Page:2015.396258.Vyasavali.pdf/138

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126
ESSAYS

the proper medium of instruction in all the Educational institutions, the leaders of the movement declared:--

"The Telugu of Nannaya of the 12th century is not different from that of Rao Bahadur Mr. Veeresalingam Pantulu of today. The language of the one is the same as that of the other. The same rules of grammar, rhetoric and prosody govern both. It is, therefore Wrong to say that the literary language is archaic or antiquated as the few advocates of the Modern School represent it to be"

Mr. Veeresalingam who was elected president of the public meeting held at Madras in order to adopt the public memorial against Modern Telugu drafted by Mr. Jayanti Ramayya Pantulu, emphatically denounced modern Telugu as a vulgar dialect. We then criticised his views in our pamplet entitled A Memorandum on modern Telugu and discussed the question frequently with him. It is a most remarkable thing that Mr. Veeresalingam Pantulu, the beau-ideal of the classical school should have changed his views and publicly declared in his "Autobiography" that Telugu had changed and a new grammar ought to be compiled to suit the requirements of modern Telugu Prose and recorded his intention to write some work in modern Telugu and a grammar of modern Telugu. But alas! he is no more! There are thousands of educated Telugus who now percieve the error of the classical school