Dallas, September 16, 2007-09-16: The Telugu Sahitya Vedika (literary wing of TANTEX) conducted their second monthly meeting at “Our Place” Indian restaurant in Irving, TX today between 3 and 6pm. The program was well attended by Telugu literary fans from North Texas region and Oklahoma

The invited speaker for the event was Dr. Vedala Srinivasacharyulu, professor of Sanskrit and Philosophy at Oklahoma Central University, Edmond, OK. Dr. Vedala has been teaching for over 15 years and also performs priestly duties at Hindu Temple of OK. He holds MA in Telugu and Sanskrit and received gold medal for his Ph.D work from Andhra University,

The chief guest for the evening was Hon. Upendra Chivukula, (Democrat) Deputy Speaker of New Jersey State assembly and has been representing 17th Congressional District of New Jersey for the last six years.

The program began with the introduction of guests by Sri Prasad Thotakura and was presided by Sri Raja Reddy, President, TANTEX.

In his opening remarks, Dr. Vedala has explained the etymology of word Sahityam as one that brings about social wellbeing. Furthering his talk into the main theme “Potana’s Bhagavatam and its importance in Telugu Literature”. He traced the evolution of Telugu literature from the period of Nannaya, Tikkana, Errapragada, Potana’s era (10-15 century) through period of 20th century’s free verse (bhaava kavitvam), to progressive poetry (arasam - abhyudaya kavitvam), revolutionary poetry (virasam), feministic literature (stree janodharana sahityam) to today’s Dalit sahityam,

During the course of the evening, Dr. Vedala has recited many immortal poetic selections from Bammera Potana’s “Bhagavatam”, Mukku Thimmana’s “Parijatapaharanam”, Kalidasa’s Sanskrit magnum Opus “Abhignana Sakuntalam” and “Raghu vamsam”.

In answer to questions from audience, he explained the origin of Sanskrit alphabet as the sounds made by Lord Siva’s “dhamarukam” (hand drum) which was transcribed by Sapta Rishis into various vowels and consonants. These in turn metamorphed into Telugu alphabet.

In his address Hon. Upendra Chivukula shared his concern about Telugu’s language’s potential loss of usage and extinction in the next century. He urged all to take effective measures to preserve and propagate the language and its heritage to future generations.

Several enthusiastic members of the audience including Dr. Ramana Juvvadi recited a few poetic selections from famous Telugu (Nannayya, Potana) and Sanskrit poets (Kalidasa) and Udayabhaskar Nandivada readout a selection from Chandra Kanneganti’s recently published book (Vana velisina Sayintram) of free verse poetry.

Sri Prasad Thotakura in his concluding remarks thanked the guests, all the attendees and TANTEX and the staff and management of Our Place Indian Restaurant for sponsoring the event.

The next event will be scheduled for the third Sunday of October (21st) between 3 and 5pm. The venue will be announced later.

Click here for Sahitya Vedika held on 19 August.