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. He was born in 1806/7 in Perambur of

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 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 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 The ''Panchatantra'' (IAST: Pañcatantra, ISO: Pañcatantra, sa, पञ्चतन्त्र, "Five Treatises") is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose, arranged within a frame story.

into Telugu, entitling his translation the ''nīticaṃdrika.'' It was published by

Vavilla Ramaswamy Sastrulu and Sons Vavilla Ramaswamy Sastrulu and Sons (Telugu: వావిళ్ల రామస్వామి శాస్త్రులు అండ్ సన్స్) is a 150-year-old Indian publishing house. It was started by Vavilla Ramaswamy Sastrulu i ...

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 language, Telugu: ఆంధ్ర శబ్ద చింతామణి ''Āndhra śabda cintāmaṇi'') was written i ...

in schools. He translated Thomas Lumisden Strange'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