Velcheru Narayana Rao

Home , Allasani Peddana, List of Indian poets, Poet, Telugu literature

Formal Education

1954 B.A. Sir C.R.Reddy College, Andhra University: History, Political Science and Advanced Telugu

1968 M.A. Andhra University: Telugu Literature

1970 Diploma in Linguistics, Osmania University

1974 Ph.D. Andhra University: Telugu Literature. Dissertation Title: Telugulo Kavita Viplavala Svarupam, (Structure of Literary Revolutions in Telugu.)

Appointments

1971 Lecturer, Department of South Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin- Madison.

1975 Assistant Professor, Department of South Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

1981 Associate Professor, Department of South Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

1987 Professor, Department of South Asian Studies, now Languages and Cultures of Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

2009-10 Visiting Professor, University of Chicago

2010 Fall Visiting Professor, Emory University.

2011. Distinguished Visiting Professor, Emory University.

2015 Koppaka Chair for Telugu Literature, History and Culture. Emory University

Publications

In Telugu

Books: Select list; complete list too long to give here.

Narayana Ravu Kathalu. Short stories, Eluru: Gita Book House, 1965.

Telugulo Kavita Viplavala Svarupam. (Structure of Literary Revolutions in Telugu). Revised form of Ph.D. dissertation, Vijayawada: Visalaandhra Publishing House. 1978. Second edition, Hyderabad Book Trust, 1988. Third revised edition, Chicago: Tana Publications, 2009.

In English.

Books:

For the Lord of the Animals: Poems from the Telugu Kalahastisvara Satakamu of Dhurjati. Translation with Introduction, Notes and Afterword. With Hank Heifetz. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.

Siva's Warriors: Basava Purana of Palkuriki Somanatha. Translation assisted by Gene Roghair, with a critical introduction and notes. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.

Symbols of Substance: Court and State in Nayaka-Period Tamilnadu. With David Shulman and Sanjay Subrahmanyam. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992.

When God is a Customer: Telugu Courtesan Songs by Ksetrayya and Others. With A.K.Ramanujan and David Shulman, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

A Poem at the Right Moment : Remembered Verses from Premodern South India. With David Shulman. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

Classical Telugu Poetry: An Anthology. Edited and translated With David Shulman; University of California Press, Berkeley, 2002. Indian edition, Oxford University Press, Delhi. 2001

Twentieth Century Telugu Poetry. An anthology of modern poetry translated from the Telugu, with an introduction, notes and an Afteressay, Oxford University Press, Delhi.2001

Lover’s Guide to Warrangal: Vallabharaya’s Kridabhiramamu. A 15th century parody translated from the Telugu, with an Afterword. With David Shulman. New Delhi: Permanent Black. 2002

Textures of Time: Writing History in South India. With David Shulman, and Sanjay Subrahmanyam. Indian edition: New Delhi: Permanent Black.2002; American edition: New York: Other Press, 2003.

Hibiscus on the Lake: Twentieth Century Telugu Poetry from India. With an introduction, notes and an Afteressay. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.2003

Sound of the Kiss, or the Story that Must Never be Told: Translation of the sixteenth century Telugu Novel in verse, Kalapurnodayamu of Pinglai Surana, with an Afterword. With David Shulman. New York: Columbia University press.2003

Textures du temps Ecrire l’histoire en Inde. (with David Shulman and Sanjay Subrahmnayam.) French translation of Textures of Time. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 2004.

God On the Hill: Temple songs from Tirupati . Translation of a selection of 16th century Telugu poet Annamayya who wrote songs addressed to lord Venkatesvara of Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. With David Shulman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

The Demon’s Daughter: A love story.. Translation with an afteword and notes of a 16th century novel in verse by Pingali Suranna. With David Shulman. New York: State University of New York Press, 2006.

Girls for Sale: Kanyasulkam. A Play from Colonial India. Translation of the Telugu play By Gurajada Apparao, with notes and an Afterword. Indiana University Press, 2007. Indian edition, Penguin, 2011.

