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S. Muddu Narasimham Naidu (1792–1856) was an Indian writer and social reformer considered to be the first essayist in Telugu. He was a pioneer of the popular language movement, the widow remarriage movement and the rationalist movement in Andhra through his writings. He was a government officer by profession and served as a District Munsif in Rajahmundry.

Narasimham Naidu's essay collection, titled Hitasūchani, was published in 1862 after his death. It is considered to be the first Telugu book in the essay format. It is perhaps the earliest Telugu work promoting rational and scientific ideas predating the works of Kandukuri Veeresalingam. It was written in colloquial Telugu and dealt with several issues such as reforms in education, marriage among others. These essays were printed earlier in a Telugu journal, Hitavadi, published from Machilipatnam.

Early life

Muddu Narasimham Naidu was born in 1792 in an Adi Velama family in Rajahmundry of present-day Andhra Pradesh. He attained English education with great difficulty. He was one of the earliest English-educated persons in Andhra.

His surname is variously given as Swamineena, Swamineni, Samineni, Samineena in different sources. His first name is also given as either Narasimha Naidu or Narasimham Naidu. Writer and journalist Samineni Muddu Krishna (1889–1973) was his great-grandson.

Career

Entering the service of the East India Company, Narasimham Naidu gradually rose in the service. He was a second grade District Munsif from 1848 to 1852. In 1853 he was promoted to a first class District Munsif.

Writings

Naidu's essay collection, titled Hitasūchani, was published in 1862 after his death by his son Ranga Prasada Rao Naidu. It is estimated to have been written around 1850. It is considered to be the first Telugu book in the essay format. These essays were printed earlier in a Telugu journal, Hitavadi, published from Machilipatnam. In his works, Naidu adopted the spoken language of the learned, deliberately in opposition to the archaic literary language used by his contemporary Chinnaya Suri. He called his style grama bhasha (colloquial language).

Naidu used the word prameyamu for the essay, rather than vyasamu, the more common word. He also gave an English title to the book — Moral Instructor in Prose. The book contains eight prameyas (subjects or issues) and discussed various issues like education, marriage, superstitions, modern medicine etc. Naidu in his book wondered if the traditional grammatical theories and classical prose writings had any relevance to contemporary society and its requirements. Hita Suchani was republished in 1986 by Andhrakesari Yuvajana Samithi, Rajahmundry with a foreword by Aarudra.

Views

Naidu in his writings protested against Kanyasulkam and child marriages, advocated for widow remarriage, marriages of girls only after the age of puberty, and pleaded for mutual consent of bride and groom before a marriage is finalised.

He advocated for the introduction of scientific education and for the translation of scientific work from English to vernacular languages. He condemned popular superstitions like belief in the existence of evil spirits and the practices of witch doctors. In order to escape from epidemics like cholera, he exhorted people to observe cleanliness and to take proper medical care, rather than engage in blind worship of village deities. He also criticised extravagance in wedding ceremonies. He proved with the help of slokas that marriages in the past were performed only after girls attained proper age and maturity of mind. He thus condemned the system of child marriages and suggested a marriageable age of 12 for girls and 16 for boys.

Legacy

Narasimham Naidu is considered to be the first essayist in Telugu. He was a pioneer of the popular language movement, the widow remarriage movement and the rationalist movement in Andhra. Naidu was progressive in his outlook and made his essays instruments of social change. He championed a colloquial literary style in his essays.

As per Aarudra, in 1924 Gidugu Ramamurthy lauded Narasimham Naidu as a champion of popular language (Vyavaharika Bhasha) and a pioneering social reformer even before the advent of Brahmo Samaj in Andhra.

According to Kancha Ilaiah, Brahmanical pandits "killed" Hitasuchani with total silence. While writers like Kandukuri Veeresalingam and Gurajada Appa Rao were projected as social reformers, Narasimham Naidu and his book were not mentioned in any school or college textbook. As per Ilaiah, Naidu's text challenged the Brahmanical notions of life and its language, idiom and content were chosen to educate and reform the whole Telugu society, and not a particular caste or social group.

