KANNADA
Telugu litterateur
V. GOPALAKRISHNA
RACHAKONDA VISWANATHA SHASTRY: Kannada Translation by S. Biligirivasan of K.K. Ranganathacharyulu's Telugu monograph, Sahitya Akademi, Ravindra Bhavan, 35, Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi-110001. Rs. 25.
THIS MONOGRAPH is a biographical sketch of Rachakonda Viswanatha Shastry, more popularly known in the literary circle as Ravisastri. Though renowned as a storywriter in Telugu his other works draw considerable attention of the readers as these writings significantly identify the characters hitherto neglected by other contemporary writers.
The characters chosen by him are those who suffered by the exploitation and atrocities of the bootleggers, cheaters, contractors, moneylenders, politicians and so on. Most of the characters in the stories and novels of Shastry are so innocent that they could not even reason out who was responsible for their unending sufferings.
The writer is not satisfied by giving a mere picture of the hardships of the downtrodden, but goes very deep into the causes for such sufferings in great detail.
Inspired by Marxist ideology, Shastry, an experienced professional lawyer, constitutionally upholds the rights of the common man and condemns the money and muscle powers through which the politicians get their political positions. As a lawyer Ravisastri had no inclination for the profession, but was more interested in writing, music, play and art.
The credit of bringing the literary language closer to life in Telugu literature goes to Ravisastri next to Gurujada.
The biographer critically analyses the writings of Ravisastri by considering their theme, style, characters and various influences the writer had in the course of his literary life. The translation is good and faithful to the original.
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