Rayaprolu Subbarao (1892–1984) was among the pioneers of modern Telugu literature. He is known as Abhinava Nannaya. He was recipient of

Sahitya Akademi Award to Telugu Writers The Sahitya Akademi Award is given to writers for their outstanding contributions to Indian and Telugu literature.Sanskrit literature Sanskrit literature broadly comprises all literature in the Sanskrit language. This includes texts composed in the earliest attested descendant of the Proto-Indo-Aryan language known as Vedic Sanskrit, texts in Classical Sanskrit as well as s ...

. He introduced the concept of "Amalina Shringara Tatvamu" into

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 ...

Early life

Rao was born in Garlapadu village, Kakumanu Mandal,

Guntur district Guntur district is one of the twenty six districts in the Coastal Andhra region of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The administrative seat of the district is located at Guntur, the largest city of the district in terms of area and with a po ...

. His maternal uncle, Avvari Subramanya Sastri, initially taught him Sanskrit and Telugu. He attended the Board High School in

Bapatla Bapatla is a city and District headquarters of Bapatla district in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipality and the mandal headquarters of Bapatla mandal of Bapatla revenue division. The ne ...

and was later educated in

Kakinada Kakinada (List of renamed places in India, formerly called Kakinandiwada, Coringa, and Cocanada; ) is the List of cities in Andhra Pradesh by population, sixth largest city of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Andhra P ...

and

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 ...

. He assisted

Komarraju Venkata Lakshmana Rao Komarraju Venkata Lakshmana Rao ( te, కొమఱ్ఱాజు వెంకట లక్ష్మణరావు), (18 May 1877 – 14 July 1923) was an Indian historian. Life He was the son of Komarraju Venkatappaiah and Gangamma on 1 ...

in the preparation of ''Andhra Vignana Sarvasvamu''. Department of Telugu in

Osmania University Osmania University is a collegiate public state university located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Mir Osman Ali Khan, the 7th Nizam of Hyderabad in 1918 , He released a farman to establish OSMANIA UNIVERSITY on the day of 28 August 1918. It ...

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 ...

was started in 1919. He was the professor and head of this department for 25 years. Khandavalli Lakshmi Ranjanam, Divakarla Venkata Avadhani, B. Rama Raju and

C. Narayana Reddy Cingireddi Narayana Reddy (29 July 1931 – 12 June 2017), popularly known as CiNaRe, was an Indian Telugu-language poet and writer. Reddy had produced over eighty literary works including poems, prose-plays, lyrical plays, translations, a ...

were associated with him as faculty. He was the chief editor of ''Andhra Maha Bhagavatam'' published by Telugu Academi,

Style

Subbarao's literature is a mixture of

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 culture Indian culture is the heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, artifacts and technologies that originated in or are associated with the ethno-linguistically diverse India. The term al ...

and

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

idea In common usage and in philosophy, ideas are the results of thought. Also in philosophy, ideas can also be mental representational images of some object. Many philosophers have considered ideas to be a fundamental ontological category of being ...

s. He brought Western

romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

especially English lyric style to

. However, he followed classical

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 ...

and

meter in his writings and he didn't abandon Sanskrit Telugu form common language. His literature themes include sensual material, love of nature,

patriotism Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or histor ...

spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...

humanitarianism Humanitarianism is an active belief in the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotional ...

and

social reforms A reform movement or reformism is a type of social movement that aims to bring a social or also a political system closer to the community's ideal. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary m ...

. Sensuality, in general, may be divided into two kinds, union and separation. Rayaprolu preferred separation in his writings. In his first independent poem, Trunakankanamu, Rayaprolu narrates love pangs of separation. The hero's lover marries another man and he remains unmarried to suffer from the memories. By the end of the poem, hero's love transforms into a platonic love and friendship. In this poem, Rayaprolu's heroin continues a platonic relationship with the hero while married to another man. In Kastakamala, Kamala loves (platonic) two men. However, when one of them writes a love letter, she commits suicide. Rayaprolu was a great patriot and Telugu nationalist. He praised the (past) greatness of Telugu warriors to awaken the sleeping Telugu pride. Rayaprolu Subbarao defined Telugu romanticism and began a new era in Telugu literature. His romantic literature is considered as the watershed in Telugu literature for its modernity of themes such as naturalism, rural life,

platonic love Platonic love (often lowercased as platonic love) is a type of love in which sexual desire or romantic features are nonexistent or has been suppressed or sublimated, but it means more than simple friendship. The term is derived from the nam ...

, a sense of history,

libertarianism Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...

, and fierce

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

Edesamegina Endukalidina

His poem ''"

Edesamegina Endukalidina Edesamegina Endukalidina (Telugu: ఏ దేశమేగినా ఎందుకాలిడినా) is a Telugu Patriotic song written by Rayaprolu Subba Rao. Modifications * The song is incorporated in 1954 Telugu film ''Parivartana''. * T ...

is very popular.

Honours

* Sri Rayaprolu Subba Rao was awarded

Kalaprapoorna Andhra University (IAST: ''Āndhra Vișvakalāpariṣhat'') is a public university located in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. It was established in 1926. History King Vikram Deo Verma, the Maharaja of Jeypore was one of the biggest don ...

from

Andhra University Andhra University (IAST: ''Āndhra Vișvakalāpariṣhat'') is a public university located in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. It was established in 1926. History King Vikram Deo Verma, the Maharaja of Jeypore was one of the biggest do ...

in 1977. * Sri Rayaprolu Subba Rao was awarded

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 1965.

Works

Translations

* ''Anumati'' (Permission) * ''Bhaja Govindamu'' (Prayer to Govinda) (Telugu translation of Shankaracharya's Bhaja Govindham) * ''Soundarya Lahari'' (Below of Beauty) (Telugu translation of Shankaracharya's

Soundarya Lahari The Saundarya Lahari ( sa, सौन्दर्यलहरी) meaning "The waves of Beauty" is a famous literary work in Sanskrit attributed to Adi Shankara. Some believe the first part "Ananda Lahari" was etched on mount Meru by Ganesha hims ...

) * ''Sundara Kanda'' (Beauty Section) (Telugu translation of Valmiki

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...

) * ''Dootha Mattebhamu'' (Messenger Elephant) * ''Lalitha'' (Telugu translation of ''The Hermit'' of liver Goldsmith * ''Madhukalasamu'' (Liquor Pitcher) (Telugu rendering of

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam ''Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám'' is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his 1859 translation from Persian to English of a selection of quatrains (') attributed to Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), dubbed "the Astronomer-Poet of Persia". Altho ...

) * ''Meghaduta'' (Telugu translation of Kalidasa's work) * ''Uttararama Charitha'' (Telugu translation of Bhavabhuti's work)

Independent works

* ''Trunakankanamu'' (Grass Bracelet) * ''Andhravali'' (Andhra Row) * ''Kashta Kamala'' (Kamala in Distress) * ''Ramyalokamu'' (Beautiful Sight) * ''Swapnakumaramu'' * ''Telugutoata'' (Telugu Garden) * ''Vanamala'' (Forest Necklace) * ''Misra Manjari'' (Mixed Bouquet) * ''Kannepatalu'' (Virgin Songs) * ''Jadakutchulu'' (Braid Tassels)

References

External links