V. Ramakrishna was of the opinion that Veeresalingam was influenced by Narasimham Naidu's writings. N. Putali Krishnamurthi also remarked in a similar fashion:

"It looks as if Veeresalingam was inspired by the writings of Muddu Narasimha Naidu. Veeresalingam canvassed for exactly the same reforms which were supported by Muddu Narasimha Naidu. But it is surprising that, no where in his voluminous writings did he make even a passing acknowledgement to his predecessor in this field of social reform."

References

1. ^ History and Culture of the Andhras. Komarraju Venkata Lakshmana Rau Vijnana Sarvaswa Sakha, Telugu University. 1995. p. 254. ISBN 978-81-86073-07-0. Samineni Muddu Narasimha Naidu, the first known essayist, called his essays pramēyamulu and published them under the title Hita Sūcini in 1862.
2. ^ Datta, Amaresh (1988). Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: Devraj to Jyoti. Sahitya Akademi. p. 1236. ISBN 978-81-260-1194-0. Swamineni Muddu Narasimham Naidu is considered to be the first essayist in Telugu, but it cannot be ruled out that a few essayists existed before him. Naidu's Hitasuchani appeared in 1862 from Rajahmundry. It was the first salvo fired at orthodoxy and superstition. Each of the eight essays is called a 'prameya', not vyasamu.
3. ^ Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: Sasay to Zorgot. Sahitya Akademi. 1987. p. 4258. ISBN 978-0-8364-2283-2. Swamineni, Muddu Narasimha Naidu (Telugu; b. 19th c.) was a champion of spoken Telugu. He worked as first class munsif (magistrate) at Rajahmundry sometime in the first half of the nineteenth century. His book Hita suchani was published in 1862 by his son Ranga Prasada Rao who was a pleader at Rajahmundry. At a time when an ornate and artificial Telugu was used by pandits like Chinnaya Suri and Viresalingam Pantulu as a model for the public, Narasimham Naidu was bold enough to assert that a more homespun diction and colloquial style of everyday life should be held as a model for prose.
4. "తూర్పు గోదావరి జిల్లా చరిత్ర – సంస్కృతి". East Godavari District Official Web Portal (in Telugu). Retrieved 14 June 2023. 19వ శతాబ్దం ప్రారంభం నాటికి సమాజంలో కులవ్యవస్థ, కరుడుగట్టిన సాంప్రదాయ, సాంఘీక దురాచారాలు, ఫ్యూడల్ దశలో బలపడిన స్త్రీల హీనస్థితి, అశాస్త్రీయమైన విద్యావిధానం, భౌతిక జడత్వం మొదలైన సామజిక రుగ్మతలపై పోరాటం చెయ్యటం మొట్టమొదట ప్రారంభించినవారు శ్రీ స్వామినీన ముద్దు నరసింహం. ఈయన వ్యవహారిక భాషావాది, తొలి తెలుగు వ్యాసకర్త. తొలి తెలుగు వ్యావహారికభాషా వచన గ్రంథం హితసూచని (1853) రచయిత, హేతువాది.
5. ^ Schmitthenner, Peter Lee (1991). Charles Philip Brown, 1798-1884: The Legacy of an East India Company Servant and Scholar of South India. University of Wisconsin--Madison. pp. 304, 475. Muddunarasimha Naidu, who served as a district munsif in Rajahmundry, wrote a collection of essays on "moral instruction", entitled Hita Sucani (Madras, 1862).
6. ^ "ప్రక్రియలు - లక్షణాలు - వివరణలు". Eenadu (in Telugu). 25 February 2021. Retrieved 13 June 2023. సామినేని ముద్దు నరసింహంనాయుడు రాసిన 'హితసూచని'ని వ్యాస ప్రక్రియలో మొదటి పుస్తకంగా చెబుతారు.
7. ^ M. L. Kantha Rao (July 1999), A Study of the Socio-Political Mobility of the Kapu Caste in Modern Andhra. University of Hyderabad. Chapter 3. pp. 101–105. hdl:10603/25437
8. Rāmārāvu, Esvī (1990). The Evolution of Telugu Literary Criticism. Pasidi Prachuranalu. p. 14. The prefaces of "Char Darvesu Kathalu" (Yerramilli Mallikarjunudu – 1856) and "Hita Suchani" (Samineni Muddu Narasimha Naidu - 1862) exhort the importance of common language and need for a wider province of spoken prose in ...
