Abburi Chayadevi (13 October 1933 in

Rajahmundry Rajahmundry, officially known as Rajamahendravaram, is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and District headquarters of East Godavari district. It is the sixth most populated city in the state. During British rule, the District of Rajah ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

– 28 June 2019 in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India b ...

) was a

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

Indian fiction writer. She won the

Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

in 2005, for her work Tana Margam (Short Stories).Sahitya Akademi Awards 2005 - General Information - Know India: National Portal of India

Biography

Chaya Devi was active in literary circles since the fifties and even in her 70s, was still known as a creative feminist writer. She was born in a

brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...

family She also translated German fiction. Her stories have been translated into English and Spanish besides many Indian languages.Women's Writing
/ref> She served as librarian at the

Jawaharlal Nehru University Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a public major research university located in New Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university is known for leading faculties and r ...

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

in the sixties. She was a council member of Kendra

Sahitya Akademi The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...

(1998-2002). Chayadevi's husband, Abburi Varadarajeswara Rao, was a writer, critic and former Chairman of the

Official Languages Commission Official Languages Commission is an Indian commission which was constituted by the president of India in pursuance to the provisions stated in the Article-344 of the Indian Constitution. This commission was constituted on June 7, 1955 vide a notif ...

. She was also the daughter-in-law of

Abburi Ramakrishna Rao Abburi Ramakrishna Rao was a pioneer of modern Telugu literature. He was a progressive Telugu writer, scholar, novelist, playwright, literary critic, humanist, professor of Library Science, and the Librarian. Gurajada Apparao, Rayaprolu Subbarao, ...

, a pioneer of the romantic first and later the progressive literary movement.

Works

*''Anaga Anaga'' (folk stories for children) *Abburi Chaya Devi Kathalu (short stories), 1991 *Mrityunjaya (long story), 1993 *Tana Margam (short stories-about the exploitation of women in the guise of family bonds). *Mana Jeevithalu-Jiddu Krishnamurti Vyakhyanalu–3 (Translated) *Parichita Lekha published as an anthology (Translation of stories by Austrian writer Stefan Zweig) *Bonsai Batukulu onsai Livesportrays the life of women who live mechanically under the control of family members. Conclusion

Awards

*Ranganayakamma Pratibha Puraskaram,2003 *Telugu University Award, 1996 *Sahitya Akademi Award in Telugu for the Year 2005

References

{{Authority control 2019 deaths Telugu women writers Telugu writers Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Telugu 20th-century Indian women writers 20th-century Indian novelists Writers from Rajahmundry 20th-century Indian short story writers Indian women children's writers Indian children's writers Women writers from Andhra Pradesh 1933 births