Preface to the Second Edition
It was my original intention to reprint the play with slight alternations, but at the suggestion of my friend Mr. S. Srinivasa Iyengar, for whose literary judgments. I have great respect, I recast it. In the process, it has gained considerably in size. In its present shape it is almost a new work.
The first edition was marked success. The press gave it a cordial reception and hailed it as an event in the History of Telugu Literature, and men, women and children read it with interest. The only exception was Mahamahopadhyaya K. Venkataratnam Pantulu garu who cannot stand two things in this otherwise perfect world - Social Reform and Spoken Telugu. The first edition was exhausted in a few weeks, and there was since been a constant demand for copies. I long postponed the worry of a second edition and I undertake it now only at the importunity of friends.
In the Telugu country an author has generally to be his own publisher and book-seller. There is no book-selling enterprise, and what book-reading enterprise there is, is due entirely to the exertions of that venerable body, the Board of studies. The Christian Gospels do not speak of an eleventh Commandment "Thou shalt read!", but it is given to the Telugu Board of Studies to Command "Thou shalt read!", and straight thousands of unfortunate young men read books that no mortal can read with profit or with pleasure.
When I wrote the play, I had no idea of publication. I wrote it to advance the cause of Social Reform and to combat a popular prejudice that the Telugu language was unsuited to the stage. Itinerant Maharatha troupes staged Hindi plays in the Telugu districts and made money. Local companies copied their example and audiences listened with delight to what they did not understand. The bliss of ignorance could not have been more forcibly illustrated. Kanyasulkam gave little scope to vulgar stage attractions such as flaring costumes, sensuous dances, bad music and sham fights; yet it drew crowded houses and vindicated the claims of the Vernacular.
I am glad to find that Hindi plays are on the decline. But the condition of the Telugu stage can, by no means, be considered to be satisfactory. There are no theatres worth the name, and no professional actors who practise acting as an art. There are not many good plays either. Modern life which presents complex social conditions is neglected by play-wrights except for purposes of the broadest farce, and poverty of invention is manifested by the constant
గురుజాడలు
213
కన్యాశుల్కము - మలికూర్పు
