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VIRESALINGAM
YUGA PURUSHA AND NAVAVAITALIKA
(A sesqui-centennial Tribute)

RAJA RAM MOHAN ROY is the first modern Indian - so said Gurudev Tagore. By the same token, Viresalingam is the first modern south Indian. Indeed, he is even more; he is truly an Universal Man. For this reason, although 1998 is his sesqui­centennial birth year, it is not surprising that he is as relevant to (he present times as he was before his passing away eight decades ago.

India from even before the time of the Buddha enjoyed preeminence in every field of human endeavour for two thousand years. But by the late eighteenth Century declined to a chaotic, decadent, morally degraded society steeped in ignorance and superstition. Gone was the spirit of inquiry, gone was the scientific temper, gone were the open-mindedness and tolerance. From plenty, the country was getting to impoverishment as on new scientific or technological advance was made.

It is said the Hour finds the Man. When things almost reached the nadir, there sprang, up men like Rammohan Roy, Debendranath Tagore, Keshubchandra Sen, Swami Vivekananda, Jyotiba Phule, Mahadev Ranade, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Dhondo Karve, Narmada Sankar, Said Ahmed Khan, Swami Dayananda, Subramania Bharati, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Pandita Rama Bai, Kandukuri Viresalingam, Raghupati Venkataratnam and the ilk in different parts of India, to bring about a silent revolution in the Country. These men of destiny together with personages like Annie Besant and Sister Nivedita brought a total change in the fabric of Society, for the better.

Viresalingam, a star of the magnitude in the galaxy of the great, blessed with excellent memory, sharp intelligence, industry, determination, courage, willingness to withstand obloquy, a great sense of justice, humaneness, fair-mindedness, compassion and a will to fight for just causes fearlessly, brought about by his titanic labours extending over half a century, lasting and needed reform in the many fields of his endeavours. In his life time,

i) he managed to expend the range of Telugu literature to an unbelievable extent;

ii) he saw to it that education of girl children and children of the disadvantaged sections of the society was recognized to be a necessity by the society;

iii) he founded schools, got a magnificent building built for one of them;

iv) he had inculcated a spirit of Scientific Inquiry and a rational outlook and approach in the hitherto ritualistic and superstitious society;

v) he saw to it, that the twin evils of marriage of tender girl-children to elderly men, the prohibition of remarriage of windows, however tender aged the window be, are recognised by society, by highlighting the inhumanity towards widows and child widows in particular, reduced almost to a state of non-persons-confined to the kitchen and doing drudgery, deprived of proper food, raiment and even their hair tonsured, by establishing after a diligent study of all the relevant Sasras but only a later day execration;

vi) he managed to perform between 1881 and 1892 twenty-nine widow remarriages under his own auspices against active and even violent opposition and social ostracism and threats of excommunication;

vii) he had established and published journals and magazines devoted to the spread of a rational outlook, spread of civic consciousness, bringing about awareness to various forms of corruption in society, spread of a well balanced outlook in women on life, highlighting various from of social evils, to expose corruption and corrupt practices amongst officials, whether Indian or British;

viii) he had built at his expense Town Halls and Prayer Halls to provide various facilities for people of many cities or towns;

ix) he had founded a Home for windows and women needing succour, and an Orphanage amidst ideal surroundings of a vast garden;

x) he had been literally a builder of monuments in brick and mortar and a gardener of the best garden(s) where many exotic trees and plants from other parts of India were collected and planted;

xi) he had found the time and energy to write an autobiography, the first published ever in Telugu, extending to a thousand pages, a mirror of histimes, a source book for historians and sociologists - an accurate, fair and frank work not given to extolling his own work or achievements, an autobiography, the like of which has not yet appeared in Telugu, that has anticipated by a decade Mahatma, Gandhi’s ‘My Experiments in Truth�, in candour and self introspection;

xii) he did painstaking original research, never attempted before his time, on the lives, chronology and merits of some two hundred and twenty poets for which he had to refer to published and unpublished works, collect palm leaf manuscripts from private and public collections, examine historic numismatic, epigraphic and lithic records, copper plate inscriptions etc. These labours led to bringing to light of many hitherto not known poets and resulted in the publication of works of twenty poets. The range and breadth of this research culminating in the publication of the monumental. ‘Andhra Kavula Charitra�, published first in 1887 involving his developing his own methodologies to go into a virgin field to become a beacon light to his successors, is breathtaking; He laboured so hard for three decades to update his work by constant research;

xiii) he had published over a hundred and fifteen books written by him - on an amazing variety of subjects ranging from pure literary works to books on science, grammar, logic, prosody and poetics, astronomy, physiology, animals, history, biography, translations, transcreations - literally a cronucopia of subjects that compels one to wonder if he is not an encyclopaediast and a true polymath. Indeed, he was one of the principal editors revising C.P Brown’s epoch­-making English-Telugu and Telugu-­English Dictionaries. His collected works encompass 11 volumes extending to 10,000 pages - excluding articles in journals etc.

