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Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Panuganti Lakshminarasimha Rao

Telugu essayist, playwright and humorist of the early 20th century, best known for the Sakshi (The Spectator) essays, which appeared in weekly parts in the Andhra Patrika. He also wrote plays, among them Kanthabharanam and Radhakrishna, and early short stories. Critics disagreed about his humour: Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao found it clean and kindly, K. Sitaramaiya at times obscene.

Panuganti Lakshminarasimha Rao was a Telugu essayist, playwright and humorist of the early 20th century.12 He is best known for his Sakshi (The Spectator), a long series of essays.12 K. Sitaramaiya compared him to the English essayist Joseph Addison.2 He also wrote satirical plays and some of the first Telugu short stories.34

The Sakshi essays

P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, in their history of Telugu literature (1928), called him “a worthy successor” to Kandukuri Veeresalingam’s farces.1 They found the Sakshi “an example of clean, sparkling humour, which seeks to kill social vices without cruelty”.1

Sitaramaiya, writing in Hyderabad in 1943, wrote that the essays were published under the pen-name Sakshi.2 He praised their prose style, their learning and their knowledge of human nature.2 The Andhra Patrika printed them in its weekly literary supplement, where they “evoked great enthusiasm”.5 P. T. Raju, in 1944, wrote that Panuganti first became famous through the Sakshi, and that his essays were known for their satire.67

Plays and stories

Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao named him, with Gurajada Apparao, as a leading writer of satirical plays.3 His play was Kanthabharanam.3 They also listed his Suvarna Rekha Kathavali among the first collections of modern Telugu short stories.4

Sitaramaiya named his play Radhakrishna among the best Telugu plays.8 He called Panuganti “the precursor of the prose drama in Telugu”, because he used verse very little in his plays.9 Raju called him “a leading comedy writer” whose comic plays were all popular.6

Where the sources disagree

  • His humour. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao found it clean and free of cruelty.1 Sitaramaiya called him “the master of humour in Telugu”.9 But elsewhere he praised another humorist who “does not indulge in obsenity like Panuganti”.10
  • His aim. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao saw him as following Veeresalingam in social satire.1 Sitaramaiya wrote that he wrote the Sakshi essays “to counteract the anti-Hindu cultural thought of Veeresalingam Pantulu”.2 See Kandukuri Veeresalingam.

Footnotes

  1. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 116 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  2. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), p. 77 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

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

  4. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 118 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  5. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), p. 86 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  6. P. T. Raju, Telugu Literature (1944), p. 75 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  7. Raju, Telugu Literature (1944), p. 79 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  8. K. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), p. 72 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  9. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), p. 78 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  10. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), p. 103 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

References

Sources (3)
  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. 115–116, 118. [Public domain]
  2. K. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (opens in a new tab), Hyderabad Telugu Academy, Hyderabad (Deccan), 1943, pp. 72, 77–78, 86, 103. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  3. 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. 75, 79. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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