Suravaram Pratapareddy

Suravaram Pratapa Reddy (1896–1953) was a social historian from the Hyderabad State (now Telangana), India. Pratapareddy was born on May 28, 1896 in Boravelli village in Gadwal estate (now Mahabubnagar District) of erstwhile Hyderabad State. His mother was Rangamma and father was Narayanareddy. Their native village was Itikalapadu in the district of Mahabubnagar. Pratapareddy completed his primary education at his uncle Ramakrishnareddy's residence in Kurnool. He studied Sanskrit literature and grammar under the guidance of Vellala Sankarasastri. Later he finished his FA at Nizam College, Hyderabad. Then he obtained BA and BL degrees from Presidency College, Madras and became a lawyer for a short while.

He wrote a social history of the Telugu people, Andhrula Saanghika Charitra, which was first published in 1949 and has since gone through many editions. It was the first Telugu language book that to win the best national book award (Kendra Sahitya Academy Puraskaram). From the 1970s onwards it was a prescribed text for the Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service examinations and of the Andhra Pradesh civil services commission.

Pratapaareddy was a scholar in Sanskrit, Telugu, Urdu and English languages. He had tremendous admiration for Telangana Telugu. He is famous for his research articles, novels, poetry, story writer, and literary critic. He used to say, "British Andhrulu Brownvandhram (English-Telugu) matlaadite memu tarakyandhram (Urdu-Telugu) matladutamu. (British Andhras speak Tenglish (Telugu-English) and we speak Turdu (Telugu-Urdu)."

He compiled a list of 354 Telangana poets under the title "Golconda Kavulu" to prove that Telangana also had literature and poetry. Pratapareddy wrote approximately 40 books, including Nizamrashtra Palanam, Mogalayi kathalu, Sanghoddharana, Ucchala Vishadamu, Grandhalayamu, Hinduvula Pandugalu, Haindava Dharmaveerulu, Yuvajana Vignyanam etc. Most prominent among his writings was Andhrula Sanghikacharitra (Social History of Andhras), which won him prestigious "Kendra Sahitya Academy Award," a federal Indian government award for literature. In this book he described a thousand years of Telugu cultural and social history. Some of the interesting points in this book were: . Men used to wear mattelu (toe rings) during Nannaya period (~1000 AD). Telugu script is called "onamalu" derived from Om Namah Sivaya of Saivism. . Reddys and Velamas were not Telugus. They were immigrants. Rashtrakutas from north became Reddys and Vellalu from Tamil country became Velamas. Velamas were social reformers and Reddys were orthodox and hence there was always rivalry between these two tribes. During the period of Srinadha (~15th century) they were considered equal in the society.

...
Wikipedia