Bhavaraju Narasimha Rao Honoured

Bhavaraju Narasimharaoji Honoured

V. SIVARAMAKRISHNAN

BHAVARAJU NARASIMHA RAO
Editor, TRIVENI

[The Nagarjuna Univesity at its convocation held on January 23, 1987, conferred the DEGREE OF DOCTOR LETTERS (Honoris Causa) on MR. BHAVARAJU NARASIMHA RAO, Editor, TRIVENI. The following note by Mr. V. Sivaramakrishnan, Associate Editor. Bhavan's Journal, is reproduced with the kind courtesy of the journal.      - Associate Editor]

Honorary doctorates conferred by our universities are going cheap and sometimes even becoming controversial. The latest unsavoury episode is that of a Vice­-Chancellor deciding on his own to confer the doctorates on two persons (one of them the Chief Minister of the State concerned) without the approval of the Academic Council. Academic honours do and can gain in value only if the choice falls on men and women who have served the country and the society, intellectually or otherwise, without undue ostentation and without expectation of any reward. It is not so much the deed performed as the spirit that inspires it which should count for recognition. Looking at the honour done to Shri Bhavaraju Narasimha Rao recently by the Nagarjuna University of Andhra Pradesh, this way, one feels happy.

Shri Narasimha Rao, at 73, has a fine record of public service behind him. It is in the field of culture that he has done the most. As the founder of the Triveni Publishers and owner of the Triveni Press of Machilipatnam (1946), Shri Rao has brought out Ramayanam, Srimad Bhagavatam, Jnaneswari Bhagavadgita, all in Telugu, besides a Telugu Dictionary, Gandhiji’s Autobiography (in Telugu), many novels of high literary value and text-books in English, Telugu, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam. One can understand the dynamism of Shri Rao if it is realised that all this is the work of one man who had to paddle his own canoe. He had abundant goodwill from men in the limelight but little else. That Shri Rao has been keeping aflame that brilliant torch of Indian culture lit 60 years ago, TRIVENI (a quarterly), in the face of overwhelming difficulties, is a tribute to his perseverance and devotion to culture. “Triveni’s” founder-editor, Shri K. Rama­kotiswara Rau, a soul of goodness if ever there was one, was on the point of giving up the struggle of running the journal when in 1950, Bhavaraju took over the responsibility. The torch could not have been passed on to a worthier man. The journal is still far from being an economic proposition but what sustains Bhavaraju is his loyalty to the founder and his sense of mission and the support of his scholar-friends.

Bhavaraju Narasimha Rao’s gifts are versatile–­journalist, writer of short stories and plays, actor, broadcaster, connoisseur of music and tennis player. Spotlessly dressed in khadi, he is soft of speech and gentle of manner. Your first impression of the man endures – a gentleman to the finger-tips.

Shri Rao is closely associated with the Bhavan as its Life Member and Vice-Chairman of the Machilipatnam Kendra. The Kendra felicitated him on being the recipient of the honour from the Nagarjuna University at a function held on February 10, 1987. His article entitled “Noble Thoughts for a Happy Life” contri­buted to Bhavan's Journal of April 1-15, 1986, is worth re-reading. The article reflects the man and his mind.