HYDERABAD: The Telangana government is planning to honour writers and poets from as far back as the 9th century. These acclaimed poets and writers, born in the Telangana region, were not given their due share in the combined Andhra Pradesh state.
The successive governments in the undivided state highlighted the works of Telugu personalities from the Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, while neglecting the contributions by the Telangana writers.
Mamidi Harikrishna, director (culture), Telangana government, said the upcoming World Telugu Conference will correct the anomalies of the past.
“The Andhra section claimed Nannaya from 11th century as Adikavi. But not many know Pampa from 9th century is two centuries older than Nannaya.
Pampa, who lived in Bodhan in the erstwhile Nizamabad, did a lot for Telugu and Kannada langua-ges. Likewise, Molla from 14th century was claimed as the first female Telugu poet. Kuppambika from Oru-gallu (now Warangal) made contributions to the Telugu language, but nowhere is her name highlighted,” he said.
Bammera Pothana, Palkurthi Somnath, Gona Buddha Reddy, Vemulawada Bhima-kavi, Vattikota Alwars-wamy, Dasarathi Krish-namacharya, Bhagya-reddy Varma and Samala Sadasiva were some of the writers from Telangana whose works will be discussed in the five-day meet.
Gonabuddha Reddy wrote ‘Ranganath Ramayan’ in the 12th century. Malinadha Suri from Medak made Telugu interpretations of Kalidasa’s poems.
Bhagyareddy Varma, a Dalit (whose original name was Medari Bha-gayya) tried to break caste barriers and divisions within the society much before the Inde-pendence. Bhagyared-dy wrote Telugu books and established schools for the weaker sections.
Dr Naleswaram Sankaram, president of Telangana Rachaitala Sangam, said that they were doing research to bring out the works of old poets and writers from the Telangana region.