How Urvashi was Won. Tr. of Kalidasa’s Vikaramorvasiya. With David Shulman. Clay Sanskrit Library, 2009.

A Doll’s Wedding and Other Stories. Tr. of short stories by Chaso. With David Shulman. With an Afterword. New Delhi: Penguin, India, 2012.

Srinatha: The Poet Who Made Gods and Kings. (with David Shulman)., New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Story of Manu: Manucaritramu of Allasani Peddana. 16th century Telugu Courtly Poem, 4

with an introduction and notes. With David Shulman. Murty Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 2015.

Books Forthcoming:

Text and Tradition in South India. From Permanent Black, Delhi

Ha Ha Hu Hu and Vishnu Sarma Learns English. Translation of two novellas by Viswanatha Satyanarayana, with an introduction and Afterword, from Penguin India

Theft of a Tree. Sixteenth century courtly poem by Nandi Timmana, with introduction and notes. In collaboration with Harshita Kamath. From Murty Classical Library, Harvard University Press.

2. Articles or Chapters in books

"Political Novel in Telugu." Politics and the Novel in India. Edited by Yogendra K. Malik. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1975. Pp. 94-105.

“Banditry in Mogul India: Historical and Folk Perspectives," with John Richards. IndianEconomic and Social History Review. 17 (1980). Pp. 95-120. Reprinted in Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam. eds. The Moghul State: 1526-1750. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998.

"Ha Ha Hu Hu." Tr. of a novel by Viswanatha Satyanarayana. Journal of South Asian Literature, 16.1 (1981). pp. 103-31.

"Horse Headed Gods and White Skinned Men: A Second Look at 'Ha Ha Hu Hu' of Viswanatha Satyanarayana." Journal of South Asian Literature, 16.1 (1981). pp. 132-45.

The following articles in Adingdon Dictionary of Living Religions, edited by Keith Crim. Nashville, Tennessee: Adingdon Press, 1981: Agastya, p. 13 Bali, p. 89 Hanuman, p. 294 Laksmana, p. 421 Rama, p. 597 Ramayana of Valmiki. Pp. 599-600 Sanskrit, Language and Religious Literature, pp. 654-56 Sita. Pp. 695-96 Valmiki, p. 783

"Proverbs and Riddles." Indian Folklore I, CIIL Folklore Series 3, Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages, 1981. Pp. 22-31.

"Telugu Intellectuals' Role in the Process of Social Change." South Asian Intellectuals and Social Change edited by Yogendra L. Malik. New Delhi: Heritage Publishers, 1982. Pp. 308-38.

"Valladu the Hero." Tr. of Viravalladu, a novel by Visvanatha Satyanarayana, with a Foreword. Journal of South Asian Literature, 17.2 (1982). Pp. 193-224.

"Afterword: A Structural View of Viravalladu." Journal of South Asian Literature. 17.2 (1982). Pp. 225-35.

"A Selection of Modern Telugu Poetry." Tr. with Carlo Coppola. Journal of South Asian Literature. 20.1(1985). Pp. 169-93.

"From For the Lord of the Animals." Tr. with Hank Heifetz from Dhurjati's Kalahastisvara Satakamu. Translation: The Journal of Literary Translation. 14 (1986). pp. 200-202.

"Epics and Ideologies: Six Telugu Folk Epics," in Another Harmony: New Essays on the Folklore of India, edited by Stuart Blackburn and A. K. Ramanujan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986. pp. 131-65.

The following folk tales from Andhra Pradesh, selected and translated in Folk tales of India, edited by Brenda E. F. Beck, et al, Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1987: “Borrowed Earrings.” Pp. 207. “Tenali Ramalingadu.” Pp. 236-38. “Our Wife.” Pp. 246-47. “I'll Take Two.” p. 247.

The following articles in the Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade. “Hanuman.” Pp. 6:194-95. “ Ramayana.” Pp. 12:213-15. “Rama.” Pp. 12:208-09. “Tulsidas.” Pp. 15:81. “Valmiki.” Pp. 15:184-85.

