Ragasudha Vinjamuri is not an unknown face in the British Asian circle. Multi-talented academic tutor at the Sunderland university, she is also a writer, poet, journalist, a professional Bharatnatyam dancer and a mother to a lovely young girl. Associated with several community and cultural organisations, Ms Vinjamuri has a double post-graduate degree- Masters in Literature and Tourism Management.
She recently completed transcribing ancient palm leaf folios in Telugu held in the British Library since 1942 after a three-year effort, providing new insight into the life and work of the twelfth century theologian and philosopher, Acharya Ramanuja.
Born in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu, Acharya Ramanuja was the leading expounder of Vishishtadvaita, one of the sub-schools of the Vendanta school of philosphy. The sub-school has a large number of followers in parts of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka.
Vinjamuri's work is scheduled to be released in the print form at an event in the British Parliament in May to mark the beginning of Ramanuja Sahasrabdi (1000th birthday) celebrations. On 10th May, Rt. Hon. Bob Blackman, MP for Harrow East will be hosting this event at the House of Commons along with Sanskruti Centre for Cultural Excellence. Leading organisations in the UK will come together to support and attend the event, which will also feature interesting speakers sharing their inputs on the day.
Describing how her work started and what prompted her to take this task on, an enthusiastic Vinjamuri said, “The curator of South Indian languages at British Library, Nalini Persad came across the palm leaf folios in Telugu one day and had invited me to look through.
“As two of my published works are already catalogued in the British Library, she was aware of my engagement with Telugu language for few years now. After an initial discussion on the content, I gladly agreed to volunteer to work further on the folios. It took more than three years for the entire transcription.
“Since Telugu is my mother tongue, I have written and published poems, short stories, and articles on Indian migrations to Mauritius, Burma and Britain. These works have been published in different publications in India, UK, Mauritius and USA.
“The article on how Indian languages, especially Telugu and Marathi, have been taught in Britain way back in 1840s, got published in prestigious publications during World Telugu Congress (inaugurated by hon. President of India Pranab Mukherjee) and European Marathi Sammelan. With this background, the chance to transcribe something in Telugu perhaps came to me naturally and I am humbled for this historic opportunity.”
Exciting as it sound, transcribing the content from the folios on to the paper was not a cakework. Some folios were badly damaged and needed Vinjamuri to extensively research and identify the missing content from those broken folios. Most importantly, she could ascertain the author of the work, with the help of scholars in India.
But Vinjamuri does not want to just stop here. “Being a woman, I have felt that some mythological characters received little attention though they were associated with deities with phenomenal significance,” she added. “I refer to characters such as Lord Krishna's daughter, Lord Shiva's daughter, and King Dasharatha's daughter. Many people are not even aware of Krishna and Rukmini's only daughter, or Lord Ganesha's elder sister or Lord Rama's elder sister.
“After researching and referring to some texts and puranas, I am immensely glad to be bringing their story out in the dance form, titled "Unknown Daughters". I am very excited to share this with wider audience very soon.
“Another work on the journey of a popular Indian origin MP in the British Parliament is in the pipeline. I hope to complete the work tentatively by the end of the year. Additionally, we are also bringing out one brief work of woman poetess Tarigonda Vengamamba, which is currently unavailable in India.”
