Ramayanam Sarveswara Sastry () (1889 – 1 October 1962) was a stage actor. He was born in Bheemasingi village in Vizianagaram district,

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 ...

. His parents were Laxminarasimha Sastry, a pundit known as "Abhinava Bheemakavi" and Venkata Subbamma. His ancestors used to recite Hindu epic

Ramayanam The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages ...

in the village regularly which garnered their family the name of Ramayanam. Sastry completed his schooling in Rippon High School at Vizianagaram. He had a passion of playing dramas since childhood, hence, joined Vizianagram Amateur Theatrical Society in 1910 and played different roles till 1919. Later, he joined the Vijayarama Dramatic Academy of Vizianagaram Kingdom and was a part of it until, 1935. He also worked as a teacher in Branch College till 1947. He played many characters on stage including: Rajasimha in ''Rasaputra Vijayam'',

Ramadas S. Ashwath Narayan Rao Ramadas is an Indian politician. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He is a Member of the Legislative Assembly (India) from Krishnaraja constituency in Mysore, Karnataka. In the 2008 Karnataka assembly ...

in ''Ramadasu'',

Srikrishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one of ...

in ''Prasanna Yadavam'', ''Pandavodyogam'' and ''Padmavyooham'', Gayudu in ''Gayopakhyanam'', Rustum in ''Vijayanagara Samrajya Patanam'',

Harischandra Harishchandra () is a legendary king of the Solar dynasty, who appears in several legends in texts such as the ''Aitareya Brahmana'', ''Mahabharata'', the ''Markandeya Purana'', and the ''Devi Bhagavata Purana''. The most famous of these storie ...

in ''Harischandra'',

Arjuna Arjuna (Sanskrit: अर्जुन, ), also known as Partha and Dhananjaya, is a character in several ancient Hindu texts, and specifically one of the major characters of the Indian epic Mahabharata. In the epic, he is the third among Panda ...

in ''Krishna Rayabaram'',

Nala Nala (Sanskrit: नल) is a character in the ''Vana Parva'' book of the ''Mahabharata''. He was the king of Nishadha Kingdom and the son of Veerasena. Nala was known for his skill with horses and for his culinary expertise. He married prince ...

in ''Chitra Naleeyam'', Bilvamangal in ''Chintamani'' and

Hiranyakashipu Hiranyakashipu (; also known as Hiranyakashyap) was an Asura king of the ''daityas'' from the Puranic scriptures of Hinduism. His name literally translates to "clothed in gold" (''hiranya'' "gold" ''kashipu'' "soft cushion"), and is often inte ...

. He has toured

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

and Machilipatnam in 1928 and portrayed many Ramadasu and Harischandra characters. He got about 20 medals from the different

Zamindar A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as a ...

s.Ramayanam Sarveswara Sastry, Nataratnalu, Mikkilineni Radhakrishna Murthy, Sitaratnam Granthamala, Vijayawada, 2002, pp: 92-4. He died on 1 October 1962 at

Anakapalli Anakapalli is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the headquarters of Anakapalli district. The municipality was merged with the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation. It has the second largest jaggery market of the coun ...

References

Indian male stage actors People from Vizianagaram district 1889 births 1962 deaths Male actors from Andhra Pradesh 20th-century Indian male actors 19th-century Indian male actors {{india-actor-stub