Not for nothing, then, Viresalingam has been honoured and revered to this day as a ‘Yuga Purushaâ€� Man of the Era, â€�Nava ³Õ²¹¾±³Ù²¹±ô¾±°ì²¹â€� - Harbinger of modernity â€�Gadya °Õ¾±°ì°ì²¹²Ô²Ô²¹â€� - eminent in Prose as the peerless Tikkanna, who wrote the greater part of Andhra Mahabharatam, is for poetry ­(Tikkanna bested the venerable Veda Vyasa himself in the felicity of his work), ‘Sarvatomukha Prajnaâ€� many faceted genius Polymath. People consider him the fore-most Andhra of the 19th and 20th centuries and the greatest South Indian of his time and a peer of all the great reformers of Bengal, Maharashtra, Madras Presidency, United provinces, Gujarat and Punjab â€� the whole of India including all the south-Indian native states. He lives to this day in the minds of people - his literary works survive and are read, some of his institutions still function in spite of the modern day evils that beset our society.

By the time his life ended, this Visionary with a Missionary Zeal had transformed Telugu Literature - it acquired a new splendour with many new avenues, hitherto unknown. The first Telugu Drama, the first Telugu Novel, the first Autobiography, the first true essay, the first critical work on research on Telugu poets, the first true journalistic articles, editorials, the first books on science subjects, the first brief histories on several Indian (native) states. The first brief or full length biographies have all been written by him, his translations or transcreations of Sanskrit or English authors have merits that rival or excel the originals and are well loved to this day.
By the time he passed away, women of Andhra were free from age-old thraldom imposed on them by as unthinking, selfish society, and could savour the benefits of modern education.

Before his life’s mission was over, Andhra Society and South Indian Society became more rational, educated, humane and tolerant. Avenues of education opened to the disadvantaged and disabled strata of society including the so-called ‘untouchables�.

Viresalingam is truly a Man of Destiny, appearing at the appointed Hour in a period of decadence and degradation of Society. For who else, single-handedly can bring all this about, inspite of frail health, suffering throughout from asthma, coming from a family in straightened circumstances, inspite of his having only a modicum of formal education - for he was only a matriculate, holding only the position of a Telugu Pandit in a Collage. The epic battles fought by him in the cause of widow remarriage with orthodox pandits, traditionalists, the established hierarchy of religious heads, and priesthood. The social ostracism he and his friends had to endure, besides physical danger and threats he had to face is a saga of epic courage, which are very relevant even today in the present stage of new evils confronting our society.

Indeed study of his life and work is a must for us, when all forms of the forces of darkness are threatening our society from every corner. Superstitious beliefs, decadence of a ‘soft society�, corruption in all its diverse and ugly faces, total selfishness, unashamed pursuits of power and pelf, cross communalism, casteism and exploitation of the weaker sections of the society, an amoral education system, an unhealthy competitive society are the features of our present day sick society. To whom do we turn to know our duty and see light but to Ramamohan Roy, Vivekananda, Viresalingam, Venkataratnam, Narmada Sankar, Jyotiba Phule, Narayan Guru and “Others who are the true inheritors of the greatness of India that was, and to Annie Besant and the Mahatma. Our society stands condemned and we be declared the poltroons of our time if we are pusillanimous and compromising to bury our heads in dishonour and shame. Viresalingams are there holding the beacon light to us - we have but to follow. Such is the relevance of this Man to us, eight decades after his passing on. Indeed Viresalingam and his likes are Men for all ages, for all times and for all society - they are universal men.

To get a better idea of the life and work of Viresalingam, it is essential to read his works, especially the autobiography, Andhra Kavula Charitra, his prahasanams (farces and satires), his Telugu Sakuntalam, the novel Rajashekara Charitra his fictional, travelogue Satyaraja Purva Desa Yatralu and other works, his articles and his letters. While espousing the cause of the spirit of science Viresalingam wrote.

