Hindu Sundari · Telugu History

The Hindu Sundari was a Telugu journal for women.¹² It began at Eluru (then Ellore) in April 1902 and went on for more than half a century.¹² S. Mahaboob Basha, who studied it in 2010, calls it the first Telugu women’s journal to be edited by women.¹ It is part of the story told in Telugu newspapers and journals.

A journal started by a man, edited by women

Sattiraju Sitaramaiah, a lawyer from Kanteru in the Godavari country, started the journal.¹³ He had begun as a correspondent of the Andhra Prakasika, and he owned a press and a weekly of his own, the Deshopakari.⁴ At first he printed and edited the Hindu Sundari himself, at Eluru.¹ From 1905 it was published from Kanteru, where he had settled.¹

He wanted a woman editor from the start, but every woman he asked held back.¹ For the first issue no Hindu woman would write an article, so he asked a Christian woman, Mandapaka Johanamma.¹ From December 1903 two women, Mosalikanti Ramabayamma and Vempali Shantabayamma, edited the journal.¹ After Shantabayamma’s death in 1904, Ramabayamma edited it alone until it stopped in January 1908.¹

Women helped to start it again in June 1909, with Ramabayamma once more as editor.³ From March 1913 the Kakinada Vidyarthini Samajamu, a leading women’s society, ran the journal.³ It moved to Kakinada, and its press took the society’s name.³

Readers and writers

The journal cost one rupee a year at first, and two rupees after 1909.² Within two years it had about 800 subscribers, but even after twelve years it had fewer than a thousand.² Gifts from patrons kept it going.² It had readers in the coastal towns, and as far away as Bilaspur and Rangoon.²⁵

Basha’s main point is that the journal turned women into writers.⁵ Once women had hesitated even to put their names in print.⁵ By 1909 about a hundred women had written for it.⁵

What it argued for

Almost every issue carried articles on the hard life of widows.⁵ Writers condemned the forced shaving of widows’ heads, and Ramabayamma started a petition against it.⁵ Many argued for widow remarriage.⁵⁶ Uppuluri Nagaratnamma wrote that since the law now allowed it, people need not worry what the old law books said.⁶

The journal also fought for girls’ education.⁶ As early as November 1903 Unnava Lakshmibayamma wrote that women could and should take degrees like the B.A.⁶ In 1912 writers were already asking that girls not be married until they finished their studies, and that their choice in marriage be respected.⁷

It printed the speeches of women at the Andhra women’s conferences, and life stories of women such as Bandaru Achamamba.⁷ Its issue of September–October 1903 carried her picture.⁷

Later years

In the 1940s the journal declined.⁸ It shrank to about twenty-four pages, and men now wrote most of its articles.⁸ Of twelve pieces in the September 1942 issue, eight were by men.⁸ Its last editor named by Basha was Balantrapu Sheshamma, in the 1940s.³

Other women’s journals

The Hindu Sundari was not the first Telugu journal for women. Basha names Veeresalingam’s Satihitabodhini (1883) and the Telugu Zenana (1893), both edited by men.⁹¹⁰ He counts twenty-one Telugu journals edited by women by 1947.¹⁰ The East Godavari gazetteer still lists a Hindu Sundari among the journals of Kakinada in the 1970s.¹¹

Where the sources disagree

No disagreement was found among the sources used for this page.

S. Mahaboob Basha, “Flagging off the Marathon: Print Culture and Women’s Intellectual Movement in Colonial Andhra: Story of the Hindu Sundari, 1902–1947”, Kakatiya Journal of Historical Studies, Vol. V (2010), p. 77 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰
Basha, “Story of the Hindu Sundari”, KJHS V (2010), p. 80 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Basha, “Story of the Hindu Sundari”, KJHS V (2010), p. 78 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Basha, “Story of the Hindu Sundari”, KJHS V (2010), p. 79 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩
Basha, “Story of the Hindu Sundari”, KJHS V (2010), p. 81 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
Basha, “Story of the Hindu Sundari”, KJHS V (2010), p. 82 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Basha, “Story of the Hindu Sundari”, KJHS V (2010), p. 83 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³
Basha, “Story of the Hindu Sundari”, KJHS V (2010), p. 84 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³
S. Mahaboob Basha, “Sculpturing a ‘New Woman’ with Print Culture in Colonial Andhra: A Biography of Telugu Zenana, 1893–1907”, Kakatiya Journal of Historical Studies, Vol. IV (2009), p. 125 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩
Basha, “Telugu Zenana”, KJHS IV (2009), p. 126 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²
N. Ramesan, Andhra Pradesh District Gazetteers: East Godavari (1979), p. 233 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