One more thing !
A Sundarakanda Project!
Kasarabada Sundarakanda Project : inception 1994 !
|| om tat sat ||
The Kasarabada Sundarakanda Project, also known as the Kasarabada Project, includes the following objectives:
• To create a shorter version of Sundarakanda, which will consist of about 300 slokas that encompass the entire story told in the nearly 3,000 slokas of Valmiki Ramayan's Sundarakanda.
• To create a Telugu version of this shortened version, followed by an English translation, which will be called Sankshipta Sundarakanda.
• To develop an online version of Sundarakanda with all the slokas for daily Parayan, which will be available in multiple languages starting with Telugu, Kannada, Devanagari, and Gujarati.
• To rearrange all the slokas in a prose order form to make it easier for Sanskrit students to understand the meaning. This will also make it easier to translate Sundarakanda into other languages and create a Sanskrit version of Sundarakanda in prose form.
• To create a version of Sundarakanda with an English translation and sloka text in multiple languages, starting with Telugu. This will be the Kasarabada version.
• To create a Telugu translation of Sundarakanda.
• To create a complete Telugu Sundarakanda in prose that covers the meanings of all the slokas in Valmiki Ramayanam.
• To create a complete English version of Sundarakanda that covers the meanings of all the slokas in Valmiki Ramayanam.
• To create a Sanskrit version of Sundarakanda in prose form that covers all the slokas in Valmiki Ramayan.
• To create a version of Sundarakanda that brings out its inner meaning in Telugu and English. This version could be called "Anatarartham" or Tattva Dipika, and its main reference will be the Tattva Dipika of Sri Bhashyam Appalaacharyulu garu.
The Kasarabada Sundarakanda Project has been in progress since 1994, when the first project of making a Samkshipta Sundarakanda began.
The above is the complete scope of the Sundarakanda Project of kasarabada.org. This project has been in the works since 1994 when we started the first project of making a Samkshipta Sundarakanda.
In 1994, my mother had just completed the printing of "Ramudu-Sugunabhiramudu," which is a summary of Slokas describing the qualities of Rama in the words of Hanuman from the thirty-fifth Sarga of Sundarakanda. With the permission and blessings of Shri Bhashyam Appalacharyulu garu, we printed the corresponding extract from his Tattvadipika to make the book "Ramudu-Sugunabhiramudu" possible. Then my mother wanted more Sundarakanda Slokas printed in the form of a book and distributed the same to friends and relatives. The initial thought was to have two Slokas from each Sarga of Sundarakanda, but it stretched into selecting Slokas that provide a complete narration of the story in Sundarakanda. We could do this with about three hundred Slokas. We got this published as "Samkshipta Sundarakanda" in Telugu script, with a foreword by my mother, and I was the assistant for the project of printing Sundarakanda Slokas.
Then, we came up with the "Samkshipta Sundarakanda with English Translation," where we added an introduction, an article in praise of Hanuman, and an article "Antarartham" – the inner meaning based on an oration of Shri Bhashyam Appalacharyulu garu. The Telugu oration of Appalacharyulu garu was translated into English by Pandit Vijayraghavrao garu. The reaction from many who received the book was positive, and it had the added attraction of pictures made by Turaga Chalam. Those pictures became part of all Sundarakanda publications, from that day.
Then, we created the website kasarabada.org, where we presented a revised and updated "Samkshipta Sundarakanda" on a weekly basis. Over a sixty-eight-week period, the "Samskhipta Sundarakanda" was brought online. Then, the Telugu prose version as well as the English prose version of "Samkshipta Sundarakanda" were also completed.
An event of acute sickness that befell one of our dearest nephews was the impetus to complete the book of "Parayana Slokas" over a period of sixty-eight days with one Sarga each day! These were also uploaded over sixty-eight days in weekly installments. The "Book of Parayana Slokas" from Sundarakanda had other important Parayana Sargas from Ramayanam.
This was followed by the English translation of Sundarakanda over a thirty-four-week period to be in time for the arrival of a grandchild. Then, the Telugu translation project was also completed over another sixty-eight-week period. These two translations resulted in putting together a Sundarakanda story in Telugu and English.
There was also a third story, namely Sundarakanda in Sanskrit, which is still a work in progress, looking for partners and collaborators.
Finally, we also completed the inner story of Sundarakanda, with the reference text being Shri Bhashyam Appalacharyulavari's Tatva Dipika. There is also a Sanskrit book, Ramayana Tilaka of Govindaraju, which we found interesting.
Presently we are on the final leg of our Sundarakanda journey, this time the task taken up is adding Slokas with word meanings using references of Tika Traya.
||om tat sat||