Viswanatha Satyanarayana

Viswanatha was born on the 10th of September, 1895, and passed away on the 18th of October, 1976. In the intervening eighty plus years, there was no literary arena that he has not entered and asserted his total control over it. To be sure, there are unabashed admirers (adiyan included) and fierce detractors of his works. But none that stay on the sidelines and ignore him.

"To understand vEyi paDagalu completely, one should carefully read the English writers, Hardy and Lawrence. It is not just saying that there are no benefits from the Western Industrial Civilization. It is to say that the unintended (bad) side-effects are these: you can't stop them, but at least be aware of them. It provides this kind of alarm signal."

"There is nothing like "old" views are less valuable than 'contemporary' views. You have to examine the logic, and the truth in those views. Again, a work doesn't become great because of the views pre se, as much by the literary style there in. (I may not like buddhist philosophy yet) nAgAnandam is a good work, by its literary excellence.

"I know of several people who were fascinated by my novel, 'Ekaveera'. Its greatness is in the way it is written. All stories go in more or less the same direction. There is an interesting or exciting incident. The managing of it is in the competency of the writer. The story flows in a certain way. Something comes in its way to impede it. The impediment is overcome. This is the nature of a story. How these are presented, is in the cleverness of the writer. This is in EkavIra, abundantly.

"tikkana mentions in his 'nirvacana-uttara-rAmAyaNamu' about words that are 'archaic'. How does that happen? How many words that tikkana used in bhAratam are archaic now? Sometimes words change and acquire new meanings. When such a word is used in its prior meaning, it looks odd. ...They say it as a compliment about Shakespeare that he uses a large vocabulary, just as about tikkana. Such a writer is cognizant of the vast body of the language.

"To use the particular language's idiom. the ways of its people, these are figures of merit in a work. Just because there are a large number of Sanskrit words, one cannot say that there is no 'telugu' in it. nannayya used a lot of telugu idiom. People think that he has not used much telugu. Using 'telugu' is not necessarily in using a large number of telugu words, but it is in the capturing of the telugu usage, idiom,...

kAvyamulu: 25 - ranging from Andhra pourushamu in '17 to the 6th volume of SrImadrAmAyaNa kalpa vRkshamu, yuddha kAnDa which was completed in '62.

nATakAlu: 15 - from dhanya kailAsamu ('18) to satyAgrahamu ('64), including AkASa rAju ('51) which apparently was made into a movie in '52.

Novels: 57 - from antarAtma ('18) to pAtipeTTina nANemulu and bhramara vAsini ('66). These include three sets titled "purANa vaira grandhamAla", "kASmIra cAritraka navalalu", and "nEpALa cAritraka navalalu".

vimarSanamulu: 9 - from "nannayya gAri prasanna kathA kalitArtha yukti" ('48) to "kAvyAnandamu" ('70)

Edited books: 3 Andhra kriyA sarwaswa maNi dIpika, '62, AP Sahitya Academy, 924p telugu sAmetalu, '65 (2nd printing), AP Sahitya Academy, 478p gadya candrika, '66, AP Sahitya Academy, 403p

Poetry: numerous, from ataDu (about aDavi bApirAju) in kulapati, ASIssulu (yArlagaDDa venkanna chowdary shashTipUrti issue) '71, indra dhanussu, '63, ushassu-sandhya, '32, EruvAka (in bhrashTa yOgi), okaTA? '40, to shaTcakramu (nIlamrAju venkaTaSEshayya sanmAna sancika) '60, soumya ugAdi '69, hushA '38, etc... Of course, not all of his written poetry is published, not all the published works are available.

nATikalu: duryOdhanuDu, '23 in SArada, kirITamaNi, '40, nAgamaNi

short stories: (numerous) from allah kE phakIr, doragAru-diwAnjI, maklI durgamlO kukka, to viyOgini, ...

essays: (numerous) lyrical poetry anTE EmiTi? '39, nAcana sOmuDu '54, grAmyamA? vADuka bhAshA? '27, Adhunika chandassula valla pramAdam '66.

a aa i I                       nEpALa rAjya kathalu           
Andhra praSasti                nivEdita                       
Atma katha                     pAmu pATa                       
baddanna sEnAni                puli muggu                      
bANavati                       pAtipeTTina nANemulu            
bhramara vAsini                punarjanma                      
candavOlu rANi                 purANa vaira grandhamAla        
candraguptuni swapnamu         sAhitya surabhi                 
celiyali kaTTa                 SAkya muni                      
damayantI swayamvaramu         samudrapu dibba                 
dinDu kinda pOkacekka          SivArpaNamu                     
EkavIra                        snEhaphalamu                    
gangUlI prEmakatha             soudAmini                       
hA hA hU hU                    SrimadrAmAyaNa kalpavRkshamu 
kuNAluni SApamu                swargAniki niccenalu            
kaDimi ceTTu                   teraci rAju                     
kinnerasAni pATalu             vEdavati                        
lalitA paTTamahishi            vEyi paDagalu                 
mA bAbu                        vishNu Sarma yinglIshu caduvu   
mihira kuluDu                  viSwanAdha madhyAkkaralu        
nA madilO taLukkuna veligE     viSwanAdhuni ghanTapuTATa       
nandigAma rAjyamu              yaShOvati                       
nartana SAla