My name is
Ravikondda alias Ravindranath. Kondda.Rajaram. I have been always proud to
say that I belong to a community called Saurashtra and also speak the
language Saurashtra. Saurashtra language is one of the oldest languages next
only to Sanskrit which comes to us from Vedic ages.
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It is a well-known
fact that we had migrated from Saurashtra area of Gujarat several hundred
years back. A couple of decades back a
team from our Saurashtra Madhya Sabha headed by Sri.M.N.Rajaram, had gone to
Saurashtra area of Gujarat in search of our roots. But unfortunately they did
not find anything and returned empty handed.
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It was my long-time
dream to go in search of the roots of our Saurashtra community. I had always
thought that Gujarat is too old a destination from where we had come and it
is not possible to find our roots. Instead we had stayed for long in
Vijayanagara kingdom and hence this could possibly be a place where we can
search our roots.
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So I and my wife
went in search of our Saurashtra roots to Karnataka. Based on various Historical facts, we
headed straight to Shravanabelagola the holy town of Jains.
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Our first visit was
to the Adikavi Pampa Library, Department of Library, Government of Karnataka.
We made a list of all the libraries which had Manuscripts and followed that
trial.
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Our next visit was to the “Bahubali Prakrit
Vidyapeeth” in Shravanabelagola. We met the Registrar of this Institution,
Mr.Manjiah. On a detailed discussion
with him, we came to know that the Prakrita which is being taught there is
“Moola Prakrita”. It is only from
Moola Prakrita, that branched several other sub-divisions like Ardhamagadhi,
Sauraseni Prakrita, Maharashtri Prakrita….etc., (It is important to note that our
Saurashtra language is an off-shoot of Sauraseni Prakrita according to our
elders)
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Bahubali Prakrit Vidyapeeth
Our long term desire is to do Research in roots of ancient languages.
I got my Diploma in Sanskrit from "Madras Sanskrit College" affiliated to "University of Madras". I have learnt chanting of Krishna Yajur Veda and learnt Vedic Sanskrit also.
To do further Research in Prakrita it was adviced that we
take up the study of Prakrita and hence, my wife
Mrs. Savithri Ravindranath, Hindi Pandit,
B.A.,(Public Adminstration),
B.A., (Hindi),
M.A., (Hindi),
B.Ed., (Hindi),
Kovida (Sanskrit), &
Pracharak Dakshin Bharath Hindi Prachar sabha,
got admitted to Diploma program in Prakrita studies here.