The early 20th century writers in Telugu read, comprehended and, if so inclined, were influenced by English writers. The stalwarts of early Telugu fiction like Kandukuri Veeresalingam Pantulu, Gurazada Apparao and later Chalam, Kutumbarao, etc, were known to have wide knowledge of English literature. But there was one writer of fiction, (whose birthday falls in the last week of April), who could neither read nor speak English, who hated Hindi (the language most promoted by the Mahatma) and prided himself on being a Telugu and only Telugu. He was Sripada Subrahmanya Sastry. His love for Telugu was such that, though coming from a typical, orthodox Brahmin family where “learning’ meant only Sanskrit, he chose Telugu above Sanskrit. He was, of course, proficient in Sanskrit, but refused on work or write in that language. Moreover, his Telugu was not just the pundit’s language. It was the people’s language, with its natural nuances. His oft-quoted statement when asked about the beauty of his language is that he learnt all his Telugu from his mother, grandmother and the elderly women who came to his house. His firm belief was that languages retain their beauty and glory only through women folk. That was his revolt against not only his family tradition of Sanskrit but also the hegemony of ‘men’ in the field of letters.
Sripada Subrahmanyam was a rebel in more ways than one. Not only because he refused to learn all that was part of an orthodox Brahmin inheritance in his day-to-day life. In his writings, he came out strongly against the inhuman treatment meted out to women in the name of tradition. His heart-warming depiction of the trials and tribulations in a woman’s life once she is widowed reflects more than a reformative zeal. They show his psychological insight into the minds of women. He could look deep into the hearts of such women; in one story he analyses the vengeful, jealous and sadistic behaviour of a child widow towards happily married women of her house; in another, he shows the spirited child widow who defies all tradition to find happiness in a second marriage. He had sympathy and respect for both because he was one of the early writers who realised that both behavioural patterns were the inevitable responses to a suffocating patriarchal society.
In his wonderful novel Aatma Bali, he depicts the psychological trauma of a widow who is tempted to have an affair with a scheming widower. The conflict here is the tension between the “mother’ and the ‘woman’ in her. Obviously, the ‘mother’ wins. In psychological terms (this work can be said to be the second psychological novel in Telugu) her superego controls the libido and she overcomes her temptation. Sripada himself, though uninitiated in English literature, was all for women having English education, would probably have been very surprised to know that one can offer Freudian explanations to his creations. While his best works are about women, there are other extraordinary stories on aristocracy, politicking of caste, entrepreneurship and an odd assortment of subjects, which he tackles with equal zeal and competence. Attempts to translate him, in my opinion, have been futile. He is truly untranslatable. His style is a treat not just to the ears or mind. It encompasses all our senses. In that sense, he could probably be called the most ‘sensational’ Telugu short story writer. You feel a fragrance when you read him; You feel the words touching you fondly when you read him. One cannot but marvel at his capacity to make language dance to his tunes to express anything and everything. And it is not just fiction; he surpasses himself in his autobiography, ie Anubhavaalu, Jnapakaalu (Experiences and Memories). If there is one book which stands testimony to the life of an original mind among orthodox Brahmin youth in the early 20th century, it is this. Any compilation of the best books in Telugu Literature in the past 100 years would inevitably include Sripada’s autobiography, though unfinished. He has given a treasure of very long short stories and very short novels (including a unique novel which has only dialogues without intrusion at any point from the author) and, well, this is one more reason why he is hailed as a very original writer, who was influenced only by life; not by any living author or movement.