"The Sinless Man." Parabola, 12.2. Summer 1987. Pp. 72-74.

"Tricking the Goddess: Cowherd Katamaruju and Goddess Ganga in the Telugu Folk Epic," in Criminal Gods and Demon Devotees: Essays on the Guardians of Popular Hinduism, edited by Alf Hiltebeitel. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989. Pp. 105-121.

"History, Biography and Poetry at the Tanjavur Nayaka Court." (with David Shulman) in Social Analysis. 25, September 1989, special issue on Identity, Consciousness and the Past: The South Asian Scene. ed. H.L. Seneviratne. Pp. 115-130.

"Courts and Lawyers: Images from Literature and Folklore", in Law, Politics and Society in India, edited by Yogindra K. Malik and Dhirendra Vajpeyi. Delhi: Chanakya Publications. 1990. Pp. 196-214.

"A Ramayana of Their Own: Women's Oral Tradition in Telugu," in Many Ramayanas: 6

The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia, edited by Paula Richman. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. Pp. 114-136.

"Powers of Parody in Nayaka Period Tanjavur," with David Shulman, in Gender Genre and Power in South Asian Expressive Traditions, edited by Arjun Appadurai, Frank Korom and Margaret Mills. 1992. Pp. 428-464

"Marriage-Broker for a God: The Tanjavur Nayakas in the Mannarukuti Temple." (with David Shulman), in The Sacred Center as the Focus of Political Interest, edited by Hans Bakker, Groningen Oriental Studies. Vol. VI Egbert Forsten: Groningen, 1992. Pp. 179-203.

"Purana as Brahminic Ideology." in Purana Perennis: Reciprocity and Transformation in Hindu and Jaina Texts, edited by Wendy Doniger. New York: State University of New York Press, 1993. Pp. 85-100; 265-266.

Review of Philip Lutgendorf's Life of a Text: Ramacaritmanas of Tulsidas, Journal of Asian Studies, 54 (2), May 1995. Pp. 600-603.

"Texture and Authority: Telugu Riddles and Enigmas," in Untying the Knot: On Riddles and other Enigmatic Modes, edited by. Galit-Hasan-Rokem and David Shulman. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Pp. 191-207.

"Coconut and Honey: Sanskrit and Telugu in Premodern Andhra." Social Scientist 23 (10-12), October-December, 1996. Pp. 24-40.

“Literature”, a review article in India’s World and U.S. Scholars, 1947-1997, ed. Joesph W. Elder, Edward C. Dimock, Jr. and Ainslie Embree. New Delhi: Manohar and American Institute of Indian Studies, 1998. Pp. 335-353.

“The Wooden Horse.” Translation of Nagnamuni’s Koyya Gurram. Indian Literature, XLIV.196. March-April 2000. Pp. 151-165.

“A Storm and a Poem: Nagnamuni’s Koyyagurram Revisited After Twenty Years,” Indian Literature, XLIV.196. March-April 2000. Pp. 166-77.

“Politics of an Epic: Colonialism, Print Culture and Literary Movements in Telugu Ramayanas.” in Questioning Ramayanas , edited by Paula Richman. University of California, Berkeley, 2001. Pp. 159-185.

“Circulation, Piety and Innovation: Recounting Travels in Early Nineteenth Century South India”. With Sanjay Subrahmanyam. In Society and Circulation: Mobile people and Itinerant Cultures in South Asia 1750-950. Edited by Claude Markovits et al. New Delhi: Permanent Black. 2003. Pp. 306-355.

“Multimple Literary Cultures in Telugu: Court, Temple and Public. In Sheldon Pollock, 7

Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia. Berkeley:University of California Press, 2003. Pp. 383-436.

“Print and Prose: Pundits, Karanams and the East India Company in the Making of Modern Telugu.” In India’s Literary History: Essays on the Nineteenth Century. Delhi: Permanent Black. 2004. Pp. 146-66.

