Paravastu Chinnaya Suri · Telugu History

Paravastu Chinnaya Suri was a Telugu scholar of the 19th century who taught Telugu at the Presidency College in Madras.¹ His grammar, the Bala Vyakaranamu, became the standard rule book of literary Telugu.¹² It was still the standard in 1943, nearly ninety years after he wrote it.² See Telugu grammar.

A teacher at Madras

K. Purushotham gives his years as 1807–1861.³ Khandavalli Lakshmiranjanam and Khandavalli Balendusekharam describe him as a great scholar who became Telugu teacher at the Presidency College, Madras.¹ They place his work in the time when the labours of C. P. Brown were stirring a new interest among Telugu scholars.¹

The Bala Vyakaranamu

According to Lakshmiranjanam, Chinnaya Suri wrote the Bala Vyakaranamu (“grammar for the young”) about 1855.¹ He based it on the Andhra Sabda Chintamani and other old grammars.¹ Before his time, they add, people often wrote prose in the spoken language. From Chinnaya Suri onward, prose too had to follow the rules of the literary language, like poetry.¹

In 1943 K. Sitaramaiya called it “the standard orthodox Telugu grammar to this day”.² The British Museum catalogue of Telugu books (1912) also lists his Vibhakti-bodhini, tables of the endings of Telugu words.⁴

The Niti Chandrika

Chinnaya Suri also wrote prose. Sitaramaiya says his Niti Chandrika was written to show the rules of his grammar in use.² The British Museum catalogue describes its first part as a retelling of the Mitra-labhamu and Mitra-bhedamu, the first two books of the Panchatantra, joined with the Hitopadesa.⁵ It was later set as a text for the Matriculation examination.⁵

He did not finish it. The catalogue lists continuations by Kokkonda Venkataratnam and Kandukuri Veeresalingam.⁵ D. Anjaneyulu says Veeresalingam wrote his parts, Vigraham and Sandhi, in Chinnaya Suri’s “florid and highflown” style, and nearly outdid him at it.⁶

In 1935 Andhra University set the Niti Chandrika for its students. It used a reprint of the first edition of 1857, with notes by G. V. Ramamurthi Pantulu of Parlakimedi.⁷

Other works

The British Museum catalogue lists other works by him:⁵

an edition of the Nala Charitramu (printed 1864)
a Telugu translation of T. L. Strange’s book on Hindu law, the Hindu Dharma Sastra Sangrahamu (1858)⁵

What later writers said

Sitaramaiya called him “a great name in the domain of Telugu literature”.² Lakshmiranjanam wrote that the influence of the Bala Vyakaranamu on the later growth of the language was immense.¹

K. Purushotham, writing on Telugu short stories in 2020, was harsh. He calls the Niti Chandrika pedantic, and hard for the less educated to read.³ He quotes the translator Ranga Rao, who thought Chinnaya Suri’s style set literary Telugu back by fifty years.³

Where the sources disagree

When the Niti Chandrika first appeared. Purushotham dates it to 1853.³ The Andhra University register of 1935–36 speaks of its “first edition of 1857”.⁷

His legacy. Sitaramaiya and Lakshmiranjanam treat his grammar as the lasting standard of Telugu.²¹ Purushotham, following Ranga Rao, sees his style as a burden that held Telugu prose back.³

Khandavalli Lakshmiranjanam and Khandavalli Balendusekharam, Andhrula Charitra – Samskriti, 2nd ed. (1957), p. 414 (in Telugu) (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹
K. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), p. 62 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
K. Purushotham, “From Social Reform to Dandora: A Critical Perspective of Telugu Dalit Short Stories in Historical Outline”, Kakatiya Journal of Historical Studies, Vol. XV, No. 1 (2020), p. 2 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Barnett, Catalogue of the Telugu Books in the British Museum (1912), cols. 51–52 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
L. D. Barnett, A Catalogue of the Telugu Books in the Library of the British Museum (1912), cols. 49–50, “Chinnaya Suri, Paravastu” (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
D. Anjaneyulu, Kandukuri Veeresalingam (1976), p. 100 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩
Andhra University: The Annual Register 1935–36 (1935), p. 118 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²