Ravikondda's contribution to Saurashtra language

My passion towards my mother tongue “Saurashtra” started only in 2003 when I was working in Kuwait and had lots of spare time to spend. That was the time when “Palkar.org” website had opened first in internet. There was a discussions forum and I got into discussions initially in English and then in Saurashtra in Roman script.  I was also studying Bhagavad Gita and first started translating in our Saurashtra language. Then one day Pathydha suggested that I use Devanagari script for writing in Saurashtra language.  I tried it and immediately got hooked to it, since the pronunciation was apt when written in Devanagari script.  I was only sharing my writings in internet and had no idea of printing it. This was how my career in Saurashtra language started and I immediately got in love with our language.

It was only in 2009, I got my “Bhagavad Gita - Chapter-1 with translation in Saurashtra written in Saurashtra Devanagari, Tamil and English scripts, printed.  In 2010 January, I was invited for “World Mother language day” by Sri.K.K.Chandirasekaran of Saurashi Academy in Dindigul, where I distributed copies of my book and was appreciated. 

Then by I had completed translating Bhagavad Gita upto 3 chapters and published it as books.  

Then in the year 2016 I wanted to convey my ideas for the development of our Mother language and to make a platform for our people to share their Literary works. Hence, I started a magazine and released the first copy in Dindigul. 

The most important information I wanted to convey was that we should somehow get our Saurashtra language added to the 8th Schedule of the Constitution of India.  

Later Shri.Rbr.Ramasubramanian General Secretary of Sourashtra Madhya Sabha inducted me as a member of the "Saurashtra Linguistic Minority Committee" of Sourashtra Madhya Sabha. 

In 2016 I wanted to go in search of the roots of our Saurashtra language and traveled several hundreds of miles to finally find it. 

We finally located it in Shravanabelagola in the state of Karnataka. This is too long a story and hence a separate blog has been created and you can find it in the following URL.
https://saurashtraroots.blogspot.com/

Then later I wanted to write some serious literature in Saurashtra. Hence I took the theme from "Kadambari" world's first novel in Sanskrit and wrote "Kadambari Khatho" in Saurashtra and released it in a grand function. 

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Then in 2017 in the Sourashtra Madhya Sabha elections, Dr.Shriraam Shekher won and became the President. Thanks to Dr.Shriraam Shekher I had been selected as Chairman of the "Sourashtra Linguistic Minority Committee" (Saurashtra Language & Literature promotion.   

In 2018 I started a "Virtual Institute of Language & Research"

In course of time it has grown by leaps & bounds and is now brimming with Literature in its archives. Saurashtra songs have also been added to this archives. 
Please visit the following URL to see all of them.... https://saurashtravilr.blogspot.com/ 

CIIL (Central Institute of Indian Languages) organized a workshop from 26^th November to 1^st December 2018, in their Mysore campus.  The objective was to preserve endangered minority languages and our Saurashtra language is one of them.  Ten Resource persons were invited for this and they were …. 1.Shri.K.V.Pathy, 2.Shri.K.R.Sethuraman, 3.Shri.Ravindranath.Kondda, 4.Shri.Konda Senthil Kumar, 5.Prof.L.R.Govardhanan, 6.Prof.T.R.Damodharan, 7.Dr.T.S.Krishnaram, 8.Shri.N.S.Viswanathan, 9.Shri.R.R.Sathyamurthy, 10. Shri.Surya Gnaneswar.

The task was to collect vocabulary of Saurashtra words totalling 6000. Each participant was given 600 words in Tamil and English and were asked to give Saurashtra equivalent in Saurashtra in Saurshtra Devanagari script and Tamil script.  

Dr.Prem Kumar coordinated the entire workshop.  On behalf of our community we thank Prof.D.G.Rao, Director, Prof.Umarani Pappusamy, and Prof.Perumalsamy, Deputy Directors and Sri.C.K.Manikandan Superintendent. 

Tamilnadu Sourashtra Welfare Trust of Chennai, conducted their get-together and Annual day function of 2019 on 25-12-2019. In this function I was awarded "ஸௌராஷ்ட்ர மொழியின் சிறந்த ஆராய்ச்சியாளர்" award. 

I thank Dr.M.S.Jayaraman Ph.D., Managing trustee & President of Tamilnadu Sourashtra Welfare Trust for giving me this award.