“When Does Sita Cease To Be Sita: Notes toward a cultural grammar of Indian Narratives.” In Ramayana Revisted. edited by Mandakranta Bose, Oxford University Press, New York.2004. Pp.219-240.

“Puranas.” A critical survey of scholarship. In The Hindu World Routledge. Pp. 97-115.

“Sita Locked Out: A Telugu Women’s Song of Sita”. In Manushi, No.139. Nov-Dec, 2003. Pp. 26-30.

“A new imperial idiom in the sixteenth century: Krishnadevaraya and his political theory of Vijayanagara.” In South Indian Horizons: Felicitation Volume for Francois Gro. Ed. Jean-Luc Chevillard. Pondichery: Institut Francaise De Pondichery, Ecole Francaise D’Extreme-Orient. 2004. Pp. 597-625. To be reprinted in a volume edited by Sheldon Pollock, forthcoming from Duke University Press.

“Urmila Sleeps: A Telugu Women’s Ramayana Song. in Manushi, 153, March-April, 2006. Pp. 14-21.

"A Family that Sang for the God: Annamayya at Tirupati," with David Shulman, in Incompatible Visions: South Asian Religions in History and Culture," Festschrift for David Knipe. Madison WI: Center for South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2006. pp. 21-34.

“Sita Locked Out” and “Lakshmana Laughs.” Translation of two Telugu texts with notes. In Telling Ramayana Stories in Modern South India edited by Paula Richman, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

“Textures of Time: A Pragmatic Response,” With David Shulman and Sanjay Subrahmanyam. History and Theory, Vol. 46, 2007, pp. 408-26.

“Buddhism in Modern Andhra: Literary Representations from Telugu.” The Journal of Hindu Studies. Advance Access published on September 30, 2008 J Hindu Studies 2008 1: 93-119; doi:10.1093/jhs/hin005

“History and Politics in the Vernacular: Reflections on Medieval and Early Modern 8

South India”, With Sanjay Subrahmanyam in Raziuddin Aquil and Partha Chatterjee, eds., History in the Vernacular (New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2008), pp. 25-66.

“Notes on Political Thought in Medieval and Early Modern South India.” With Sanjay Subrahmanyam, in Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 43, No. 1, 2009, pp. 175-210.

“Many Lives of a Text: Sumati Śatakamu in Colonial Andhra,” in Ritual, Caste, and Religion in Colonila South India, edited by Michael Bergunder, Heiko Frese, and Ulrike Schroeder. Halle: Franesche Stifungen zu Halle, 2010, and Delhi: Primus Books, 2011, pp. 330-374.

“The Indigenous Modernity of Gurajada Apparao and Fakir Mohan Senapati, in Colonialism, Modernity and Literature: A view from India, edited by Satya P. Mohanty, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 135-152.

“Nala: The Many Lives of a Story.” With David Shulman, in Damayanti and Nala: Many Lives of a Story, edited by Susan Wadley. New Delhi: Chronicle Books, 2010, pp. ..

“Ideologies of State Building in Vijayanagara and Post-Vijayanagara South India; some Reflections,” with Sanjay Subrahmanyam, in Universal Empire: A Comparative Approach to Imperial Culture and Representation in Eurasian History, edited by Peter Fibiger Bang and Dariusz Kolodziejczak, Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2012, pp. 210-232.

“Modernity in Sanskrit? Viswanatha Satyanarayana’s Amrta Sarmishtam.” In Innovations and Turning Points: Toward a History of Sanskrit Kavya. Edited by Yigal Bronner, David Shulman, and Gary Tubb. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 715-738.

Work in Progress

Books:

Tishyarakshita. Tr of a Telugu play based on legends about Ashoka’s second wife Tishyarakshita by Buccibabu, with an introduction and an afterword.

Ha Ha Hu Hu and Vishnu Learns English. Tr. of Viswanatha Satyanarayana's Telugu Novels with an introductory essay and notes.

