DRAVIDIAN LINGUISTICS ASSOCIATION AND INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF DRAVIDIAN LINGUISTICS

A Short Resume of the Work of the International School of Dravidian Linguistics
Menamkulam, Thiruvananthapuram-86.
The Silver Jubilee Year.

It was the late C.Achutha Menon who as Chief Minister felt about the great strides made in Russia, USA and other countries in linguistics and solidly stood behind the proposal for the formation of the International School of Dravidian Linguistics (ISDL), which will celebrate for a year, its completion of twenty-five years of its work.

Mahatma Gandhi dreamt of an oceanic circle of uniting into smaller circles and later big and bigger circles the people and the nation.

The ISDL had a humble beginning and initially worked in an old house at Kunnumpuram, Vanchiyoor, Trivandrum. In 1982 it purchased 27 acres from the St. Xavier's College management and with fourteen buildings and an excellent library, a speech laboratory, a teaching laboratory for languages and two museums it functions as a hub of research activities.

Besides a biannual called International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics, which runs its 31st year, which has worldwide distribution, it has sixty-five publications of long lasting value. The Dravidian Encyclopedia in three volumes, the Encyclopedia of Dravidian Tribes in three volumes. The Handbook of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala Vol.1 are its prestigious publications.

The historical Grammar of Kannada, Telugu Malayalam and Tamil and the description of several Tribal languages of the Dravidian family hither to unknown to scholars are its noteworthy publications.

As Senior Fellows in research, T.P.Meenakshi Sundaram, E.Annamalai, V.Sp.Manickam for Tamil, K.N.Eluttaccan, N.V.Krislma Warrier, P.Govinda Pillai, G.K.Panikkar, Puthusseri Ramachandran, K.Retnamma, M. P.Sangunni Nair for Malayalam, D.N.S Bhat, M.M.Bhat, D.Jaware Gowda, J.S.Kully, RC.Hiremath for Kannada, P.S.Subramanian, Dr.B.Purushottam for Telugu are a few senior Scholars who enjoyed the Fellowships.

Prof. Sukumar Sen and Sudi Bhushan Bhattacharya when invited as Senior Fellows, the Government of West Bengal funded substantially for an impressive building in the name of Gurudev,  Rabindra Natha Tagore, a good library in Bengali and on Bengal. Several young men and ladies work in this unit and this relationship continues with West Bengal.

The spread of the Dravidian languages especially Brahui in Pakistan, Iran and in Afghanistan was focused by the ISDL. About six lakhs live there. The ISDL sent G.K.Panikkar to survey in Iran and received a Pakistani, Mr. Abdul Razak Sabir in the Campus at Trivandrum for six weeks. Its Journal published for the first time the existence of Dangar, a Dravidian language spoken in Nepal. The new Tribal languages of the Dravidian family not yet reported in any published literature is covered in its Dictionary of Synonyms to appear within a year.

Two senior Scholars, J.D.Singh of the Kurukshetra University and S.M.Katre, formerly of Deccan College, Pune, who lived in the U.S.A. were awarded financial support to complete their work on the interpretation of Paanini, the great Grammarian of Sanskrit.

Courses in Malayalam, Tamil, Bengali, Kannada, Telugu, Gujarathi and Sanskrit were conducted for Indian and foreign scholars. The beneficiaries so far were mostly from USA 25, France and Netherlands 12 each, Germany 12, U.K. 7, Japan/7, Sweden 5, Zambia 5, Australia 3, Pakistan 1, Philippines 1, Czechoslovakia 1, Russia 2 and Poland 1. The scholars from north India are considerable in number who are associated with the ISDL.

A recent advance made by the institute is the Voicing of the Braille Script into Malayalam which when commercialized will be a boon to the blind scholars who now study by using the Braille Script. The Department of Science and Technology gave a modest grant for this.

Another development, which has several implications for language research, is the study of the Brain. The ISDL admits speech defective children for correction and observes their improvements and puts forth hypotheses. The extensive 27-acre of sea-sand has been converted into a greenery like the Aranyaka of Rishis and the library, the laboratory, the museums and the active researchers offer an environment to study areas untouched by others.

A detailed write up is available for distribution for those who require it, The Silver Jubilee Celebrations is to be inaugurated by H-E.Justice Sri.Sukhdev 'V Singh Khang on 10-2-2002. Nearly 150 delegates from India and few from foreign countries are expected to attend the three-day Conference of Dravidian Linguists. The presidential address will be delivered by Prof. N.Sivarama Murthy, former Director of the International Telugu Institute P. S.Telugu University, Hyderabad.

Seminars are also proposed in Delhi, Calcutta, Hyderabad and Bombay in the Silver Jubilee Year.

Secretary Generals
M.Rama
G. K. Panikkar
Puthusseri Ramachandran

[V.I. Subramoniam]
Hon-Director.

Secretaries

Dr.V.Bhas
Mrs.Nairrita Bhattacharya
Mr.Mahidas Bhattacharya