Mysuru:  The print, and audio-visual media has played a big role in the development of Kannada language and the media is the foundation for the growth of the languages, said Dr. T.C . Poornima, Writer and Assistant Director, Directorate of Field Publicity.

She was addressing the gathering at a programme on “Kannada in Mass Media- An Overview,” jointly organised by District Kannada Sahitya Parishat and Kannada Sahitya Kalakoota, held at the Kannada Sahitya Parishat auditorium in the north gate of the Mysore Palace, here recently.

Quoting an incident from Swami Vivekananda’s life, Dr. Poornima recalled that when he had gone abroad to deliver a talk, the foreigners there tried to humiliate him by keeping the works of all the nations above the Bhagavad Gita. The speaker there told Swami Vivekananda that while other works were way above, the Indian epic was at the bottom of the pyramid. The monk got up and sagely replied “I saw all your pyramids. But I found that for all these works, my country’s Bhagavad Gita from the epic Mahabharatha is the foundation. If this foundation was not there then none of the others would have existed.” Likewise, she added that for the growth of the languages, media is the foundation. Mysuru District Journalists Association President C.K. Mahendra who inaugurated the programme said, “If we were taught science and mathematics using the original English words instead of their translation in Kannada, our understanding of the science subjects could have been better.”

Mahajana First Grade College, Head of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication Dr. Bhargavi D. Hemmige also spoke. Dist. Kannada Sahitya Parishat President Dr. Y.D.Rajanna and Kannada Sahitya Kala Koota President M. Chandrashekar and others were present.