Dharmavaram Ramakrishnamacharyulu

Dharmavaram Ramakrishnamacharyulu was a lawyer of Bellary who spent his life on the Telugu stage.¹ He wrote plays, acted in them and ran a drama company.² Telugu writers call him Andhra Nataka Pitamaha, “the grandfather of Telugu drama”.³⁴ P. Raghunadha Rao gives his years as 1853 to 1913.⁵

Birth and work

The district gazetteer of Anantapur (1970) names the village of Dharmavaram as his birthplace.⁶ It calls him “the father of modern Telugu drama”.⁶ He made his home at Bellary, where he practised as a lawyer.¹ Gangappa says he was skilled in acting and in poetry.¹

A Telugu play for Bellary

Marathi, Hindi and Kannada plays were all staged at Bellary in his time.³ Some people said that Kannada was the right language for the stage and that Telugu was no use for it.³ Dharmavaram set out to prove them wrong.³

At first he gave way to the public taste, N. Gangappa writes, and wrote his first play in Kannada. It told the story of Usha and Aniruddha.³ Then he wrote Chitranaliyam in Telugu and staged it in 1886.³ With it, Gangappa says, original Telugu plays began to be written and staged, and he calls Dharmavaram the first writer of original Telugu plays.¹ P. Chenchiah wrote in 1928 that Chitranaliyam “has had a great run”.⁷

The Sarasavinodini Sabha

Dharmavaram founded the Sarasavinodini Sabha at Bellary.¹ Gangappa calls it the first drama company of the Telugu country.¹ P. T. Raju names it, with the Sugunavilasini Sabha of Madras, as one of the first two Telugu dramatic societies, and calls Dharmavaram its “moving spirit”.² He took his company to Madras several times, and his shows there made people want to stage plays of their own.¹

Gangappa adds that Dharmavaram was the first to bring songs in the Parsi style and other western stage methods into Telugu plays.⁸ Kolachalam Srinivasa Rao followed him, and then many others.⁸

His plays

Raju says he wrote nearly thirty plays, of which about thirteen were printed.²⁴ The most famous, in his list, were Vishada Sarangadhara, Chitranaliyam, Prahlada and Paduka Pattabhishekam.⁴ Chenchiah calls him “a popular author of many Puranic dramas”.⁷ K. Sitaramaiya (1943) puts Chitranaliyam among the best Telugu dramas, and names him as a pioneer of Telugu drama on the Sanskrit model.⁹

Y. Sitarama Sarma, writing in 1964, compares him with his rival at Bellary, Kolachalam Srinivasa Rao. Dharmavaram wrote only stories from the Puranas, in a simple style, and believed that plays should teach good conduct.¹⁰ His Prahlada used many verses from Potana’s Bhagavatam.¹¹ Kolachalam once asked him why. Dharmavaram answered that it was hard to write verses as fine as Potana’s, so he had taken them as they were.¹¹

His nephew Raghava

The great actor Bellary Raghava was Dharmavaram’s nephew.¹² Yet, Sitarama Sarma says, Raghava did not act in his uncle’s plays as long as Dharmavaram lived. Sitarama Sarma thought Dharmavaram must have forbidden it.¹² Raghava made his name instead in the plays of Kolachalam.¹²

For the stage of his time, see Telugu theatre and early cinema.

Where the sources disagree

His name. The gazetteer, Gangappa and Raghunadha Rao call him Ramakrishnamacharyulu.⁶³⁵ Raju calls him “Dharmavaram Krishnamachari”, and Chenchiah “D. Krishnamacharlu”.²⁷ Sitaramaiya uses both forms on the same page.⁹

How many plays. Raju says he wrote nearly thirty plays.² Gangappa gives twenty-eight.¹

Gangappa, Bharati (March 1968), p. 40 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸
P. T. Raju, Telugu Literature (Andhra Literature) (Bombay: International Book House, 1944), p. 72 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
N. Gangappa, “Andhra Nataka Rangasthalamupai Paschatyulayu, Parsilayu Prabhavamu”, Bharati, Vol. 45, No. 3 (March 1968), p. 39 (in Telugu) (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
Raju, Telugu Literature (1944), p. 73 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³
P. Raghunadha Rao, Adhunika Andhrapradesh Charitra (New Delhi: Sterling, 1997), p. 331 (in Telugu) (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²
Andhra Pradesh District Gazetteers: Anantapur (revised edition, 1970), p. 840, entry “Dharmavaram” (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only. ↩ ↩² ↩³
P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 114 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
Gangappa, Bharati (March 1968), p. 41 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²
K. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (Hyderabad: Hyderabad Telugu Academy, 1943), p. 71 and note 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²
Y. Sitarama Sarma, “Ki. Se. Kolachalam Srinivasa Rao”, Bharati, Vol. 41, No. 10 (October 1964), p. 58 (in Telugu) (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩
Sitarama Sarma, Bharati (October 1964), p. 59 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²
Sitarama Sarma, Bharati (October 1964), p. 60 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³