CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN TELUGU
Kandukuri Veeresalingam
It was Kandukuri Veeresalingam, the Father of Modern Andhra, who wrote the first book in Telugu for children. Very early in his campaign for social and moral reform, he realized that unless women and children were properly educated, his labours would not succeed to any appreciable extent. Finding that books for this purpose were not available, he proceeded to produce them with his characteristic promptness and pertinacity. The books he wrote for women are many and varied; he was not, to our regret, equally prolific wit children’s literature. For the young folk he did only two books. The first of the two is a translation, or more correctly, and adaptation of Aesop’s Fables in Telugu. Under the title Neeti-Katha-Manjari, it was published way back in 1989 in two parts. Illustrated books were at that time a rarity, but Veeresalingam rightly felt that a publication meant for children ad to be illustrated well. Therefore he put himself to much trouble and expense in getting good illustrations for every fable in his book. His second book is Neeti-Deepika. It is a century of moral verses.
Like the rest of his work, the children’s books of Veeresalingam are now somewhat dated. In his day he was the best writer of prose; in fact, it was he that did away with the highly artificial and ornate prose that was fancied till then as the hall-mark of a literary style, and introduced in its place a prose that is at once simple and chaste. But it is often simple to the point of bareness, chaste to the extent of being flat. His poetry too shows like drawbacks. But what contributed most to the rapid dating of the writings of Veeresalingam is his severely puritanical and didactic temperament. He was more of a preacher than of a writer, more of a crusader than of a poet, more of a prophet than of an artist.
It is a pity that though Veeresalingam pioneered children’s books, no major writer followed them up for a long time. Only years later G.V.Sitapati began publishing some poems and songs meant for children, but they are mostly the exercises of a pandit in the field of poetry. A few other writers like Venkata Parvateeswara Kavulu, Kavikondala Venkata Rao, Nalam Krishna Rao, and T. Kameswara Rao did try their hand at children’s books, but not with much success.
The first really creative writer who took keen interest in children’s literature is Chinta Deekshitulu. Fertile in imagination, quick in emotional responses, highly sensitive to beauty which he could spot even in the most trivial of objects like a broken and forsaken doll, he was a perceptive writer, a true poet, a born story-teller. In everything he wrote there is something child-like, a sense of wonder, a propensity to dream, a bubbling zest for life. He reveled in the company of children; indeed, most of his life was spent amongst them either as a teacher or as an inspector of schools. Writing for children was for him almost an act of self-fulfillment. He wrote for them not as an outsider, but as one who felt like them in every fiber of his being.
Lakka Pidatalu (“Painted Pottery”) is a collection of songs written by Deeksitulu for children. A full-length songs of his called Hanumantuni Toka (“The Tail of Hanuman”), brilliantly summarizes the epic of Ramayana for the young folk. Another work, Suri, Seeti and Venki, is a collection of delightful sketches woven round the lives of three girls of different temperaments. But by far the best of his many books for children is the novelette, Lilasundari. It is a little classic.
After Deekshitulu we have not yet had an equally gifted writer for children. No doubt, B.V.Narasimha Rao, Kavi Rao, and M. Venkataramana and others are doing their best for children. The songs by Narasimha Rao are simple and sweet. Kavi Rao’s Nelavanka (“The Crescent Moon”), besides being a fine piece of writing, achieves high standards in art-work, printing, and get-up, Venkataramana has created “Budugu”, a precocious and naughty boy who, while exasperating, can also fascinate. But these and others have yet to reach the heights of Deekshitulu. And no wonder! How many writers for children have come up to the level of Lewis Carroll in English, the brothers Grimm in German, Hans Christian Anderson in Danish, or Rabindrabath Tagore in Bengali?
Besides original writers for children have come up to the level of Lewis Carroll in English, the brothers Grimm in German, Hans Christian Anderson in Danish, or Rabindranath Tagore in Bengali?
