The 78-year-old academic Gunji Venkata Ratnam came to Warangal in 1964 from Nellore to work as clerk in Azam Jahi Mill. He
loved this land so much that he stayed back and also made an invaluable contribution to the district.
Voluminous work
Mr Ratnam is now more known for his voluminous ‘Warangal Vignana Sarvaswam’ which he edited. He has to his credit over 12 books all pertaining to ancient wisdom and knowledge embedded in centuries old Telugu and Sanskrit classics.
‘I worked in Azam Jahi Mills with graduation for four years and took interest in continuing my studies. I did my MA and Ph D in Telugu and joined CKM college where I retired in 1995 after over 25 years of service,’ he explained.
According to him, the Warangal encyclopaedia he edited is the first of its kind prepared basing on section alphabet covering all aspects of Warangal district dating to pre-Kakatiya period.
Documentation
Since his retirement, he has been engaged in documenting various aspects of district and also Telugu language which he is very fond of.
He did research and wrote books on classics and brought out ‘Hamsa Vimsathi vignana sarvaswam’, ‘Telugulo Vignana sarvaswam’, ‘Pracheena Samaja Viganana sarvaswam’ among others.
Speaking to The Hindu , Mr Ratnam lamented saying there was a treasure of knowledge in Telugu literature which sadly lacked patronage now.
Much of the traditional knowledge in classics was gone from the lives of Telugu people as they stopped reading their literature.
Wake up call
‘The UN has warned that Telugu is one of the languages on the danger of extinction.
We should wake up now,’ he said.
Mr Ratnam who is currently working over half a dozen books urged the government to save Telugu language by making it compulsory from school level.
‘Nowhere in the world one can get a certificate without studying his mother tongue but in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana it is being done. It is pity.
How can the department offer Telugu as second language?,’ he seeks to know.
