Vavilla Ramaswamy Sastrulu
Vavilla Ramaswamy Sastrulu (1812–1891) was Telugu Pundit and owner of Telugu Publishing house, Saraswati Mudralayamu which later got renamed as Vavilla Press. Vavilla family in Andhra Pradesh secured a page in history as a premier publishing house owning a press.[1]
Birth and childhood
Ramaswamy Sastrulu was born at Vavilla a village nearby Allur, Nellore District. He is youngest among the five children of his parents. He lost his mother at a very young age, after which his father shifted to another village named Dandikunta. Along with his brother Sri Anantanarayana Sastrulu had Vedādhyāyana (Learning of Vedas) from most famed Pundits Sri Gattupalli Sastrulu and Sri Krishna Upadhyayulu at Nellore. Later he learnt Vyākarana (Grammar) from Pundit Sri Papayya Sastri at Draksharama.
First printing press in Telugu
Vavilla Ramaswamy Sastrulu started Telugu Press in 1854 in Chennai in a press named Hindu Bhasha Sanjeevini. Later he established "Adi Saraswathi Nilayam". During his lifetime till 1891, he published about 50 important books in Telugu and Sanskrit languages. Even C.P. Brown appreciated his efforts quoting "In days when people had to read books written by hand, V.Ramaswamy Sastrulu relieved their difficulties by starting a printing press".[2] It was later handled by his son Vavilla Venkateswara Sastrulu and improved it greatly printing more than 900 books in Telugu, Tamil and English.
References
- Trilinga Rajatotsava Samputamu, sri vavilla venkateswara shastry. 1941, Vavilla Press.