Saraswata Niketanam celebrates 100 years in Chirala

Chirala: The Saraswata Niketanam, one of the oldest libraries in India and rich with a rare collection of palm leaf and paper manuscripts written in Sanskrit, Hindi, Telugu and few other languages in the country is celebrating 100 years now. The library organised a centennial celebrations meeting at Vetapalem on Saturday night.

The library president KVD Mallikharjuna Rao presided over the celebrations while the former chief justice of Supreme Court Jasti Chalameswar, Andhra Pradesh Adhikara Bhasha Sangham president Dr Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad, Bommidala Srikrishna Murthy foundation chairman Bommidala Srikrishna Murthy and others also participated.

Justice Chalameshwar advised the library management and the State government to consider digitalizing the collection of books, and valuable documents and newspapers in the library. He thanked and appreciated the people behind the successful running of the library for 100 years.

Lakshmi Prasad announced that he would discuss about the library with the government and cooperate with it for its development. Srikrishna Murthy announced a donation of Rs 5 lakh or the development of the library.

The library president Mallikharjuna Rao recalled that while he was a student in Pune around 1951, he met the former president of India, Neelam Sanjeevareddy. When he said that his native place is Vetapalem, Sanjeevareddy asked about its specialty. He said that he then decided to develop the library, and thanked all who cooperated with him.

The centennial celebrations committee has felicitated the members of the library committee, and the family members of earlier members for their contribution to the development of the library.