Paravastu Chinnayasuri (1806/7–1861/2) (Telugu: పరవస్తు చిన్నయ సూరి) 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 ...

writer who played a prominent role in the elevation of prose to importance in

Telugu literature Telugu literature is the body of works written in the Telugu language. It consists of poems, short stories, novels, plays, and song lyrics, among others. There is some indication that Telugu literature dates at least to the middle of the first ...

. He was the first Telugu Pandit at the

Presidency College, Madras Presidency College is an art, commerce, and science college in the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, India. On 16 October 1840, this school was established as the Madras Preparatory School before being repurposed as a high school, and then a gra ...

. He was born in 1806/7 in

Perambur Perambur is a neighbourhood located in the northern region of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Etymology In Tamil, ''pirambu (பிரம்பு)'' means bamboo and ''ur (ஊர்)'' means city or place. Before British rule, this place was w ...

Chengalpattu Chengalpattu, previously known as Chingleput, is a city and the headquarters of Chengalpattu district of the state Tamil Nadu, India. The town is located near to the industrial and IT hub. It is the headquarters of the district and is away fro ...

district and died in 1861/2. Suri was born in a

Satani Satani is a community in Kumbungu District in the Northern Region of Ghana. It is located 8 kilometres north of Kumbungu Kumbungu is a town in the Kumbungu District of the Northern Region of Ghana. Kumbungu is the capital of Kumbungu district. ...

family as the son of Venkata Rangayya, a

Vaishnavite Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...

Scholar. He worked as a Telugu teacher at

Pachaiyappa's College Pachaiyappa's College is one of the oldest educational institutions in Chennai, in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. In addition, it is the first sole Indian college in Madras Presidency. History Pachaiyappa's College, Chennai is the resul ...

in Madras. He also worked as a law scholar for the Supreme Court of East India Company. He was a Pundit in the Sanskrit, Telugu, Prakrit, and Tamil languages. He was acclaimed as a profound scholar in Telugu and Sanskrit in the traditional education. More than a third of his life span was spent in teaching Telugu in schools and in the Presidency college, Madras.

Literary works

Chinnayasuri translated the first two books of the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

Panchatantra into Telugu, entitling his translation the ''nīticaṃdrika.'' It was published by Vavilla Ramaswamy Sastrulu and Sons in Chennai. He wrote the ''bālavyākaraṇamu'' (''Children's Grammar''), a textbook for teaching

Telugu grammar The first treatise on Telugu grammar ( te, వ్యాకరణం ''vyākaraṇam''), the ''Andhra Sabda Chintamani'' (Telugu: ఆంధ్ర శబ్ద చింతామణి ''Āndhra śabda cintāmaṇi'') was written in Sanskrit by Nan ...

in schools. He translated

Thomas Lumisden Strange Thomas Lumisden Strange (1808–1884) was an English judge and writer. Life Born on 4 January 1808, he was eldest son of Sir Thomas Andrew Lumisden Strange. He was educated at Westminster School, and on leaving in 1823 went out to his father in ...

's ''Manual of Hindoo Law'' of 1856, entitling it the ''hiṃdūdharmaśāstrasaṃgrahamu.''

References

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20070310212743/http://www.teluguworld.org/lit.html *http://panchatantra.org/index.html *https://web.archive.org/web/20090410030240/http://www.textbooksonline.tn.nic.in/Books/12/Telugu/Prose/1%20Mithrabedhamu.pdf *https://archive.org/stream/HistoryCultureOfTheAndhras/TXT/00000324.txt {{DEFAULTSORT:Chinnayasuri, Paravastu Telugu writers 1807 births 1861 deaths Academic staff of Presidency College, Chennai 19th-century Indian linguists Sanskrit–Telugu translators Grammarians from India