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 This irregularity in the application and non-application of the rules of sandhi, is fatal to the artistic merit and the educational value of the Prose of the Neo-Kavya School. Students learn a language from books, and not from grammars. Students who read the works of Mr. K. Veeresalingam Pantulu and his followers in the Neo-Kavya dialect, acquire very incorrect and confused notions of the complicated laws and operations of literary sandhi. A study of these books, therefore, acts as a serious handicap to the student who aspires to a mastery of the Kavya dialect.

LITERARY TRADITION

126. Is such violation of Sandhi a deviation from literary tradition?

The scholars and pandits of the Upayukta Grandhakarana Sabha who initiated the reform clearly expressed their opinion that the omission and violation of sandhi was a breach of grammar. rd (Vide page 5 of the Society s History of India 3 Ed. 1856 and rd page 5 of The Outlines of Geography 3 Ed. 1856.)

The grammarian Chinnayya Sun was an honorary President of that Sabha and his authority must be held to be conclusive by the members of the Neo-Kavya school who accept his grammar as standard.

127. The Pandits Conference held in Madras on the 15th and the 16th May 1912 under the auspices of the Telugu Academy was of the same opinion as the U.G.K. Sabha. Says the official account of the conference:

“On the question of Sandhi the conference came to the conclusion that in poetry, sandhi should be invariably observed