Gunturu Seshendra Sarma
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Gunturu Seshendra Sarma
B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
B.L. (20 October 1927 – 30 May 2007), also known as Yuga Kavi, was a Telugu poet, critic and
litterateur An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or as ...
. He is well known for his works ''Naa Desam, Naa Prajalu'' and ''Kaala Rekha''. He authored over fifty works which have been translated into
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,
Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...
,
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
,
Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
, Nepali and
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.


Early life

Gunturu Seshendra Sarma was born on 20 October 1927.


Personal life

At 18 years of age, Sarma's marriage was arranged to Gunturu Janaki (née Yeddanapudi Janaki), and they had two sons and two daughters: Vasundhara (1951), Revathi (1953), Vanamaali (1956) and Satyaki (1958). Later in 1970 he married Indira Devi Dhanrajgir, an Indo Anglican poet. Till his death on 30 May 2007, he lived with her at her Gyanbagh Palace. Although Seshendra led an active extramarital life he was a family man. His love for his children was limitless - “an ocean of love” in his own words. His joy knew no bounds whenever he saw his children and grandchildren (see foto). In a literary biography “Seshendra velugu niidallo” written by his son Vanamali Gunturu, the author describes the literary genius and unparalleled scholarship of his father, his evolution from an everybody’s darling in a small village Thotapalliguduru till his complete maturity as author and intellectual, who was engaged in an incessant fight against the brute power of the state and was a victim of political persecution. At the same time the biography shows how his wife Janaki had to swallow the pangs of being married to such a historical person as Seshendra and the injustice being done to her.


Works

Seshendra Sarma is the second person to have been nominated for the Nobel Literature prize for his contribution to literary field from India, the first being
Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
. The West Bengal Government conferred upon him the title "Rashtrendu" (Moon of the Nation) in honour of his accomplishments. Telugu University conferred an honorary D.Litt. on him in 1994. He received the "Kalidas Samman" award from the Madhya Pradhesh government. He won a Central Sahitya Akademi fellowship in 1999. The other important awards Seshendra received are ‘Subrahmanya Bharati Ekta Award’ from the Hindi Academy, Rashtriya Sanskriti Puraskar’, ‘Ugadi Puraskar’, ‘Tilak Award’ and ‘Sahitya Ratna 2001’ from Sri Ram Sahitya Mandal, Himachal Pradesh. He has been nominated as a member to the ‘Kendriya Hindi Samithi’ by Prime Minister of India. He was selected for Hamsa Award, in 2004-05, by the Govt. of AP. Seshendra's first work in print appeared in 1952. It is the translation of
Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the celebrated headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, lit ...
's '' Sohrab and Rustum'', which is based upon the
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
Epic '' Shahnama''. Initially he focused on poetry and occasionally worked on literary criticism. Seshendra's first collection of prose-poems was entitled ''Sesha Jyotsna''. He composed it in strict conformation with Telugu prosody which was published in 1972 in Telugu and English. Its translations into
Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
and
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Nobel Prize in Literature in 2004. ''Shodasi'', his tantric commentaries on the
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 ...
, and ''Swarna Hamsa'', the study of Harsha Naishadhiya Charita, are works of literary criticism. ''Kaala Rekha'', Seshendras' 1994 book, is a collection of twenty-five essays on various subjects like ancient Sanskrit drama and ancient Greek drama, comparative literature, classical poetry and Aurobindo's Savitri. The collection of poems ''Neerai Paaripoyindi'' (literally, "Melted away") was brought out in 1976 in bilingual editions.


Death

Sarma died on 30 May 2007.


Legacy

Sarma has been a subject of various thesis dissertations for PhD in Telugu literature. Dr. Vanamali Gunturu, Seshendra velugu niidallo - nannato na anubhavalu, EMESCO 2021


Awards and titles conferred

*1994
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 Telugu literature for his work ''Kaala Rekha'' – won *1994 Honorary D.Litt. by Telugu University *1999 Central
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 ...
fellowship for contribution to Telugu literature *2001 Sahitya Ratna by Sri Ram Sahitya Mandal, Himachal Pradesh - won *Jnanpeeth award for contribution to Telugu literature – nominated *2004 Nobel Prize in Literature for ''My Country, My People'' – nominated *2004-2005 Hamsa Award by
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 ...
State Government for contribution to Telugu literature - won *Rashtrendu (''Moon of the Nation'') by
West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...
State Government *Kalidas Samman by
Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...
State Government *Subrahmanya Ekta Award by Hindi Academy - won *Rashtriya Sanskriti Puraskar - won *Ugadi Puraskar - won *Lokamanya Tilak Award - won *Member of Kendriya Hindi Samiti - nominated by Prime Minister of India


References

''Dr. Vanamali Gunturu'', Seshendra velugu niidallo - nannato na anubhavalu, (a literary biography of the poet) EMESCO 2021
Story on Seshendra by his son in Telugu
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarma, Gunturu Telugu poets Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Telugu Recipients of the Kala Ratna 1927 births 2007 deaths 20th-century Indian poets Indian male poets Poets from Andhra Pradesh People from Nellore district 20th-century Indian male writers