The author of Ramayana, the epic story of Lord Rama was given a fitting tribute with ballet on a theme selected from Ramayana by danseuse Kripa Phadke and her troupe after the programme.
Earlier, Medical Education and District-In-charge Minister S A Ramdas inaugurated the celebrations, organised by the district administration as a government sponsored programme, in association with various Nayaka associations.
Ramdas hailed Valmiki as one of the greatest and earliest poets in Indian history. The Ramayana runs about 24,000 shlokas and has all the humanitarian values embodied in it. Apart from being a poet, Valmiki was a physicist, a geologist and a scientist. He was calculating the astronomical happenings and predicted the same in his shlokas. His writings predict astronomical miracles and geological happenings like earthquake. Valmiki had a rare trait to understand and pen in his epic. The scientists at NASA are also making a study on Valmiki’s Ramayana.
He said there was a need to explore the knowledge in Valmiki’s different works. By next year, the theme of Valmiki’s Ramayana would be translated into small story books. These books would be distributed among school children to inculcate values, he remarked.
“The first Valmiki Jayanthi programme as a state function coincides with the Allahabad’s High Court pronouncement of the Ayodhya verdict,” he said.
University chair
Forest Minister C H Vijayashankar urged Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa to announce an Authority after Valmiki on the lines of Kanaka Development Authority. The Government could also open a study chair after Valmiki in University of Mysore, he opined.
MLAs Satyanarayana, Tanveer Sait, MLCs Thontadarya, Siddaraju, Chairman of Karnataka Housing Board G T Devegowda, Mayor Sandesh Swamy, Regional Commissioner M V Jayanthi, CEO, ZP, Sathyavathy, Additional Deputy Commissioner Betsurmath and others were present.
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