(1) Delhi Durbar (V.Ch, Series No.15 in Mr. Ramalinga Reddi’s.)
(2) and (3) The Story of Mahabharata and the Life of Sree Krishna published at Masulipatnam.
Literature is growing in the country without the control and aid of literary criticism which unfortunately does not exist. Until the author improves himself, I am afraid, the University cannot help him.
It should not for a moment be supposed that I undervalue the patriotic enterprise of some of the authors and publishers. From a scored out paragraph at the end of Mr. Ramalinga Reddi‘s list I find that the Telugus have shown greater literary activity than the Canarese. But it is no disparagement to the Telugu scientific writers and historians to say that they are a very long way yet from Huxleys and Bandarkers.
I think Mr. Ramalinga Reddi should appeal to our countrymen and not to the University to patronise Telugu scientific publications more largely. He may plead for the teaching of sciences through vernacular text-books in schools, though there is serious difference of opinion among patriots and educationists about the utility of such a course.
There is a dearth of good modern prose books in Telugu. That is the reason why the University courses consist largely of selections from early poets whose works are partly in prose and partly in verse.
Their prose possesses considerable merit while modern prose manifests little literary art, ancient or modern.
It is true that the present syllabuses are antiquatedly literary and not in touch with the present, in the sense that they do not deal with subjects of modern interest. The subjects of the early poems were epic and puranic. But the epics and the puranas continue to be the religion of the great mass of the Indian people. Though many students may outgrow popular beliefs, they move in a society which is dominated by those beliefs and are thralls to its conventions. These beliefs affect the solution of every social problem of the day.
Mr. Ramalinga Reddi has limited the expression works of modern interest to “scientific publications” such as those given in his lists, but if 1’• 5ex 955 My Own Thoughts{{
