Golden Jubilee Number Released

Machilipatnam May 7, 1978

The elite of Machilipatnam overflowed its spacious Town Hall on the evening of May 7, 1978, to hear Dr B. Gopala Reddy, (President, Sahitya Akademi, Andhra Pradesh and Ex-Governor, Uttar Pradesh) and others pay their tributes to the life and work of Sri K. Ramakotiswara Rau, Founder-Editor, Triveni, which has celebrated its Golden Jubilee. Dr Reddy released the Golden Jubilee Number.

KalaprapoornaSriman S. T. G. Varada'charyulu, Retired Princi­pal, Andhra Jateeya Kalasala, presiding over the meeting, recalled the days when he and Mr. Ramakotiswara Rau were students at Machilipatnam and Madras. Ever since those early days Ramakotiswara Rau was an idealist, with an idealist’s discontent with things as they were. He gave up a promising career at the bar and joined the Swarajya of late Mr. T. Prakasam. Later, on the invitation of the management, he joined the Andhra Jateeya Kalasala, Machilipatnam, as lecturer in history. In order to serve the cause of culture, art, literature and history the journal Triveni was started by him in 1927. He served the journal all his life pursuing his ideal, badly bruised though he was in the process.

The chairman paid handsome tributes to the present Editor of Triveni, Sri Bhavaraju Narasimha Rao, who stabilised the journal, maintaining the excellence which the Founder-Editor established.

Reminiscing, Dr Gopala Ready said that he was Rama­kotiswara Rau’s student at the A. J. Kalasala. Essentially a man of letters and culture, he resigned from the college and launched the Triveni to serve his country and his people in a wider field–to promote cultural and emotional integration. The matter and manner of the journal were praised in India and abroad, but Ramakotiswara Rau himself was rarely satisfied. He complained that some of the contributions were nowhere near the standard expected and, in spite of careful scrutiny, the ubiqui­tous and ugly “printer’s devil” could not be avoided. Only the best was good enough for his journal, Mr. Reddy said, and he spared no effort, and no expense to make it the best of its kind. He published, in extenso, in Triveni, irrespective of the cost involved, the letter of Mahatma Gandhi, in facsimile, on the death of Annapurna Dcvi, an ardent worker in the national movement.

Informing his audience of his association with the journal from its inception in 1927, Mr. Reddy wondered if he was the only one in the hall enjoying the privilege. If today it has established itself as a journal of the intellectual classes of the land, it is due entirely to the devotion and selfless endeavours of a great man. The country needed large numbers of thinkers and leaders of the class of Ramakotiswara Rau. He was sure that in the hands of Mr. Bhavaraju Narasimha Rao, the present Editor, the journal would grow in excellence in the years to come.

Sri Bh. Kutumba Rao, Retired Principal, A. J. Kalasala, explained the significance of the word “Triveni.” Ramakotiswara Rau, who was childless, considered it not merely as a Patrica (journal), but as his Putrica (daughter). It brought home to us the greatness and unity of our culture, and the complexity and solution of the problems facing the country.

Sri K. Siva Rama Sastri, Retired Assistant General Manager the Andhra Bank Ltd., speaking next said that the journal was started “to fill a gaping void” in the life of Ramakotiswara Rau after his resignation from the A. J. Kalasala on a matter of principle. The speaker likened him to the founder and first Principal of that institution, Sri Kopalle Hanumanta Rao. Quoting from a sketch on the latter written by Ramakotiswara Rau himself he said that like Sri Hanumanta Rao, Ramakotiswara Rau “wrote never a verse but he had the poet’s soul; never painted a picture, but he had the artist’s vision; dreamed golden dreams and laid down his life that those dreams might come true.”

`Sri Bhavaraju Narasimha Rao, the present Editor of Triveni, explained that he took up the journal to fulfil the desire of Ramakotiswara Rau expressed at the inauguration of the Triveni Press and Triveni Publishers in 1946 that “Triveni Publishers should become publishers of Triveni.” The first number from Triveni Press came out in April 1950. He promised to continue his services to the journal and deserve the trust the Founder had reposed in him. He thanked the speakers for their good wishes.

With a vote of thanks the function terminated.

Messages wishing the function success were received from the following:

Sri P. B. Gajendragadkar, Bombay; Sri Nittoor Srinivasa Rau, Bangalore; Messrs. K. Chandrasekharan, T. S. Parthasarathy, D. Anjaneyulu and A. Ranganathan, Madras; Prof. M. Venkatarangaiya, Dr S. S. Prabhakara Rao and N. B. Narayana Sastri, Hyderabad; Prof. K. Viswanatham, Prof. L. S. R. Krishna Sastri and Dr. A. Prasanna Kumar, Waltair; Prof. G. V. L. N. Sharma, Warangal; Sri K. V. Subba Rao, Eluru.