Mysuru: The Annual C.N. Sanjay Birth Anniversary seminar that was held recently at Dhvanyaloka included lectures on both Classical Kannada Literature and some important English Literary Texts by senior scholars in the field.

Prof. C. N. Srinath, Director, Dhvanyaloka, who welcomed the gathering, spoke about his late brother C. N. Sanjay, not only an ardent student of English Literature but deeply rooted in Indian tradition at the same time. The present national seminar, a fine fusion of Kannada and English literatures, was a step in that direction, he said.

Dr. Krishnamurthy Hanur, the first speaker of the day spoke on Kumaravyasa Bharata and its extreme relevance for all times outlining in particular the immense popularity of Virataparva amongst village folk.

Dr. N.S.Taranath elaborated upon Pampa’s unique re-creation of the entire Mahabharata while Dr. P.K. Rajashekar spoke at length on Folk Tradition focusing his attention on Manteswamy who caused a big revolution by attempting to change people’s way of thinking.

The morning session concluded with Prof. C. Naganna’s presentation of his Kannada translation of Sarojini Naidu’s Presidential Address at the First All India Writers’ Conference in Jaipur, 1945, impressing the listeners with the choice of subject.

The three lectures during the afternoon session were by Dr. T.R.S. Sharma on the great, but little-known Polish-American philosopher-linguist Korzybsky, Dr. N.S. Raghunath on Amartya Sen and Dr. Ragini Ramachandra on Raja Rao’s unusual but less discussed novel Comrade Kirillov.

The other highlight was the release of some of Dhvanyaloka Publications like the special issue of The Literary Criterion on Malayalam Literature, Varsity Verses by C.N. Srinath and K.M.Chandar’s book on Girish Karnad.