A Brief History of SRI SURYANARAYANA VIDYANANDA GRANDHALAYAM - Dr. K.VENKATARAO, M.B.,B.S.
Pithapuram is an ancient and historically significant place with a history to two thousand years and it was a seat of power to various dynasties ruling over the area for generations. Its lush green, fertile fields, fed by seemingly perennial waters of Yeleru, make it rich and flourshing.
The first decade of twentieth century saw R.V.K.M. Surya Rao Bahaddur coming to power and with him came Sri Raghupati Venkata Ratnam Naidu garu and Mokkapati Subba Raidu who brought with them a fresh breeze and modern thought into otherwise sleepy and backward place.
As the independance movement was gaining ground and with it the library movement, some patriotic people with the intention of disemination knowledge into the society, particularly Sri Malireddy Venkata Raidu, Vepuri Gopaladasu etc. inspired by the patrotic fervour started a library on 16.3.1915 and named it Vidyananda Pustaka Bhandagaram. The library attracted people of all ages and helped the spread of knowledge in the society. This has inspired another group of people like Dasari Laxmana Swamy, Hanumanla Suryanarayan etc, who were loyal to Maha Rajah to start another library naming it Sri Surya Raya Pustaka Bhandagaram on 12.3.1916
Both the groups collected books from the public of Pithapuram and nearby villages and tried their best to improve the book strength in their own ways. To ward off rivalry between the groups and to give a much sought after impetus to the library movement, the elders of the town advised them to unite both the libraries and complement their efforts in improving the library for which they promptly agreed and did the same naming it Sri Suryaraya Vidyananda Grandhalayama and established it in a hall in the spacious bungallow of Sri Damera Swamulu Babu garu.
The library funcitoned from there for a period of 27 yrs uninterruptedly upto 1942 when the library acquired its own premises. During these twenty seven years library held literary meeting periodically, honoured poets and scholars of repute. The present premises was bought in 1942 by then existing executive body comprising Dr. Thanikella Satyanarayana, Ch. Bhavana Rao and Avantsa Somasundar. There were two seperate buildings in the place and there was sufficient room for books and also to conduct literary meetings and discussions on various subjects of importance. It became a hub of political and cultural activities and a galaxy of great telugu poets and pundits participated in various literary activities. Sri Devulapalli Krishna Sastry used to frequently visit the place and participate in literary discussion. The library was at ita height of glory attracting people from far and near and helped to improve the cultural level of the area.
After the independance, as the days go by, the management became a bit lax and the people who were in charge of the library gave importance to extra library activities rather than literary, the books were thrown uncaringly into one of the buildings and the
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