User:Kesava raja

“Sri Rama Rai (or Rao) was born in the year 1852 to ToppeE Muni Sowlee and Enaakshibei at Madurai. He lived at Chennai and belonged to the MAdwa sect of Hindu religion. He joined the Free Church Mission College, Chennai and chose the branchof Physics as his subject of study. During his study days,he became a disciple of the Sanskrit Professor, Caturvedi Pandit Lakshmanacharya (Dvaidi) and studied thoroughly all sorts of Vedic religious texts, Grammar, Lexicon, ‘Chandhas’ and became expert in all of them. In appreciation of his learnings, his teacher awarded him the title,’ Teerthar’. He was the first Sourashtra student in the Free Church Mission College, Chennai. The Principal of that College came forward to learn about Sourashtras and their language & culture. Since his early days, he began to clear away any doubt posed to him on the Sourashtra language and culture. Subsequently, he was attracted towards the discipline of ‘Research’ and hence left his job in the Dept. of Registration. He engaged himself in studying various Indian languages such as Sanskrit, Pali, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali, Kashmiri, Hindi, Urdu, Oriya, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Grantham, etc., He was able to speak Assami, Nepali, French, Sinhala, Burmese, etc., besides getting full knowledge on Prakrits like Sauraseni, Magadhi, Paishachi, Sulika Paichachi ,Apabrahmsa and linguistic elements such as Phonetics etc., The wealth of his family was estimated at nearly One Lac rupees and he spent most of his family wealth in his work of research on Sourshtram with the consent of his father. In 1882, he published a small booklet on ‘Sourashtra Janomanoranjani’ based on a lecture on the Sourashtras by Srivilliputhur Sri KOTi Kannigadana Sri Srinivasa Dadachariyar and Sri Krishnaswamy Dadachariyar. In the form of moral code, he published ‘Sourashtra Niti Sambu’, and this work attracted very much the attention of Dr. H.N. Randle, M.A., D.Phil., I.E.S., Librarian, Indian Office, Library, London. It was the very Sri Randle who studied exhaustively our language and subsequently published research article on Sourashtra Bhasha in famous Journals of international repute. Similarly he published the History of Southern Sourashtras and their language in the Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, London in 1944. Sri T.M. Ramarai was the source of inspiration and information to Sri Randle on these matters. Sri Ramarai composed nearly 30,000 slokas; published 32 works (10 not available). Of the 22, we find in print some 12 books. He ranks with other Sourashtra scholars such as Venkata Suri and Salem Budda Alagaryar. Following the footsteps of the ancient Sanskrit grammarian, Panini, Sri Rama Rai has published famous works on Sourashtra Grammar viz., ‘Vyakaranam’ and ‘Nandi Nigandu’. Sri Ramarai prepared ‘Matrix’ (for printing in Sourashtra Lipi) of Sourashtra alphabets in lead (a metal). With the help of this ‘Matrix’ Sri Ramarai got printing types prepared and brought out more than 32 works (books). The following are some of his publications: Sourashtra Bodini (1880),Primar, Niti Sambu, First Book, Second Book, Vyakaranam, Nandi Nigandu, Catur Bhasa Vallari (1908), Catur Veda Sandiyavandanam, Sourashtra Jano Manoranjani (in Sourashtram, Tamil, Telugu, English), History of Sourashtras (1891), Vachana Ramayanam, Boogola vivaranam, Hindu desi lagu charitro, Lagu‘Sankyavali’, Laku vyakaranam, Pancharatna - (Part 1), Dadu Rupavali, Bala Ramayanu, Sulu Kriya vallari, Sri Bhagavato, Sri Bharato, Tula Kaveri mahimo, Chandasu, Alambaro etc., Rama Rai’s ‘First Catechism of Sourashtra Grammar’ has well been explained in the form of a small booklet by Prof. V. A. Devendran M.A., (Skt). He published literary materials of Sri Suganda Doopa Tirtaryar, Catur Vedi Lakshmanachariyar, Srinivasachariyar, Srimad Venkata Suri, Salem Sri Budda Alagararyar, etc., found in palm leaves and in other forms. Sri RamaRai’s Niti Sambu has been published in various Indian languages as follow: (1) In Bengali - S.K. Chatterji, the famous linguist in India.

(2) In Gujarati - P.G. Sha, Bombay.

(3) In Marathi - R.N. Dandalkar & I.H. Chichilkar, Poona.

We find on the walls of the Garbhagraha of Sri Prasanna Venkateswara Perumal Temple, Madurai, the Sourashtra Lipi (alphabets- Jeev-Thanun) and the 12th Sloka of Niti Sambu. “Sri Gayatri yantram” is in Sourashtra language. “Sri Chakram” is in Sourashtra Lipi (for an image photo-copy pl. vide p.125- “Thennindia Sourashtra Samooga Varalaru”-K.A.Rengarajan, Woraiyur, Trichy,2012) As Sri Ramarai had no male issue, he handed over his literary collections and the MATRIX for Sourashtra scripts (Lipi) to the Sourashtra Sabha, Madurai and the latter paid Sri Ramarai pension for his life time. N.B: It is a shocking news to our generation to know the fact (an act of Curse?) that some people with vested interest of spreading Nagari script among our people and some of the office bearers of this said Sabha melted away the MATRIX prepared by Sri Ramarai. (vide also: Sri K.R. Sethuraman’s “Tamil Nattil Sourashtrar-Muzhu Varalaru, Third Edition, 2008, p139.)
Source: KUSO,Bangalore Prof. C.S.Krishnamoorthy NMR Sakthi Mai Illam, No.23, Mahal 5th St., Madurai - 625 001. India' Mobile: +91-93812-56419 E-Mail: cskrishnamoorthy@ymail.com'Bold text