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Gurajada Apparao

Telugu writer of Vizianagaram, author of Kanyasulkam (the bride-price), the first important social play in Telugu, which mocks the selling of young girls in marriage to old men. He was one of the leaders of the movement to write in spoken Telugu, invented the song metre Mutyala Saramulu, and is credited with beginning the Telugu short story.

Gurajada Apparao was a Telugu playwright, poet and story writer of Vizianagaram.12 His play Kanyasulkam (the bride-price) attacks the custom of selling young girls in marriage to old men.3 P. T. Raju called it “the first important social drama in Telugu”.3 Apparao was also one of the leaders of the movement to write in modern spoken Telugu.14

Kanyasulkam

P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, in their history of Telugu literature (1928), list “Guruzada Apparao, who wrote Kanya Sulka” among the leading writers of satirical plays.5 They describe the play as “dealing with the scandal of the dowry system”.5

Raju, writing in 1944, describes the play more exactly.3 It mocks the practice of selling young girls in marriage to aged husbands, and argues for the remarriage of widows.3 It “had a sensational reception”.3 Raju wrote that Apparao would be remembered for one character above all, Girisam, “a social reformer of easy virtue”.3

K. Sitaramaiya, writing in Hyderabad in 1943, ranked Kanyasulkam “one of the greatest dramas in Telugu”.6 He quotes the preface of 1909.7 There Apparao said he wrote the play partly to fight “a popular prejudice that the Telugu language was unsuited to the stage”.7

The spoken language

In 1913 Jayanti Ramayya wrote A Defence of Literary Telugu against the spoken-Telugu movement.1 He named “Mr G V Apparao of Vizianagaram” as one of its three leaders.1 Ramayya noted that Apparao had set out his views in the preface to Kanyasulkam in 1897, and again in 1909.8 But Apparao now said that those were not his present views.8

Pressed to explain, Apparao said that the classical and the modern styles should exist side by side.8 Ramayya complained that, as a member of the Text-book Committee, Apparao would accept books in either style.8 Ramayya held him and his friends responsible for two circulars of the School Leaving Certificate Board, of October 1912 and January 1913.8

Sitaramaiya wrote that Apparao worked with Gidugu Ramamurti in the movement.94 In his view Kanyasulkam gave the movement useful examples of the spoken style.7

Poems and stories

Apparao also wrote poems in a new song metre, the Mutyala Saramulu (strings of pearls).72 Raju wrote that Apparao invented it from the metre of a folk song.2 He called Apparao the forerunner of the new romantic poets, though he “did not write many poems”.2 Sitaramaiya held that these poems, not the play, made him a pioneer of modern Telugu poetry.7 He wrote that almost all modern writers accepted Apparao and Rayaprolu Subba Rao as the forerunners of the modern period.610

Raju also wrote that “the Telugu short story originated with Mr. Guruzada Apparao”.11

Where the sources disagree

  • What the play attacks. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao wrote that it deals with “the dowry system”.5 Raju wrote that it mocks the sale of young girls to old husbands, that is, a price paid for the bride.3
  • His views on language. Sitaramaiya presents him as a firm ally of Ramamurti.4 Ramayya, in 1913, found him “enigmatical”, and said he wanted both styles side by side.8

Footnotes

  1. J. Ramayya Pantulu, A Defence of Literary Telugu (1913), p. 6 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. P. T. Raju, Telugu Literature (1944), p. 59 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. Raju, Telugu Literature (1944), p. 73 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  4. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), p. 87 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 115 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), p. 92 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  7. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), p. 90 and note 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  8. Ramayya, A Defence of Literary Telugu (1913), p. 7 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  9. K. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), pp. 79–80 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  10. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), p. 93 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  11. Raju, Telugu Literature (1944), p. 78 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

References

Sources (4)
  1. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (The Heritage of India Series) (opens in a new tab), Association Press (Y.M.C.A.), Calcutta / Oxford University Press, London, 1928, pp. 115. [Public domain]
  2. J. Ramayya Pantulu, A Defence of Literary Telugu (opens in a new tab), Telugu Academy (the author was Chairman of its Senate), 1913, pp. 6–7. [Public domain]
  3. K. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (opens in a new tab), Hyderabad Telugu Academy, Hyderabad (Deccan), 1943, pp. 72, 79–80, 87, 90, 92. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  4. P. T. Raju, Telugu Literature (Andhra Literature) (The P. E. N. Books, The Indian Literatures, No. XV) (opens in a new tab), International Book House, Bombay, for the P. E. N. All-India Centre, 1944, pp. 59, 73, 78. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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