BANGALORE: The Department of Kannada and Culture is all set to reprint 100 significant literary works chosen from the 2,000-year-old Kannada literary tradition. This project, estimated to cost Rs. 1 crore, will mark the golden jubilee year of the formation of the State, Special Commissioner for Suvarna Karnataka programme implementation K.S. Niranjan has said.

It may be recalled that the Government had revised an earlier list of 100 books selected by a committee appointed by the Dharam Singh Government following complaints from literary circles that books were selected in an "arbitrary" manner and the very selection of some books was debatable.

The revised book list is drawn from different genres of literature such as novel, autobiography, biography, essay and play. It has many big names in the Kannada literary pantheon such as Kuvempu, Masti Venkatesh Iyengar, D.R. Bendre, Shivarama Karanth, V.K. Gokak, A.N. Krishna Rao, M.K. Indira, Basavaraja Kattimani, T.S. Shama Rao, M.V. Inamdar, Chaduranga, P. Lankesh and A.K. Ramanujan.

It also includes the works of contemporary literary figures such as U.R. Ananthamurthy, G. Ramakrishna, M.M. Kalburgi and Girish Karnad.

Unfortunately, copyright problems and reservations from authors have prevented some outstanding works from being reprinted. These include D.L. Narasimhachar's research work "Kannada Grantha Sampadane," A.N. Murthy Rao's autobiography "Sanjegannina Hinnota," acclaimed leftist writer Niranjana's "Chirasmarane," Sir Mirza Ismail's "Nanna Sarvajanika Jeevana," S.L. Bhyrappa's "Grihabangha," Dalit writer Devanooru Mahadeva's "Odalala" and K.P. Poornachandra Tejaswi's "Chidambara Rahasya".

Translations

As a surprise package, the Government has entrusted the Anuvada Academy with the responsibility of translating representative works of acclaimed western authors published in English, Sanskrit, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Urdu, and Bengali into Kannada, and selected Kannada works into English and other Indian languages.

Some of the outstanding books that are to be translated into Kannada from English are: Will Durant's "Story of Civilisation", Amartya Sen's "The Argumentative Indian" and C.P. Snow's "Science of Sciences".

The great works of international literary figures who influenced modern Kannada literature and theatre such as Harold Pinter, J.M. Coetzee, Dario Fo, Toni Morrison, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Saul Bellow, Jean Paul Sartre, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Boris Pasternak, Albert Camus, William Faulkner, T. S. Eliot and Andre Gide, will also be translated.

Chairman of the academy Pradhan Gurudutt said that the academy had commissioned the translation to proficient translators.

It would only publish these books, and books that were translated but out of print. All the translations could not be published this year owing to time and budgetary constraints. As the Government had allocated only Rs. 25 lakh for the purpose, only 25 to 30 works would come out this year.

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