Ayyanki Venkataramanayya

Ayyanki Venkataramanayya of Vijayawada was the leader of the library movement in the Andhra country.¹² For about fifty years he worked to open libraries, form library associations and print journals for them.¹ People called him Grandhalaya Pithamaha, the grandfather of libraries.¹ His story matters because the libraries he helped to spread brought books and newspapers to ordinary Telugu readers. For the wider story, see The library movement, 1880–1956.

A vow in 1907

The Who’s Who of Freedom Struggle in Andhra Pradesh (1980) says he was born about 1890.¹ In 1907 the Bengal leader Bipin Chandra Pal toured the Andhra country, and his speeches stirred national feeling among Telugu people.³ Venkataramanayya heard him speak at Rajahmundry.¹ Moved by the speeches, he took an oath to give his whole life to the service of the country.¹

He kept the vow through the press. In 1910 he started a journal, Andhra Bharati, at Machilipatnam.¹ Its aim was to awaken people politically and help progress in every field.¹ He went on to edit several more journals.¹

Building the library movement

P. Krishna Moorthy, in a 1987 thesis on the Andhra movement, writes simply that Venkataramanayya started the library movement.² A Telugu history of 1957, by Khandavalli Lakshmi Ranjanam and Khandavalli Balendusekharam, says the same. It adds that he founded a monthly, Grandhalaya Sarvasvamu, to serve the movement.³ In the view of these two writers, Andhra became famous for libraries, second only to Baroda, because of his tireless work.³

The journal also helped Telugu poetry. P. T. Raju, writing in 1944, notes that the Andhra Grandhalaya Sarvasvamu was the journal of the Andhra Library Association. The young poets of the new lyric school began to print their poems in it.⁴

The Who’s Who lists the bodies he helped to found:¹

• the All India Public Library Association, 1919
• the Andhra Desa Library Association, 1925
• the Madras Library Association, 1928
• the Punjab Library Association, 1929¹

In 1924 he also started the Indian Library Journal.¹ He helped people form library associations in many parts of the country, and served the movement in Andhra in many posts.¹

Honours and last years

Library workers honoured him in his lifetime. In January 1943 the monthly Bharati reviewed a felicitation volume for him, edited by Mamidipudi Venkatarangayya.⁵ The Andhra Desa Library Workers’ Association published it. Kattamanchi Ramalinga Reddy presented it to him at the association’s fourth conference at Guntur.⁵ Scholars of the Andhra country wrote essays in it, praising his work for libraries and other public causes.⁵

His own writings were collected too. A book of his essays from 1910 to 1966, Granthalaya Jyoti, was published at Vijayawada.⁶ The government gave him the Padma Shri in 1972.¹ In June 1978 he became the first Asian to receive the Kaula Gold Medal, for his pioneering work for public libraries.¹ He died on 7 March 1979.¹

Where the sources disagree

Who started the movement. The Who’s Who calls Venkataramanayya the father of the library movement in Andhra, and Krishna Moorthy says he started it.¹² The same Who’s Who also names Ayyadevara Kaleswara Rao as one of the founders of the Andhra library movement.⁷ Krishna Moorthy himself lists public libraries that opened in Telugu towns from 1886 onwards.⁸

Footnotes

1. Sarojini Regani (ed.), Who’s Who of Freedom Struggle in Andhra Pradesh, Vol. II (1980), p. 303 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷

2. Krishna Moorthy, Unification of Andhra Pradesh (1987), p. 23 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. Khandavalli Lakshmi Ranjanam and Khandavalli Balendusekharam, Andhrula Charitra – Samskriti, 2nd ed. (Kurnool, 1957), p. 424 (in Telugu) (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. P. T. Raju, Telugu Literature (1944), p. 60 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

5. Review of Sri Ayyanki Venkataramanayya Gari Sanmana Sanchika, ed. Mamidipudi Venkatarangayya, Bharati, Vol. 20, No. 1 (January 1943), p. 103 (in Telugu) (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. D. Anjaneyulu, Kandukuri Veeresalingam (1976), p. 154, bibliography (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

7. Regani (ed.), Who’s Who, Vol. II (1980), p. 183 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

8. P. Krishna Moorthy, Unification of Andhra Pradesh (Ph.D. thesis, Karnatak University, 1987), p. 22, citing G. V. Subba Rao (ed.), History of Andhra Movement, Vol. I (1982) (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