-week programme. Prathiba Mudaliar coordinated the course.

Kannada literary history, which begins with ‘Kaviraja Marga’, is the most significant body of Indian literatureSarvamangala Shankar,VC, Karnataka State Gangubai Hangal Music and Performing Arts University, Mysuru