1911 Diary – lost or not written?
Unfortunately, not all of his diaries are available. The diaries from 1895 to 1915 are available covering only two decades in the short span of his life of fifty three years. Again, among these 20 years the diaries from 1907 to 1912 are missing. What we miss is a very valuable period of his life. It was during that time he published a revised edition of ‘Kanyasulkam’ (1909). The 1911 diary raises a question – was it lost or not written at all? The year is significant in the history of modern Telugu literature as the movement for spoken dialect was started by Gidugu and Gurajada in that year. Opposing spoken dialect, the Andhra Sahitya Parishad was started by the champions of classical literature and 10,000 signatures were collected in support of the classical dialect to submit a memorandum to Government.
The controversy of Muddupalani’s Radhika Santwanam too erupted in this period, when Bangalore Nagaratnamma, the icon of Carnatic music and a relentless champion of the cause of Devadasis, published a complete edition of Radhika Santwanam in which she gave a powerful rejoinder to Kandukuri Viresalingam for his derogatory remarks on Muddupalani in his ‘Kavula Charitramu'. Viresalingam’s followers promptly complained to Government that Radhika Santwanam contained obscene descriptions. Government immediately seized the copies and initiated prosecution. Meanwhile, a meeting of learned Telugu and Sanskrit scholars was held in Madras and passed resolutions requesting Government to withdraw prosecution and bring out expurgated editions of Telugu classical works where there were objectionable passages. It is quite obvious that the meeting did not condemn the ban on the book. This meeting was presided over by Gurajada who sent the resolutions to the Chief Secretary to Government.10 Burra Seshagirirao, a young contemporary of Gurajada, claimed to have discovered the 1911 diary and quoted from it, “Viresalingam was undoubtedly a great man.” But the said diary has neither seen the light of the day nor is there any evidence to corroborate Seshagirirao’s claim.
Peculiar scribbling
The diaries are more elaborate with regard to the research of history. As an epigraphist of the Vizianagaram Samsthanam, Gurajada acquainted himself with the old Telugu script in lithic records. He
