Bhadriraju Krishnamurti

Bhadriraju Krishnamurti
Professor of Linguistics (Founder and Head of the department) Osmania University
In office 1962 – 1988 (On leave of absence 1986-88)
Vice-Chancellor University of Hyderabad
In office 1986–1993
Resident Fellow Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences Stanford University
In office 1975 – 1976, 2000 Fall
Member Institute for Advanced Study Princeton University
In office 1999–2000
Honorary Professor Andhra University
Incumbent
Assumed office 2003
Personal details
Born	June 19, 1928(1928-06-19) Ongole, Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh India
Spouse(s)	Smt. Bh. Syamala
Profession	Historical Linguistics Dravidian Linguistics Academician Administrator

Bhadriraju Krishnamurti (Telugu: భద్రిరాజు కృష్ణమూర్తి; born 19 June 1928) is an Indian linguist. He was born in Ongole (Andhra Pradesh). He was Vice Chancellor of Hyderabad Central University from 1986 to 1993 and founded the Department of Linguistics at Osmania University, where he then would serve as professor from 1962 to 1986. His magnum opus The Dravidian Languages is considered a landmark volume in the study of Dravidian linguistics. He was a student and close associate of Murray Barnson Emeneau.

Contribution to linguistics

Krishnamurti is considered to be among the first to apply the rigor of modern comparative linguistic theory to further the study of Dravidian languages. His thesis Telugu Verbal Bases (1961) is considered a milestone in the study of south-central Dravidian languages. His comprehensive grammar on koṃḍa or Kūbi is a monumental work in the area of non-literary Dravidian languages. His research was devoted to the central problems of phonology and morphology/syntax of Dravidian, and he made significant contributions in advancing the then nascent field of comparative and historical Dravidian studies in the second half of the twentieth century. His Comparative Dravidian Linguistics: Current Perspectives is a collection of twenty-one important articles published during the period 1955–1998, which attempts to provide solutions to many outstanding problems of Dravidian linguistics.

Positions held

Krishnamurti worked as a Lecturer in Telugu at Andhra University (1949–61); Reader in Telugu, S. V. U.(1961–62); Professor of Linguistics (1962–88), Osmania University, Dean, Faculty of Arts (1973–76), Member, Univ Syndicate (1971–75); Director, Southern Regional Centre, Indian Council of Social Science Research (1978–82); Vice-Chancellor, University of Hyderabad (1986–93), Honorary Professor, University of Hyderabad 1993-99; Andhra University 2003-.

Krishnamurti has also been associated with the study of South Indian languages in many western institutions, and has been a visiting professor of linguistics at several universities. He was the first Asian Fellow at ANU (1974), a Resident Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford (1975–76), and Rama Watumaull Distinguished Indian Scholar at the University of Hawaii (1995).

He was a Visiting Professor at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1967), Cornell University, Ithaca (1967, 1970), Australian National University (1974), Tokyo University (1982), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (1983), University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (1986), University of Hawaii (1995), University of Texas at Arlington (1995). Resident Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford (2000 –2001), Member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (1999–2000), Visiting Fellow, Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, Institute for Advanced Study, La Trobe University, Melbourne (2001), Visiting Scientist, Max Planck Institute in Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany (2003 September–November); He was also served as President of the Linguistic Society of India in 1970, and also as President of the Dravidian Linguistics Association in 1980.

Awards

Prof. Krishnamurti was an elected Honorary Member of the Linguistic Society of America in 1985. He was elected Corresponding Fellow of the prestigious Royal Society of Edinburgh, UK, in 2004. He had been an executive member of Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, 1990-2002. He was conferred an honorary doctorate in literature by Sri Venkateswara University in 1998, and by Dravidian University in 2007. He was elected Fellow of Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, in 2004. He received the Gidugu Ramamurti Award at the 15th TANA (Telugu Association of North America), Detroit, July, 2005. He was the first recipient of the Telugu Bhaarati Award instituted by C.P.Brown Academy, Hyderabad (2008). He also received the Life-time Achievement Award at the 10th ATA (American Telugu Association), New Jersey, for significant contributions to Telugu and Dravidian linguistics, July 3–5, 2008. He was presented Indian Linguistics, Vol. 70, as Festschrift by the Linguistic Society of India, on the occasion of his 80th birth year in 2009.

Publications in English

Authored

• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (1961). Telugu Verbal Bases: A Comparative and Descriptive Study (reprinted 1972). UCPL. 24. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 978-1258178437. 

• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju; P. Sivananda Sarma (1968). A Basic Course in Modern Telugu. Hyderabad: Department of Linguistics, Osmania University (reprinted in 2006 by Telugu Akademi, Himayatnagar, Hyderabad). 

• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (1969). koṃḍa or Kūbi: A Dravidian Language. Tribal Cultural Research and Training Institute. 2. Hyderabad: Tribal Cultural Research and Training Institute, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh. 

• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju; Djordje Kostic', Alokananda Mitter (1977). A Short Outline of Telugu Phonetics. Calcutta: Indian Statistical Institute. 

• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju; J.P.L.Gwynn (1985). A Grammar of Modern Telugu. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195616644. 

• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju; I. Ramabrahmam, C.R. Rao (1995). Evaluation of Total Literacy Campaigns: Chittoor and Nizamabad Districts of Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabad: Book Links Corporation. ISBN 9788185194356. 

• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (1998). Language, Education and Society. New Delhi: Sage. ISBN 9788170366959. 

• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2001). Comparative Dravidian Linguistics: Current Perspectives. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 978-0198241225. 

• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2003). The Dravidian Languages. Cambridge Language Surveys (1 ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521771115. 

• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2010). Studies in Telugu Linguistics. Hyderabad: C P Brown Academy. ISBN 9789380120997. 

Edited

• Emeneau, M.B. (1968). Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju. ed. Studies in Indian Linguistics: Professor M. B. Emeneau Ṣaṣṭipūrti Volume. Poona and Annamalainagar: Centres of Advanced Study in Linguistics. 

• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju; Mukherji, Aditi, eds. (1984). Modernization of Indian Languages in News Media. Hyderabad: Department of Linguistics, Osmania University. 

• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju, ed. (1986). South Asian Languages: Structure, Convergence, and Diglossia (Proceedings of the Second International Conference of the South Asian Languages and Linguistics). Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. 

• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju; Dimock, Edward C.; Kachru, Brah, eds. (1992). Dimensions of Sociolinguistics in South Asia: Papers in Memory of Gerald Kelley). Delhi: Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. P.Ltd.. 

• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju, ed. Gold Nuggets: An Anthology of Telugu Short Stories of the Post-Independence Period in Translation. Chaganti Vijayasree. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. 

Publications in Telugu

Authored

• Krishnamurti, Bhadrinath; Eswara Reddy (1980) janawācakam in 5 Volumes (One primer and workbook, two readers and a teacher's guide for Telugu non-literates) Hyderabad: Director of Adult Education, Government of Andhra Pradesh 
• Krishnamurti, Bhadrinath Tēlika telugu wācakam (Literacy Primer in Telugu, Parts I & II) Hyderabad: Visalandhra Publishers 
• Krishnamurti, Bhadrinath (1998) cinnanāTi padyālu (Poems of Younger Days) Hyderabad: Author 
• bhāSa, samājam, saṃskṛti (Language, Society and Culture) Hyderabad: Nilkamal Publishers 1999 ISBN 81-86804-46-3 

Edited

• Krishnamurthi, Bhadriraju, ed. (1962) (Ed. & Comp.) Mānṇḍalika Writtipadakōśam: A Telugu Dialect Dictionary of Occpational Vocabularies I: Agriculture Vocabulary Hyderabad: A.P.: A.P.Sahitya Akademi (Reprinted 1974) ISBN 9781179078823 
• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju, ed. (1971) Tikkana padaprayōga kōśam (A Concordance of Tikkana's Māhābhārata, a literary work of the 13th century) I Hyderabad: A.P. Sahitya Akademi 
• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju, ed. (1972) Māṇḍalika Writtipadakōśam: A Telugu Dialect Dictionary of Occupational Vocabularies II: Handloom Vocabulary Hyderabad: A.P. Sahitya Akademi 
• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju, ed. (1974) Tikkana padaprayōga kōśam (A Concordance of Tikkana's Māhābhārata, a literary work of the 13th century) II Hyderabad: A.P. Sahitya Akademi 
• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju, ed. Telugu bhāSā caritra (A History of the Telugu Language) Hyderabad: A.P. Sahitya Akademi (2nd edition 1979; reprinted six times by Telugu University till 2006) 
• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju, ed. (1977) Tikkana padaprayōga kōśam (A Concordance of Tikkana's Mahābhārata, a literary work of the 13th Century) III Hyderabad: A.P. Sahitya Akademi 
• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju, ed. (1996) Bhāratīya Sāhityam: Samakālika kathānikalu (Contemporary Indian Short Stories) [in English] New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi