Gurram Jashuva

Gurram Jashuva was a Telugu poet of the 20th century from Vinukonda in Guntur district.¹² He was born into a Dalit family at a time when people of his caste were not expected to write poetry.³ He made caste, untouchability and poverty the subject of his verse, and later writers see him as the founder of a new kind of Telugu poetry.⁴

Early life

Rapaka Ekambaracharyulu wrote an account of Jashuva’s life in Bharati in 1983. According to him, Jashuva was born at Vinukonda in September 1895, the son of Veerayya and Lingamamba.¹ He went to school at Vinukonda.¹

T. L. Kantharao, reviewing a book on Jashuva in 1980, explains his family. His father had married outside his caste, and Jashuva was counted in his mother’s caste.³ So he felt the full force of untouchability.³

In those days no one would teach the sacred books to an “untouchable” boy.¹ Ekambaracharyulu says Jashuva learned them in secret, by his own effort, and became a scholar in both Telugu and Sanskrit.¹

Teacher and poet

From 1920 to 1942 Jashuva taught in a school at Vinukonda.¹ For a time he also taught at the Lutheran school in Guntur.¹ During the Second World War he worked as a publicity officer in a “Sound and Drama” section.¹

His fame grew slowly. In 1947, at Vijayawada, he was honoured with the gandapenderam, an anklet given to great poets. The ceremony was presided over by the famous poet Chellapilla Venkata Sastri.¹⁵ In 1951 his admirers at Guntur gave him a kanakabhishekam (a shower of gold coins) and carried him in procession on an elephant.⁵

Gabbilam and his themes

A. Satyanarayana, a historian of the Dalit movement, lists Anadha (The Orphan, 1940) and the long poem Gabbilam (The Bat, 1941) among his works.⁴ In Gabbilam Jashuva shows the Dalit labourer who feeds the world with his sweat but has no food himself.⁴ He also asked why caste Hindus treated Dalits as panchamas, a “fifth caste” outside society.⁴

Kantharao saw caste and religious division at the centre of most of Jashuva’s poems.³ Because he had known great poverty, Jashuva also attacked the gap between rich and poor.³ One of his verses tells of the pain he felt when a listener praised his poem and then walked away on learning his caste.³

Later honours

Ekambaracharyulu lists the honours of his later years:⁵

• member of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council from 1964 to 1971
• the Central Sahitya Akademi award in 1966, for Kreestu Charitramu (The Life of Christ)
• the title Kala Prapoorna from Andhra University in 1969
• the Padma Bhushan from the President of India in 1970⁵

His other works include Firdausi, Mumtaz Mahal, Bapuji and Na Katha (My Story).⁵ He died on 24 July 1971.⁵

What later writers said

Satyanarayana calls him a forceful poet who raised his voice in verse against caste and untouchability. In his view Jashuva “inaugurated a new era” in modern poetry by taking the problems of Dalits as its subject.⁴ The Census handbook of Guntur district (2001) names him among the poets who brought fame to the district.²

Footnotes

1. Rapaka Ekambaracharyulu, “Navayuga Kavichakravarti: Jashuva”, Bharati, Vol. 60, No. 8 (August 1983), p. 21 (in Telugu) (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

2. Census of India 2001, Andhra Pradesh: District Census Handbook, Guntur District (2006), p. 29 (censusindia.gov.in↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

3. T. L. Kantharao, review of a book on Jashuva’s life and poetry, Bharati, Vol. 57, No. 6 (June 1980), PDF pp. 80–81 (in Telugu) (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. A. Satyanarayana, “Articulation of Self and the Other: Emergence of the Dalit Movement in Andhra Pradesh”, Kakatiya Journal of Historical Studies, Vol. I, No. 1 (2006), p. 71 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

5. Ekambaracharyulu, “Navayuga Kavichakravarti: Jashuva”, Bharati (August 1983), p. 22 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