            Modern science is important and is brought to us by the British. With the lamp of knowledge science is dispelling the darkness of ages and driving away blind beliefs, prejudices etc. This is a war, a war between truth and non-truth, between knowledge and ignorance, between old and new ideas. We have no doubt that knowledge and truth will triumph in this war.

While starting his journal ‘Vivekavardhani� in 1874, he wrote:

            Condemning bribery, enrages officials, deriding concubinage angers the rakes, if obscurantism is attacked the bigoted and ignorant would jump at; when remarks are made against formal observance of religious practices while ignoring the true moral principles of religion the established priesthood becomes vengeful; but if our chosen mission is to succeed we have to face the ill-will of these people.

It is in this journal, that he expressed the corrupt practices of officials, besides of course advocating social reform, modernisation of education etc. He became the first investigative journalist of India, when he pieced together the torn contents of a waste paper basket, to establish that a judge at the supplication of a lawyer tore off a judgement already written, to favour a litigant whose cause the lawyer espoused.

On 27 May, 1919 while writing the 45th page of the second part of his Autobiography, the pen fell down from his hand in the night. Sensing that his end was near he summoned a fellow guest of his at Madras and requested him to take down a message:

“I am leaving before completing many of the tasks I set myself I hope that my friends, associates and welcomers to Reform will carry on with my unfinished work. Most of our people generally are not having any of the better things of life and carry on in superstition or ignorance. It is your duty to educate them, to give them freedom, equality and justice. I implore you, I beseech you to do your best for the inarticulate masses�.

Soon after this Viresalingam passed away aged 71 after half a century of titanic labour.

The tasks he set about can be gleaned from what he wrote in his paper ‘Viveka Vardhini�, Sept., 1879;

            “Country men! Carry yourself in imagination for a minute into those remote times when India set a brilliant example of civilisation to other nations, Are you not proud that your country was the cradle of all sciences? Was it not by your ancestors that the Greeks and the Arabs were initiated into the secrets of Medicine and the first principles of Mathematics? Did we not possess Sanskrit the best of languages, Astronomy the most sublime of Sciences and the most complete systems of philosophy and the best Law givers? Was there not a time when the shastras were truly interpreted and acted upon scrupulously? Did our Country not possess along with its other accomplishments its patriots too? How very noble were their efforts! could any but the greatest geniuses produce our Dharma shastras, Grammar, Logic, Philosophy and Astronomy? Was that not a time when our women were educated and socially on a level with men?�

Thus he wrote in An Appeal to the Indian Public of the Widow Remarriage Association.

            His appeal was to All India. He set about to bring a renaissance in Indian Society in all its facets. For him uplifting the lot of women was so that one half of the Society can make its just contribution to the progress of the country He saw that almost a fifth of the nation, the so-called ‘untouchables� were deprived of education and that segment has to be brought out of the shackles, decades before Mahatma Gandhi came on the scene.

His real aim has been to completely transform Society that it can reflect its glorious past and make significant contributions to civilization in the present. He had his order of priorities, education, emancipation of women, uplift of the so ­called ‘untouchables� and the disadvantaged. He wrote:

            Do you think I am against political work? As in the case of religious and social fields, I seek freedom in the political field too. But we cannot have properly the fruits of it unless we change our religious and social conditions. As such we serve our country well as social workers.

How prophetic? Only Mrs. Annie Besant had such a vision. He anticipated her by over a decade.

He laboured hard in different fields; his vision was never fractured. It can perhaps be said fairly that no other single contemporary of his in the galaxy of the great undertook work in so many fields and with such signal success. The key to his success is his most basic faith in the Absolute Supreme, an Entity of Truth and Justice as expounded by the Brahma Samaj. If to Mahatma Gandhi, Rama represented these, to Viresalingam Sarveswara represented these. Viresalingam was a supremely moral and noble man whose social conscience was fully developed. He has been a Karma Yogi all through his life. He believed work is worship; deeds more important than words; knowledge and truth are to be pursued ever; discipline and dedication are a must.

Indeed a Yuga Purusha and Nava Vaitalika is Viresalingam, the Man of Destiny, a study of whose life can find us clues to tackle the social, political and educational malaises confronting us at the end of the 20th Century.