Bhandaru Acchamamba (Telugu: బండారు అచ్చమాంబ; 1874 – 1905) was one of the pioneers in the early stages of women's movement. She is regarded as one of the early feminist historians in India.[1] Acchamamba, a child widow, studied Telugu, English and Hindi classics under her brother's guidance and became knowledgeable in literature and women's issues. She wrote several biographies of Telugu and British women, which laid path for future historians. Her stories reflect the social conditions of her times and women's issues.
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Bhandaru Acchamamba was born in 1874 in a small village called Penuganchiprolu in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. Her father, who was a diwan (minister in the state government), died when she was six years old. She was married to her maternal uncle, Bhandaru Madhava Rao at the age of ten. After her father's death, she took her younger brother, Komarraju Venkata Lakshmana Rao under her care. While he was studying, along with him, she also learned to read Telugu, Hindi, English and Marathi. After her brother left for Nagpur to continue his studies, Acchamamba worked on her own, learning Bengali and Gujarati as well as a little Sanskrit.
The early deaths of her son and daughter were inconsolable personal loss for her. Since then Acchamamba had adopted five orphans providing them with basic necessities and education.
Together with Oruganti Sundari Ratnamamba, Acchamamba established the first women's association in Coastal Andhra called Brindavana Streela Samaajam (Brindavana Women's Association) at Machilipatnam in the year 1902. In 1903, she traveled all over the state and helped others to establish several women's organizations.
Acchamamba died on January 18, 1905 at the age of 30.
Acchamamba has written several short stories, essays on women’s issues. Her most popular writing is a volume of biographies of 34 women, known as Abaala Saccharitra Ratnamala.
The works of Acchamamba include,
Articles published in the magazines Hindu Sundari and Saraswati are,
Dhana Trayodasi was published in the monthly Hindu Sundari in 1902. It was the story about a poor couple who did not have money to light up little dish lamps for Deepavali celebrations and buy clothes. The crux of the plot was the husband's attempt to commit a crime and the wife curbing his ill-advised plan.
In 1901, with the help of her brother, Acchamamba had compiled several stories on Indian women and published them into the book Abaala Saccharitra Ratnamala. These inspirational stories depicted the beauty, bravery and conviction of 34 Indian women, belonging to a period of 1000 years in history, through their biographies. Excerpts of this book were published in Kandukuri Veeresalingam's socio-economic journal Chintamani.
In her story Khana, Acchamamba retrieves the life of Khana, the wife of the famous Indian astronomer and mathematician Varaha Mihira, who acquired great proficiency in poetry, astrology and astronomy.
She traveled extensively and spoke with several scholars. [2]