A Forgotten Hero-Rao Bahadur Kandukuri Veeresalingam

Rao Bahadur Kandukuri Veeresalingam (16 April 1848 – 27 May 1919), also known as Kandukuri Veereshalingam Pantulu , was a social reformer of Andhra Pradesh. He is widely considered as the man who first brought about a renaissance in Telugu people and Telugu literature. . He was influenced by the ideals of Brahmo Samaj particularly those of Keshub Chunder Sen. He got involved in the cause of social reforms. In 1876 he started a Telugu journal and wrote the first prose for women. He encouraged education for women, and started a school in Dowlaiswaram in 1874. He started a social organisation called Hitakarini (Benefactor).
He had many firsts to his credit: novelist (Rajasekhara Charitra inspired by Oliver Goldsmith’s The Vicar of the Wakefiled), critic, autobiographer, biographer, essayist, poet, writer of plays and playlets, satirist, investigative journalist (One judge dispensing judgments and dismissing justice committed suicide after the expose), scientific writing. He translated many books from Sanskrit and English into Telugu. He also contributed to children’s literature by basing his children’s book on Aesop’s Fables. He was all for vernacular Telugu, which became the precursor of the language now.