Several books that have proved to be milestones in the development of modern Malayalam are among the exhibits at an exhibition which opened at the Kerala Assembly on Friday as part of the Keralapiravi and Malayalam Day celebrations.
‘Samkshepavedartham’, which was one of the first works to be published in the language, Benjamin Bailey’s Malayalam-English Dictionary of 1846 and works by the Assembly staff are among the books on display at the exhibition, which was inaugurated by Deputy Speaker N Sakthan.
Other exhibits include the Malayalam dictionary published by G Padmanabha Pillai through the SUS&ET Press, A R Rajaraja Varma’s ‘Keralapaanineeyam’, important government notices and circulars issued by the government as part of promoting Malayalam as the language of governance and a translation of the report published by the Central Official Language Commission.
Among the dictionaries on display are the first Russian-Malayalam dictionary as well as the sports dictionary by Mathew J Kunnappally.
Among the older works are ‘Bhootharayar’ by Appan Thampuran and ‘Mathangaleela’ by Neelakantan.
The biographies of Justice V R Krishna Iyer, K R Gowri Amma, R Balakrishna Pillai, works by M K Sanu, E K Nayanar and M V Raghavan, books that have won the Jnanpith, central and state Sahitya Akademi and Vayalar awards and important works by women writers of Malayalam are on display.
The exhibition will be on till November 7 and is open to the public from 11 am to 5 pm every day.