Andhra Sahitya Parishat · Telugu History

The Andhra Sahitya Parishat (Telugu literary society) was founded at Madras in 1911.¹ It worked to collect, print and study old Telugu books, and it stood for the classical style of Telugu writing.²³ It is part of the story told in Printing and Telugu books and in Telugu language and literature.

Founding, 1911

The Andhra Historical Research Society’s life of Jayanti Ramayya Pantulu (1936–37) tells how the Parishat began.¹ Soon after he was posted to Madras in 1911, he thought of a society for Telugu literature and won many Telugu people to the idea.¹ The Maharaja of Pithapuram and his diwan (chief minister), Mokkapati Subbarayudu, took a keen interest.¹

The Parishat was set up at Madras in April 1911.¹ Its founders were the Maharajas of Pithapuram and Venkatagiri, and the Maharaja of Bobbili joined them later.¹ Ramayya Pantulu chaired its executive committee from the start.¹ P. T. Raju, writing in 1944, says it was started by Ramayya Pantulu under the patronage of the Maharaja of Pithapuram.²

Against spoken Telugu

The Parishat was born during a fierce quarrel over the Telugu language. Gidugu Ramamurti and his friends wanted books and examinations in the spoken language.³ K. Sitaramaiya writes that a book in the spoken style had been set as a school textbook, and there was a great outcry.³ The orthodox scholars founded the Parishat to oppose the spoken-Telugu movement, and for a time they seemed to win.³

Ramayya Pantulu’s life says he took a leading part in the fight against using spoken Telugu in public examinations, and that his side won.¹ Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao wrote in 1928 that the Parishat’s journal stood for “cautious advance in literary reform”.⁴

Collecting and printing old books

The Parishat searched the country for old manuscripts. It found the only known copy of Srinatha’s poem Sivaratri Mahatmyamu in the house of the Vasireddy family at Jonnalagadda, in Krishna district.⁵ Until then nobody had seen or heard of the poem.⁵ In 1928 Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao credited the Parishat with recovering “many hundreds of volumes” of the Southern school of Telugu literature.⁶ That school is described in Telugu literature.

Raju says the Parishat printed and published many valuable old works.² Ramayya Pantulu edited several of them, among them the Kavijanasrayamu, an old book on Telugu metre, and the Rayavachakamu, an account of Krishnadevaraya’s government.⁷ He also edited the Sasanapadyamanjari, a collection of the Telugu verses found in inscriptions.⁷

The journal and the dictionary

The Parishat had its own journal, the Parishat Patrika.² Ramayya Pantulu printed many of his papers on inscriptions and literature in it.⁸⁷

Its largest work was a Telugu dictionary, the Suryaraya Andhra Nighantuvu, planned on the lines of the Oxford English Dictionary.⁷ The Maharaja of Pithapuram, Rao Venkata Mahipati Suryarao, paid for it, and Ramayya Pantulu was its editor.⁷⁹ By 1936–37 the first volume, covering words that begin with vowels, had been published.⁷

At Kakinada

By the 1940s the Parishat had its headquarters at Kakinada (then Coconada).² The second edition of the Sivaratri Mahatmyamu, in 1930, was published there.⁵ The East Godavari district gazetteer of 1979 lists the Andhra Sahitya Parishat among the cultural societies of Kakinada, with the year 1926.¹⁰

Where the sources disagree

The founding year. Ramayya Pantulu’s life gives April 1911, at Madras.¹ The East Godavari gazetteer, listing the Parishat among the societies of Kakinada, gives the year 1926.¹⁰

“Jayanti Ramayya Pantulu: Life and Work”, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society, Vol. X (1936–37), p. xviii (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹
P. T. Raju, Telugu Literature (1944), p. 85 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
K. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), p. 87 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 119 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
“Prathama mudrana pithika” (preface to the first edition), in Srinatha, Sivaratri Mahatmyamu (Sukumara Charitramu), 2nd ed. (Kakinada: Andhra Sahitya Parishat, 1930), p. i (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 110 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
“Jayanti Ramayya Pantulu: Life and Work”, JAHRS X (1936–37), p. xx (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
“Jayanti Ramayya Pantulu: Life and Work”, JAHRS X (1936–37), p. xix (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩
Raju, Telugu Literature (1944), p. 86 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩
N. Ramesan, Andhra Pradesh District Gazetteers: East Godavari (1979), p. 203 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²