Rambhatla Lakshminarayana Sastry

Rambhatla Lakshminarayana Sastry M.A. (b: 9 December 1908 - d: 19 November 1995) was an eminent Telugu and Sanskrit Pundit and Puranic commentator.^[1]

He was born at Gudivada Agraharam in Palakonda division of Srikakulam district. He lost his father at the age of 13 years.

After schooling, Sastry studied Telugu and Sanskrit languages. He later joined in Maharajah Government Sanskrit College, Vizianagaram and obtained PoL and M.A. degrees. He has worked as a Telugu pundit in junior colleges in Parvathipuram and Salur for a few years. He has joined as a Telugu lecturer in Mrs. A.V.N. College, Visakhapatnam. He has been taken into the teaching faculty of Telugu department in Andhra University.

Sastry translated some Sanskrit works and Satakams such as Nindya Nirhanam, Vikramorvasiyam, Sri Ramatatwa Rasayanam, Soundarya Lahari, Vedantha Panchadasi Saaram, Kasi Satakam and Ramachandra Satakam in chaste prose and poetry in Telugu language. He has translated the Panchadasa Mantra (Tantric version of Gayatri Mantra) entitled Varivasya Rahasyamu along the Karra Srinivasa Rao.^[2]

He gave hundreds of scholarly discourses on works of Kalidasa and Sankaracharya besides Valmiki Ramayanam and Vyasa Bhagavatham in his lifetime at Visakhapatnam for more than 3 decades between 1969 till his last days.

His Sashtiaapdapoorthi was grandly celebrated in 1968 by the elite of Visakhapatnam. He died on 19 November 1995.

His birth centenary was celebrated at Sri Sadgurubrahma Ramadoota Mandiram in Madhuranagar, Visakhapatnam. Ganti Narasimha Murty organised the function in the temple premises. The birth centenary of Rambhatla Lakshminarayana Sastry was celebrated in Visakhapatnam in the year 2008. The management committee of Sri Sadgurubrahma Ramadoota Mandiram in Madhuranagar headed by Ganti Narasimha murty organised the function in the temple premises where Rambhatla delivered scores of discourses on religion and spiritualism.

Scholarly Titles & Translation Works

Called ‘Abhinava Bhatta Baana’ by teacher Tata Subrahmanya Sastry even while he was a student at the Sanskrit College, Lakshminarayana Sastry accomplished the hard task of translating Sanskrit grandhas, comment on many ancient literary works and satakams such as Nindya Nirhanam, Vikramorvaseyam, Sri Ramatatwa Rasayanam, Soundaryalahari, Vedantha Panchadasi Saaram, Kasi and Ramachandra Satakams to classically chaste prose and poetry in Telugu. He was conferred the title ‘Abhinava Bhatta Baana’ besides Panditaratna and many more. The hundreds of scholarly discourses on works of Kalidasa, Sankaracharya besides Valmiki Ramayanam and Vyasa Bhagavatham in his lifetime still ring the air all over the country.

Scholars G. Akkubhatla Sarma, Maddulapalli Dattatreya Sastry, Bhaskara Sarma and Vedula Kasivisweswara Rao besides Appalla Someswara Sarma spoke. Sanskrit scholar Saripalli Sita was conferred the title ‘Sastravisarada’ on the occasion.

Proposing a vote of thanks, Ganti Narasimham sought public help for bringing in print the three unpublished works of Sastry and also for instituting a memorial in his name.

He was covered in the national magazine "The Hindu" in 2008 commemorating his centenary. Pottisriramulu Telugu University published his life and work in the " Luminaries of 20th Century" .

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References