Select Recent Invited talks 9

“Rasa as human experience: Reading Vikramorvasiya after reading Abhijnana Sakuntala.” presented at the conference on Sanskrit Kavya: Innovation and Turning Points, at the Institute for Advanced Study, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. May 27-30, 2004.

Participant: Exploring the Nature of our Offence: A Symposium on the Study of Hinduism in a World of Identity Politics and Religious Intolerance. Isalen Institute. Big Sur, CA. December 16-19. 2004

“Is There a Place for Telugu in World Literature?” (A talk in Telugu for a community of Telugu people, at Santa Clara Public Library) December 19, 2004

“On Nīti Texts in Medieval and Early Modern South India.” Center for Social Science Research, Calcutta, India. December 26, 2004.

“Translating from Telugu: Problems and Prospects.” University of Hyderabad, India January 10, 2005.

“Future of Telugu in an Age of Globalization.” (Talk in Telugu at the Press Club, Hyderabad, India. January 13, 2005

Inivited for a week’s stay as visiting scholar to work with Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Department of History, UCLA. March 21-26., 2005.

“Premodern” Modernities: Indian Modernity before the Nineteenth Century.” Presented at the Symposium on Indian Modernities, at the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages Hyderabad, Janaury 7th and 8th, 2006.

“Ideologies of State Building in Vijayanagara and Post-Vijayanagara South India” (with Sanjay Subrahmanyam.) Paper presented in a conference on Experience of Empire: the constitution of power and the formation of local élites in the longue durée, at the Finnish Institute, Athens, Greece. 19-21 June 2006.

“The Five Senses: Do they guide or misguide?” Paper presented at a conference on Senses of Religion, at Yale University, New haven CT. October 27-29, 2006.

“All the God’s Women: Love life of Venkateswara at Tirupati.” Distinguished lecture at Columbia University, New York, jointly with David Shulman. January 29, 2007.

“Catu Poems Quoted in Conversation: Literature as public sphere in Early modern south India.” Paper presented at a South Asia symposium on Vernacular Public Spheres,at Yale University, New Haven, CT. April 6-7, 2007.

“What happens when a poem is translated into a poem? Sriharsha’s Nishadhiya-carita, 10

and Srinatha’s Srngara-naishadhamu. Joint talk with David Shulman at the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago. May 18, 2007.

“Poems that Travel: Literary public space in early modern south India.” Paper presented at a Workshop on Ideas in Circulation, at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, Oxford, U.K. May 25-26, 2007.

“ Imagined Biographies and Unwritten Readings: Authors and Texts in Indian Literature.” Talk at Emory University, April, 27, 2008.

“Dreams of a Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagara in History and Literature.” Paper presented at Sensitive Readings: Conference to honor David Shulman on his sixtieth birthday. Jerusalem, December 21-22, 2008.

2008 Distinguished faculty lecture at University of Wisconsin-Madison

2009. Talk at MESAS, Emory University, Atlanta, GA.

2010. Reading Reading: Tex that write Authors in Indian Literatures. Talk at SALC, University of Chicago.

2012 When All Is Said and Done, Rama Is Still God. Invited lecture at I Act: Contemporary Theatre, Syracuse, WA.

2014 “Print and Silence: Death and New Birth of Texts in Telugu. Columbia University, New York, NY

Awards, Honors and Grants

1987 Fellow, The Institute for Advanced Studies. Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

1991 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow.

1999 Fellowship of the Institute for Research in the Humanities, U.W. Madison,

1999. Appointed Krishnadevaraya Professor of Languages and Cultures of Asia.

2000-2001. Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.

2004. A.K. Ramanujan Prize in Translation awarded jointly to David Shulman and me by Association for Asian Studies.

2005. Senior Fellow: Institute for Research in the Humanities. U.W. Madison

2005. Invited to Sanskrit Academy, Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University, Jerusalem for one month.

2005 Elected Radhakrishnan Memorial Lecturer, 2004-05 University of Oxford. Gave three lectures during April 15-May 15, 2005 at All Souls College, Oxford, England.