Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Bandaru Achamamba

Bandaru Achamamba (1874–1905), sister of Komarraju Lakshmana Rao, was a Telugu writer and speaker for women's education. She wrote the Abala Saccharitra Ratnamala, lives of famous women, and her story Gunavathiyagu Stree (1901) is called the first Telugu short story by a woman. The women's journal Hindu Sundari printed her writings, her portrait and, after her early death, a tribute.

Bandaru Achamamba was one of the first Telugu women writers of modern times.12 She wrote a history of famous women and one of the first Telugu short stories, and she spoke and wrote for the education of women.213 She died young, in 1905.1

Family and learning

The women’s magazine Andhra Mahila honoured her in 1957. It says that after she lost her own children, her younger brother Komarraju Lakshmana Rao put a pen in her hand to help her bear her grief.2 Her tears, the magazine wrote, flowed out as writing.2 It adds that she was learned in Sanskrit, Marathi and English as well as Telugu.2

The Krishna district census handbook (1961) counts “Bhandaru Achamamba” among the famous people the district produced.4 She lived in Maharashtra, where her husband worked.5

Her books

Her chief book was the Abala Saccharitra Ratnamala, a “garland of jewels” made of the lives of good women.2 Andhra Mahila praised it as a great work of history by a woman, at a time when history was hard work even for men.2

S. Mahaboob Basha has studied the Telugu women’s journal Hindu Sundari. He found that its July 1902 issue printed a review of the book by Kotikalapudi Seetamma.6

K. Purushotham calls her Gunavathiyagu Stree (“the virtuous woman”, 1901) the first short story in Telugu by a woman writer.1

For women’s education

In December 1902 Hindu Sundari printed her “Bharya Bhartala Samvadamu”, a dialogue between a wife and her husband on women’s education.3 In it, the uneducated wife says her grandmother told her that educated wives bring death to their husbands. The husband answers that this is only a foolish belief of old people.3

She also spoke in public. On 17 January 1903 she visited the home of Sattiraju Sitaramaiah, the editor of Hindu Sundari, at Eluru.7 Two days later he called a women’s meeting, and about two hundred women of the town came to hear her lecture.78

Sitaramaiah asked her to edit his journal. Basha says she was willing, but declined because she lived far away in Maharashtra and could not really do the work.5 The journal printed an account of her life, with her photograph, in its issue of September–October 1903.9 After her death it printed a tribute to “the late Srimati Bhandaru Atchamamba”.10

Footnotes

  1. K. Purushotham, “From Social Reform to Dandora: A Critical Perspective of Telugu Dalit Short Stories in Historical Outline”, Kakatiya Journal of Historical Studies, Vol. XV, No. 1 (2020), p. 11, note 2 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. Tribute to Srimati Bandaru Achamamba, Andhra Mahila, Vol. 13, No. 1 (January 1957), PDF p. 89 (in Telugu) (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  3. Basha, “Flagging off the Marathon”, KJHS V (2010), p. 92, notes (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. Census of India 1961, Andhra Pradesh: District Census Handbook, Krishna District (1966), p. xix (censusindia.gov.in (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  5. Basha, “Flagging off the Marathon”, KJHS V (2010), p. 88, notes (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  6. Basha, “Flagging off the Marathon”, KJHS V (2010), p. 93, notes (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  7. 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, No. 1 (2010), p. 79 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  8. Basha, “Flagging off the Marathon”, KJHS V (2010), p. 80 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  9. Basha, “Flagging off the Marathon”, KJHS V (2010), p. 83 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  10. Basha, “Flagging off the Marathon”, KJHS V (2010), p. 94, notes (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

References

Sources (4)
  1. A. Chandra Sekhar (Census of India), Census of India 1961, Andhra Pradesh: District Census Handbook, Krishna District (opens in a new tab), Census of India, 1966, xix. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  2. K. Purushotham (article); Thallapally Manohar (ed.), Kakatiya Journal of Historical Studies, Vol. XV, No. 1 (2020), incl. K. Purushotham, 'From Social Reform to Dandora: A Critical Perspective of Telugu Dalit Short Stories in Historical Outline', pp. 1-11 (opens in a new tab), 2020, pp. 11. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  3. Andhra Mahila Sabha, Andhra Mahila (ఆంధ్ర మహిళ), Vol. 13, No. 1 (January 1957) (opens in a new tab), 1957, PDF p. 89. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  4. S. Mahaboob Basha (article); Thallapally Manohar and K. Vijaya Babu (eds.), Kakatiya Journal of Historical Studies, Vol. V, No. 1 (May 2010), incl. S. Mahaboob Basha, 'Flagging off the Marathon: Print Culture and Women's Intellectual Movement in Colonial Andhra: Story of the Hindu Sundari, 1902-1947' (opens in a new tab), 2010, pp. 79–94. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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