Jnanpith awardee Chandrashekar Kambar on Saturday said, “Kannada and Telugu people never confronted each other. Instead, they have always cooperated and this contributed to the evolution of language and literature”.
At a function organised here to confer the Sri Krishnadevaraya award posthumously on Telugu writer Dr Ravuri Bharadwaja by Telugu Vignana Samithi, Kambar said, “Good Telugu literature and dramas like Hema Reddy Mallama had an impact on us during our childhood. Nearly 100 years ago, Kannada was written and spoken in a different style and the writings of great writers like Kuvempu, Da Ra Bendre and B M Sirkantaiah helped it evolve”.
Kambar said people were so influenced with western literature that they forgot Kalidasa and saw Shakespeare as their role model.