Thanks to a mega project, authoritative and well-researched information is now available from pre-historic period onwards for the interested to take a glimpse of the history and culture of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Initiated way back in 1998 by the Andhra Pradesh History Congress at its session in the University of Hyderabad, the mega project relates to the comprehensive history and culture of Andhra Pradesh.
The man behind the far reaching project, Prof Vakulabharanam Ramakrishna, the General Editor and formerly of the University of Hyderabad, told The Hindu that the nine volumes covering various aspects of history and culture of Andhra Pradesh, before its division in 2014, have been brought out under the unique project.
The retired UoH Professor said the idea of preparing a comprehensive history of Telugu- speaking people had been in the minds of the founding fathers of Andhra Pradesh History Congress in a seed form, since the inception of the organisation in 1976.
A commemorative book providing the research topics and contents of all volumes along with their respective writers has been brought out by AP History Congress with the title, Comprehensive History and Culture of Andhra Pradesh: A Success Story, as a souvenir.
“This will be released in the ensuing AP History Congress session to be held in Kadapa on January 7-8, 2023, not only as a souvenir, but also serves as a ready reference book to know all the contents of the nine volumes which have been brought out as part of the project,’‘ Ramakrishna said.
The mega project took almost two decades to be completed with over 300 historians fathoming the deep currents of the regional history that has generally been neglected in the more fashionable search for broader national themes in history and is in line with today’s global focus on the local history.
Though the project is officially completed now, the historian in Ramakrishna never relents. “There is still a need to further explore the history and culture of the region and link it up to contemporary times,” he says.
