Gulbarga varsity sits on charity

Gulbarga university has done it yet again. Despite Rs 5 lakh given by the Infosys Foundation three years ago to carry-out translations of the Yajnavalkya Smrithi and the Mitakshara from Sanskrit to English, the money has not been used and the project remains in the wilderness.

Infosys Foundation Chairperson Sudha Murthy decided to fund the project after a visit Martur village in Chittapur taluk and Basavakalyan in Bidar district in early 2007. The money was received by Vice Chancellor B G Mulimani of Gulbarga university on July 28, 2009 who then sanctioned the Prasaranga to carry out the translation.

When it became clear that this amount was not enough, the then Prasaranga director, D B Nayak, informed Infosys that an estimated Rs 8 lakh would be required. Included in his estimate were translation expenses of Rs 1.60 lakh and printing costs for a projected
1,600 page book, running into Rs 6.08 lakh.

Murthy promised additional funds and instructed the university to proceed. A language expert, R V Jagirdar of Bangalore, was appointed as the lead translator. According to sources, however, when Mulimani retired in June 2010 and after D B Nayak was transferred to become the Registrar (Evaluation), no further work was undertaken on the translations. Inquiries with the university have confirmed that the project has been forgotten. Many of the current university staff even expressed ignorance about the work.

It took university officials four days to trace the project file at the Prasaranga. According to D B Nayak, the project stalled because his successor at the Prasaranga, Siddharam Policepatil, had little interest in the venture. “There is a lapse on the part of the university. We will certainly revive the project and see that the translation is completed at the earliest,” he said.

Murthy’s interest in the project is reportedly rooted to her acknowledgement that Basava­k­alyan was the capital of the Chalukyas and where Vijnaneshwara had lived during the reign of Vikramaditya VI. Martur, on the other hand, had been the location where Vijnaneshwara had written the Mitakshara, a commentary of the Yajnavalkya Smrithi, which largely remained the only system of justice in the Indian sub-continent from the 12th century to Indian independence in 1947.