Birthday of Chiranjivi Poojya Doddappa Appa and Kannada Rajyotsava Day celebrated
KALABURAGI; The 6th Birthday of 9th Peetathipathi of the Sharnbasaveshwar Samasthan Chiranjivi Poojya Doddappa Appaji and the 67th Kannada Rajyotsava Day was celebrated by cutting the cake and distribution of sweets in the main campus of the Sharnbasva University in Kalaburagi city on Tuesday.
The entire campus wore a festive look with festoons to commemorate the birthday of Poojya Doddappa Appaji and the Kannada Rajyotsava Day. Secretary of the Sharnbasveshwar Vidya Vardak Sangha Mr Basavaraj Deshmukh and Vice Chancellor of the Sharnbasva University Dr Niranjan V Nisty led the celebrations by cutting the cake to give green signal to the festivities to mark the birthday of Chiranjivi Poojya Doddappa Appaji and lighted the lamp and offered the floral tributes to the portrait of Goddess Bhuvaneshwari, who is revered as Kannada Thayi.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Basavaraj Deshmukh said that the Sharnabasaveshwar Vidya Vardak Sangha and Sharanabasaveshwar Samasthan has always from time immemorial had given prominence to Kannada and played a pivotal role in protecting Kannada from going into oblivion, particularly during the oppressive rule of Nizam which gave prominence to Urdu although Kannada speaking people were in majority in the Kalyana Karnataka region. Incidentally, the first educational institution started by the Sangha was the Mahadevi Kannada Medium Primary School, much to the consternation of the Nizam government.
Mr Deshmukh said that the 8th Peetathipathi Poojya Dr Sharnbaswappa Appaji continued the tradition of the Sangha of providing prominence to Kannada by starting number of Kannada medium schools and had initially wanted to start an Engineering college with Kannada as medium of instruction, but due to the non availability of technical books in Kannada this initiative failed. Poojya Appaji had time and again had urged the teachers in the engineering college to come out with technical books in Kannada to enable the Sangha to start an Engineering College with Kannada as medium of instruction.
Vice Chancellor Dr Niranjan V Nisty in his presidential remarks said that the University was fortunate to celebrate both the birthday of Poojya Doddappa Appaji and the Karnataka Rajyotsava Day on the same day. “We are happy to the celebrate the birthday of Poojya Doddappa Appaji, who is the future of the Sharnbasva University and all the educational institutions run by the Sangha”.
Stressing on the need to protect Kannada and develop it, Dr Nisty said that while showing out love towards Kannada we should not reject or neglecting learning other languages. He was skeptical on the success of the initiative taken in few states to introduce professional courses, particularly the Medicine with mother tongue as a medium of instruction and pointed out the difficulty he had to undergo while studying the post graduation in medicine in Russia.
Dr Nisty said that it was imperative for the education system to give prominence to Kannada and it is also important to impart the rich culture, literature and history of Kannada to the students in all stages. Chairperson of the Kannada Department Dr Sarikadevi Kaligi welcomed and made introductory remarks. Prof Chidanand Chikmath proposed vote of thanks. Registrar of the University Dr Anilkumar Bidve, Registrar Evaluation Dr Basavaraj Matpathi, Dean Dr Lakshmi Patil Maka, Finance Officer Prof Kiran Maka and other officials of the University were present.