Scholar Sarma honoured with Maha Mahopadhyaya

Rajamahendravaram: Eminent Sanskrit scholar 'Bharatha Bharathi' Dr Salaka Raghunadha Sarma was honoured with 'Maha Mahopadhyaya' title by Rastriya Sanskrit Vidya Peetam of Tirupathi, at a special meeting convened on February 5.

The Sanskrit Vidya Peetam chancellor Dr N Gopala Swamy and vice-chancellor Dr V Muralidhar Sharma presented the title to Raghunadha Sarma. Rastriya Vidya Peetam presented the award to him in recognition his services rendered to Sanskrit, Telugu, literature and grammer.

Dr Sarma has written tatparyam (description) and comments to 80,000 slokas out of 1.5 lakh slokas of epic Mahabharatham and gave thousands of religious discourses even though he is 76 years old. He mastered as many as 230 slokas of second chapter in Sabhaparvam of the epic Mahabharatam.

Dr Sarma received many awards from state and Central governments as well as from many organisations across the country. So far, he received as many as 40 prestigious purskarams. Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam honoured him with Lekha Ratna title, along with puraskarams from Janumaddi Sahiti Peetam, Potti Sriramulu Telugu University Pratibha Puraskaram, Rushipeetam, etc.

The great scholar was born in Gollapalli village near Nuzivid in Krishna district on July 23, 1941 to Durgamba and Narasaiah and settled in Rajamahendravaram. In the year 1960, he passed in Telugu and Sanskrit languages in first class along with Basha Praveena. In the year 1967, he passed MA (Telugu literature) in first class from Sri Venkateswara University and in the year 1975, he obtained Ph D from the same university on the topic Bharatamloo Dwani Darshanam.

Later, he worked as Telugu pundit in Gowthami Vidya Peetam from 1960 to 1965 and also worked as lecturer for one year in Oriental College in Hyderabad. Later, he worked as lecturer at Sri Krishnadevaraya University in Ananthapur for 16 years. As many as 24 candidates completed PhD and 23 candidates completed M Phil under his guidance.

Dr Salaka Raghunadha Sarma said that Maha Mahopadhyaya award increased his responsibilities both in Telugu and Sanskrit languages and to make sure that the importance of ancient literature never fades. Many books were being publishing basing on ancient language, he added.