Three Eminent Andhra Educationists

BY R. VENKATA. SIVUDU, M.A., L.T.

This is my humble attempt to present pen-pictures of three eminent educationists in Andhra with whom I have been long and intimately acquainted.

The first of these, Mr. K. Viresalingam, was my master, and the second, Sir R. Venkata Ratnam, my lifelong friend. With the third, Dr. V. Rama Krishna Row, my relations were of an intimate character. All the three are now no more. Another feature common to them is that they lived and worked for the most part in the Godavari District.

1. Rao Bahadur K. Viresalingam Pantulu

The name of Viresalingam has become a household word in Andhra. He is the father alike of modern Telugu Literature and of the Social Reform movement. Though but a matriculate and Telugu Pandit in the mofussil, this man with a frail body and feeble health, came to wield an influence of which kings and potentates might feel proud. Viresalingam lived throughout in his own native place, Rajahmundry, except for a few years of his professional career towards its close, when he resided at Madras. To him, therefore, are applicable the words of the poet about the Village Preacher-

"Remote from towns he ran his godly race,
Nor e’er had changed, nor wished to change, his place."

Viresalingam felt that his mission in life lay as much in the class-room as in the world at large. But he cared not to spend his time over text-books. He felt it his duty, on the other hand, to impart to students a higher education and a larger culture. He devoted him-self to a discussion of subjects like Social Reform, which were then of all-absorbing interest. These discussions were of a thought provoking and soul-stirring nature. With his stout nose, stern features, dressed in a black-striped coat, and employing a keen edged dialectic, he closely resembled Socrates of old declaiming in the market-place of Athens.

If Viresalingam was the apostle of an aggressive culture at College, his dynamic personality was no less in evidence at public meetings. But of him, as of the poet Goldsmith, it may be said, "He wrote like an angel, but spoke like poor Poll." On the platform he mumbled and stumbled, and his asthmatic cough would often interrupt the close consecutiveness of his logic. But it was otherwise when he took up the pen. He brought a new farce into vogue. With satirical wit he attacked the superstitions and immoralities of the day. His Viveka Varthani came out, week by weak, like, a sturdy soldier with loaded gun and flourishing sword, ready to engage the enemies of Social Reform. He invented a new style of prose-writing, which is at once direct and telling. Farce, story, essay, were all forged by him in the smithy of Reform, with the object of combating the evil customs of society. That is why the spirit of reform was once for all in-wrought into the very structure of modern Telugu Literature.

Viresalingam’s name is thus closely associated with a twofold movement in Andhra–Social Reform and modern Telugu Literature, which were to him a single entity. All his vast literary output, the Journals he edited, the ten volumes of his works and the two volumes of his auto-biography constitute an expression, on the literary side, of his genuine convictions on Reform, which, on the practical side, manifested themselves as the forty and odd widow re-marriages he celebrated, the "Widows’ Home" he conducted, the "Prarthana Samaj" he founded and the Theistic High School he brought into being.

He was of a heroic mould. His motto in life was "Work is worship". He was not so much for Truth in the abstract as for truth manifested in action. When I met him at Rajahmundry a year before his death he complained to me, "Life to me has become a vacuity. Work is always a necessity with me,–doing or writing. But now a lassitude has crept upon me, paralysing all activity at its very source. Is it not a pitiable plight?"

Likewise, Viresalingam represents the spirit of self-sacrifice. He gave away all his property, books, houses, gardens, for the benefit of the public institutions he started. Can service and sacrifice go further?

2. Dewan Bahadur Sir R. Venkata Ratnam

When in the latter part of 1904, it was announced that Mr. R. Venkata Ratnam was to be the Principal of the P. R. College, Cocanada, there was unbounded rejoicing among the followers of Mr. Viresalingam Pantulu, for they hoped that the two veterans would now join forces to give a lead to the country. Mr. Venkata Ratnam was in the prime of life then. For some time past he had hungered and thirsted for congenial work and congenial company. In about a year, Viresalingam who had for some years past been in Madras and who but recently had retired from Government Service, returned to Rajahmundry and sought to carry on his work of social reform with redoubled energy. Thenceforward, the Brahmo leader and the social reformer began to lead a conjoint spiritual life, for though they resided in different places, they were sufficiently near to meet often and plan things together.

In the first years, Venkata Ratnam had rather a hard time of it. The place was new and Cocanada in those days showed conservative tendencies. Once when the present speaker met Venkata Ratnam, the latter complained how he was subject to a bitter, silent social persecution at the hands of petty-minded folk who were busy spreading rumours against his character. I noticed a tear or two trickling down the cheek of my friend whose only fault was the cherishing of the sacred memory of his departed partner in life too deeply and too long to think of a second marriage. My friend also referred to a hand-bill exposing the hypocritical inconsistency of the new Principal in that he openly advocated widow re-marriage for others, while he eschewed it when his own turn came. But in this world one must live through good report and evil. The people of Cocanada soon found out their mistake. Also, synchronising with this, there was a radical change in the management of the College. Thanks to all these, he enjoyed peace of mind not only to give his best to the college but also to place the affairs of the Brahmo Samaj on a firm basis. He was able to provide it with a local habitation on a princely scale, as the Maharajah of Pittapur became its patron. The Cocanada Orphanage also owes its origin to his inspiration. This is another instance of the good work which the Maharajah patronised, chiefly at the instance of Venkata Ratnam for whom he had the highest respect.

