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Kavali Venkata Borayya

Kavali Venkata Borayya (1776–1803), a Brahmin from the Godavari–Krishna country educated at Machilipatnam, was the best-known Indian assistant of Colin Mackenzie, who collected the local histories and inscriptions of South India. After his early death his brothers Lakshmayya and Ramaswami carried on the work; Ramaswami published lives of the Telugu and other Deccan poets.

Kavali Venkata Borayya was a young Telugu Brahmin who helped Colin Mackenzie collect the history of South India.12 Mackenzie was a British army officer and surveyor who collected manuscripts and inscriptions across the peninsula.34 Borayya died young, but his brothers carried on the work for many years.1

Family

Gordon Mackenzie’s manual of the Krishna district (1883) describes the family. Borayya’s father, Kavali Venkata Subbayya, was a Brahmin of Eluru (then Ellore).1 His sister Lakshmidevamma married Varigonda Ramanappa, zamindar of Vissannapeta.1 The manual adds that the family always spelt its name “Cavali” in English.1

R. H. Phillimore, the historian of the Survey of India, gives more detail. He calls Borayya a translator, born in 1776, who died in 1803.3 He was educated at “Mr. Morgan’s school” at Machilipatnam, and worked there as a writer in the office of the Military Paymaster.3 He married a younger sister of Venkata Chalam, zamindar of Kasimkota, and left one daughter.3

With Colin Mackenzie

The manual calls Borayya “the well known assistant of Colonel Colin Mackenzie”.1 Mackenzie’s own words about him survive in an essay printed by H. T. Colebrooke.2 Mackenzie had sent away an inscribed stone that he found in the Deccan. He had Borayya’s name cut on its edge “as a small tribute to the zeal and fidelity” of a man who rose above the prejudices of his time.2

Mackenzie wrote that Borayya did much to help the inquiries in Mysore and in the Nizam’s dominions.2 It was Borayya who first suggested moving the stone to a place where scholars could use it. By his friendly manner he won the help of the local people to do so.2

His brothers

Borayya had several brothers. The Krishna manual names three: Sitayya, who was in government service, and Venkata Lakshmayya and Venkata Ramaswami, who worked with Mackenzie for many years after Borayya died.1 William Taylor mentions a grant of land given to “Lacshmana, one of Colonel MacKenzie’s Brahmans, brother of ‘Boriah’”, near Madras.5

After Mackenzie died, Lakshmayya twice offered to carry on his master’s work. William Taylor tells how the Asiatic Society of Calcutta at first welcomed his plan, but in 1836 its committee said it had “no faith in the pretensions” of Lakshmayya.64

Lakshmayya later lent money to his widowed sister to pay the revenue on her husband’s estate.17 A long lawsuit followed, and in 1867 the Privy Council allowed Lakshmayya’s son Narrainappa to hold the Vissannapeta estate.7

Another brother, Kavali Venkata Ramaswami, became an author. He published biographies of the poets of the Deccan at Calcutta.38 Later writers still cited it, for example for the date of Krishnadevaraya’s death.8

Where the sources disagree

His brothers. The Krishna manual names three brothers, Sitayya, Lakshmayya and Ramaswami, and calls Narrainappa Lakshmayya’s son.17 Phillimore names Narayanappa, Lakshmaiah and Ramaswamy as three brothers in Mackenzie’s service, with a fourth brother, Sitayya.3

The date of Ramaswami’s book. Phillimore dates the Biographical Sketches of Dekkan Poets to 1828.3 G. R. Subramiah Pantulu, writing in the Indian Antiquary in 1898, says it was published in 1829.8

Footnotes

  1. Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District (1883), p. 338 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  2. H. T. Colebrooke, “On Ancient Monuments” (with Colin Mackenzie’s account of the stone), in Essays on the History, Literature and Religions of Ancient India, Vol. II (1837), p. 270 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. R. H. Phillimore, Historical Records of the Survey of India, Vol. II (1950), p. 383, biographical note “Boriah, Kavali Venkata” (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  4. Taylor, Catalogue Raisonnée, Vol. I (1857), p. xvii (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  5. William Taylor, A Catalogue Raisonnée of Oriental Manuscripts, Vol. III (1862), p. 199 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  6. William Taylor, A Catalogue Raisonnée of Oriental Manuscripts, Vol. I (1857), p. xvi (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  7. Mackenzie, Kistna District (1883), p. 339 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. G. R. Subramiah Pantulu, “Discursive Remarks on the Augustan Age of Telugu Literature”, Indian Antiquary XXVII (1898), p. 277 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

References

Sources (6)
  1. Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Government of Madras (Lawrence Asylum Press), 1883, pp. 338–339. [Public domain]
  2. William Taylor, A Catalogue Raisonnée of Oriental Manuscripts in the Library of the (late) College, Fort Saint George, Vol. III (opens in a new tab), United Scottish Press, Madras, 1862, pp. 199. [Public domain]
  3. Indian Antiquary, The Indian Antiquary, Vol. XXVII (1898) (opens in a new tab), Education Society's Press, Byculla, Bombay, 1898, pp. 277. [Public domain]
  4. William Taylor, A Catalogue Raisonnée of Oriental Manuscripts in the Library of the (late) College, Fort Saint George, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), H. Smith, Madras, 1857, xvi–xvii. [Public domain]
  5. R. H. Phillimore, Historical Records of the Survey of India, Vol. II (1800 to 1815) (opens in a new tab), 1950, pp. 383. [Public domain in India]
  6. H. T. Colebrooke, Essays on the History, Literature and Religions of Ancient India (Miscellaneous Essays), Vol. II (opens in a new tab), 1837, pp. 270. [Public domain]

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