Beside original writers for children in Telugu, there are some who have diligently collected and published the old and traditional literature which has mostly come down to us in the form of songs, ballads, fables and riddles. The doyen amongst these is the late Veturi Prabhakara Sastri. Scouring even the remotest corners of Andhra Pradesh for old inscriptions and manuscripts of unpublished works, he also took loving care to collect everything he could find in children’s literature. A small part of his large collection has been published in his compilation called Bala Bhasha (“Children’s Language”). It is hoped tat the rest of the material collected by Veturi would also be published soon. Another collection omparable to Bala Bhasha is edited and published by G. V. Subbaiah. Called Navvulu-Puvvulu (“Smiles and Flowers”), it has been reprinted four times. Of foreign classes in children’s literature, we do not have as yet many translations. But the few that are available are of high quality. Special mention may be made of Alice in Wonderland by V.D. Prasada Rao, Pinocchio by Y. Satyanarayana, Tom Sawyer, Huckelberry Finn, and Treasure Island by V. Rammohan Rao.
Radio Annayya
It is indeed gratifying that more and more Telugu writers and publishers are taking active interest in the production of children’s literature. The Southern Languages Book Trust. Madras, sponsored a set of fine books for children. So did M. Seshachalam & Co of Masulipatnam. B. Nagi Reddy, an imaginative and enterprising publisher with immense resources at his command, is doing his best for children. His Chandamama, the children’s monthly, launched originally in Telugu, has now its counterparts in five other Indian languages.
But a lot more has to be done. Writing for children calls for special gifts. Simply because a writer is eminent in, say, poetry, novel, short story, or any other genre of creative writing, e cannot ipso facto be an eminent writer for children. The child has a world of its own. It is half real and half phantom world. There is no clear-cut line between the two halves; they merge into each other inextricably. And so, nothing fantastic or bizarre. A bird can talk, a tree can walk, a hill can grow wings, or a river can stand still, time itself can come to a stop. Out of nothing, isles, cities, and palaces can emerge and disappear as magically. Man can, at will, ascend to heaven or descend to hell. He can play with fairies, sing with angels, and dine with gods. He can join battle wit demons, either alone or by summoning a friendly giant or two to his aid. Only those who can step into this wondrous world and out of it as its naturalized citizens can write for children. It may sound odd but still it is a fact that Lewis Carroll – it was the pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dogson – was a mathematician, and Jacob, the elder of the Grimm brothers, was a philologist. And yet they have become immortals in children’s literature because even in their adult life they were the naturalized citizens of the children’s world. Such writers appear but rarely.
Still, even writers less gifted can do much to improve both the quality and the variety of our children’s literature. Of course, characters and episodes from our folklore and our mythology will continue to charm our children, but our writers should not work the same old quarries all the time; new gold mines are there for exploitation. For instance, are not our armed forces, unmindful of all hazards, bravely standing guard on our far-flung frontiers to defend our hard-won freedom? But, how few are the stories which have for their back-ground soldiering, seafaring, or flying! By not touching these and other spheres of our national life, are not our writers for children losing an opportunity of producing thrilling stories of adventure ?
Broadly we can say that our writers for children, as indeed writers in general, are not touching our national life at as many points as they should. This is much more than an artistic failure; it is nothing short of letting down our nation. This is the time when we are striving to build for ourselves a new order of society, a society based on political freedom, social equality, and economic justice. It cannot be achieved unless there is a revolutionary change in our basic thinking. We should think more of men than of gods, more of this world than of the other, more of science and technology than of prayers and miracles. And unless this shift in thinking is brought about when the mind is young tender, and receptive, it cannot be done later. Once this is conceded, it need hardly be stressed that the role of writers for children in reshaping our national life and thought is crucial. They should take leave, thought is crucial. They should take leave, though not for all time, at least for a generation, of sleeping princesses and dashing princes, of banished kings and bemoaning queens, and concentrate on the life of the people. The people are astir again after centuries of stupor, and are marching forward. Given poetic sensibility and penetrative vision, sagas more glorious than the Ramayana and the Mahabharata can be written on their onward march and upward surge.