Venkata Ratnam was a man of high intellectual attainments. His knowledge of English Literature was both deep and wide. He made a special study of the best religious and philosophical writers. He possessed first-rate oratorical powers. The purity and nobility of his character, his profound piety coupled with vast and varied spiritual experiences, made him an ideal teacher of young men. Above all, his sincerity and ready sympathy greatly attracted students to his side. The spotless white in which he always appeared, was a symbol of the stainless purity of his character. And, then, the inexhaustible fund of his humour lightened strain and tedium in the college room. He would treat students as brothers and friends. All these account for the thorough success of his administration and his immense popularity with the young and old.

Mention has already been made of his close cooperation with Viresalingam Pantulu, whose institutions at Rajahmundry now received, therefore, the patronage of the Maharajah of Pittapur. The remarriage movement of Mr. Viresalingam owed its early success partly to the munificence of the late Mr. Pyda Ramakrishnayya. Now, in latter years, Viresalingam was able to secure for his "Widows’ Home" and "The Theistic High School" the financial help of the Princely family of Pittapur, chiefly through the good offices of Venkata Ratnam.

Since his retirement from the Principalship, Venkata Ratnam was elected the Vice-Chancellor of the Madras University, which office he held for a long time most creditably. He was honoured by the Andhra University with a Doctorate. The Government too were not slow in showering honours on him. He became a Dewan Bahadur and soon after received a Knighthood. His admirers in the Brahmo Samaj conferred upon him the title of Brahma Rishi, a title which he richly deserved by virtue of his saintly and devotional life.

3. Dr. V. Rama Krishna Rao

Forty-four years ago, three Masulipatam friends were once guests at my house in Bezwada. These were Messrs. R. Venkata Ratnam, D. Ramamurthy and V. Rama Krishna Rao. This was the first time for me to see the last-named person. He was the youngest of the three. The trio were an enigma to us of the Rajahmundry school of thought who were brought up in the strict school of Viresalingam’s Social Reform. We looked upon the Masulipatam group as a kind of heretical fraternity, believing in strange and mystical doctrines. My pity for the youngest recruit in the group reached its zenith when I heard that he had already resolved to lead a celibate life like his master, Venkata Ratnam, as his wife too had died in early childhood. Now Social Reform, including the one connected with the re-marriage of the widow, was the foremost article of faith in the Rajahmundry creed. Here then was an incorrigible pupil, following the lead and example of an equally incorrigible master!

About the year 1909, when the call came from his master, who was now the Principal of the Cocanada College, Rama Krishna Rao proceeded there and joined that institution as lecturer. Master and pupil worked in close association till about the year 1919, when on the former’s retirement, Rama Krishna Rao succeeded as Principal. Rama Krishna Rao being a man after his own heart, Venkata Ratnam took every care to put him in the way, so that things went on smoothly with the former as Principal till his retirement in 1932.

Rama Krishna Rao regulated his life by strict principles. He was a careful student of English literature, and his post-graduate course in middle life in the Presidency College at Calcutta and the Doctorate which followed later, stood him in good stead in his work in the College, which shortly afterwards became a full-blown first-grade institution. A healthy reserve, coupled with smiling features and genial manners, made him at once respected and beloved. He was not sentimental but highly practical. The very strictness with which he administered the college showed everyone that here was a man whom nothing short of honest work would please.

Rama Krishna Rao was a fine writer and speaker. The way in which he collected the writings and speeches of his master and issued them under the title of "Message and Ministrations of Sir R. Venkata Ratnam", speaks volumes for his habits of industry. He was a thorough success both in teaching and administration–qualities whose combination is considered to be such a rare virtue in the head of an institution.

After retirement, Rama Krishna Rao undertook a long tour of Bengal and Burma where he delivered masterly addresses. He was nothing if not systematic in everything he said or did.

The last time I met him he told me he felt uneasy about his master who had suddenly lost the use of both eyes and took to heart his own helpless condition. So Rama Krishna Rao hastened to offer him what help and consolation he could give. He did not long survive his master. In a few months the final call came to him also. On the morning of his death he was reading the proofs of the last volume of his master’s book. Worthy pupil of a worthy master!

And, now, a few words at the close may not be out of place here. To sit at the feet of teachers like Viresalingam and Venkata Ratnam is a rare privilege. To befriend them and to associate with them is an education in itself. The very atmosphere surrounding them is full of holy inspiration. It may not be given to all to exhibit the moral courage of Viresalingam nor is everyone capable of ushering in a new era in the literature of a nation like him. It is equally impossible for the ordinary run of men to rise to the highest flights of eloquence and of devotional fervour like Venkata Ratnam. It may not be within the reach of the average teacher to attain to the profound scholarship of Rama Krishna Rao. Nevertheless, the ordinary man and the ordinary teacher can cherish the memories of these as noble ideals and follow them as precious models.

It must not be supposed for a moment that I am a blind worshipper of these three friends whom I hold up for admiration. No one is more alive than I to their foibles and weaknesses. The greater the light, the greater is the shadow it casts. But to behold the dark side of the picture does no good to any one unless it be the negative one of enabling us to avoid a person’s blemishes. It is needless to point out that the value of Viresalingam’s life-work would have been considerably enhanced had he been able to control his frequent fits of temper, which especially after the demise of his good wife, Rajyalakshmamma, were responsible for alienating his friends and plunging him in litigation, with enemies. Likewise, had Venkata Ratnam been more careful of his finances during his professional career, there would have been no necessity for him to lead quite a dependent life after retirement. As it is, to the great disappointment of the Andhra country, he could not afford to spend the evening of his life most usefully in missionary work. Rama Krishna Rao, who was free from this weakness, is however considered to have erred on the opposite side of not having given to the world even a tithe of what his careful and economical habits made people expect from him.

May their souls rest in peace!