9. Gupta, J. L. (1988). Challenges to the Fair Sex: Indian Woman, Problems, Plights, and Progresses. Gian Publishing House. p. 52. ISBN 978-81-212-0041-7. Remarriage movement in Andhradesa was led by Kandukuri Viresalingam and was continued by Venkataratnam Naidu, Ramakrishna Rao and others. It had its beginnings in the writings of Samineni Muddu Narasimha Nayanivaru, a social reformer, in his Journal Hitasuchani. Highlighting the sufferings of the widow, he exhorted wisemen to eradicate such ....
10. ^ "హిత సూచని". ఈమాట (in Telugu). 8 January 2019. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
11. ^ Ramakrishna, V. (1977). "Pre-Veeresalingam Reform Trends in Andhra". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 38: 558–563. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44139116.
12. Rao, Kollu Venkateswara (1 January 2011). Swaminina Muddu Narasimha Naidu. CP Brown Academy. ISBN 978-93-81035-22-1.
13. ^ Das, Sisir Kumar (2005). A History of Indian Literature. Vol. 1. Sahitya Akademi. p. 527. ISBN 978-81-7201-006-5.
14. "స్త్రీల ఆధునికతకు తొలి ఆనవాళ్లు". Mana Telangana (in Telugu). 20 March 2023. Retrieved 13 June 2023. సామినీన ముద్దు నరసింహ నాయుడు (1792–1856)
15. ^ The Secularist: Bulletin of the Indian Secular Society. Indian Secular Society. 2001. p. 5.
16. Telugu Culture: International Telugu Institute, Hyderabad, 1975, p. 74.
17. ^ Kancha Ilaiah, Muddu Narasimham's Gramabhasha. A.P. Times, Hyderabad. 31 January 1997. p. 5.
18. ^ V. Ramakrishna, Literature and Social Consciousness: Examination of a Lesser-known Telugu Monograph of the Early 19th Century. Proceedings of Andhra Pradesh History Congress, 18th Annual Session, Tenali, 1994.
19. International Journal of the Sociology of Language. Mouton. 1993. p. 225.
20. V. Ramakrishna, Kandukuri Veeresalingam: Social and Political Ideas. Indian Historical Review Vol. II, Aug 1-2, 1979-80. pp. 187–188.
21. Nagendra (1988). Indian Literature. Prabhat Prakashan. p. 90. Swamineni Muddu Narasimha Naidu was the first essayist and he published his collection of essays in 1862. They were written in spoken Telugu. Afterwards Viresalingam wrote a number of essays on various topics.
22. Pawar, S. N.; Ambekar, Jayawant Bhimrao; Shrikant, D. (2004). NGOs and Development: The Indian Scenario. Rawat Publications. p. 201. ISBN 978-81-7033-834-5. Likewise, in Andhra, Kandukuri Veeresalingam Pantulu, Muddu Narasimha Naidu, Muthulakshmi Reddi, and Durga Bai Deshmukh joined the reform movement.
23. The Humanist Way. Hema Publications. 1994. Back in Andhra Pradesh in 1855, Samineni Muddu Narasimha Naidu, the little-known pioneer of the popular language movement, the widow remarriage movement, and the later day rationalist movement wrote Hitasuchani a book which ....
24. Ramakrishnan (13 October 2020). "Andhra's Great Reformers And Writers (Part-2)". Countercurrents.org. Retrieved 14 June 2023. Samineni Muddu Narasimha Naidu, District Munsiff at Rajahmundry from 1848 to 1852 (he died in 1856), author of Hita Suchani, had earlier laid seeds of reform, that grew into a movement under Kandukuri.
25. Krishnamurthi, N. Putali (1980). The Changing Condition of Women in Andhra: From the Middle of the 19th Century to the Middle of the 20th Century. Navayuga Publishers. pp. 16–17.

• Telugu-language writers
• 19th-century Indian male writers
• Telugu people
• 1792 births
• 1856 deaths