Prasaranga to be just shop away

Mysoreans’ love for books, especially for the best of the literary works is immense. It’s evident with books being dedicated every other day to cater to the exclusive class for whom ‘poring over a book has become a routine like’.

Buoyed by the undying love of connoisseurs, the University of Mysore has decided to enter the market to cater to book lovers. If all goes according to the plan, a shop at Ramaswamy Circle will be a reality this year. It’s a dream project of vice-chancellor V G Talawar a library science expert.The shop will be a sales outlet for Prasaranga, the publication wing of the varsity. Till now an exhibition hall, with a sales outlet attached to it, was the only place to buy Prasaranga’s publications. It’s for the first time, it is finding a permanent place outside the campus.

The space available at the quarters accommodating teaching faculty of the varsity near Ramaswamy Circle has been identified for the shop. Tenders have been invited in this regard.

 The location will be ideal as already two book stores — both private publications — are situated near the circle.As it’s a government set up, only books published by Prasaranga and also Kuvempu Institute for Kannada Studies (KIKS) will be made available here. Prasaranga alone has to its credit, bringing out 1,000 works. However, it’s known for extension lecture series with increasing demand for 300 such works.

Some of the prominent works brought out by Prasaranga and still being reprinted include dictionaries (English to Kannada available in four volumes and also in condensed form), ‘Bharateeya Kavya Mimaamse’ by Ti Nam Sri, ‘Epigraphia Karnatica’ of which 15th and 24th volume was dedicated recently. 

Till now apart from the exhibition hall on its premises, Prasaranga was largely dependent on major exhibitions across the state. There were nearly eight exhibitions in a year including that of Kannada Sahitya Sammelana, making the lone publication arm of the varsity reach people.

With the new outlet, it’s expected to see further growth with the annual sales during 2012-13 already touching Rs 50 lakh, a rare feat again.