Dasarathi passes away

Hyderabad: Dasarathi Rangacharya, a well-known poet and writer who minced no words in expressing his impatience with the autocratic rule of the NIzam breathed his last at Yashoda Hospital here on Monday. He was 87 and left behind three children. Dasarathi (86) passed away while undergoing treatment at the hospital.

His family members said for the last seven days, Dasarathi was not keeping well. His body was shifted to his residence and the family members said the last rites would be performed on Tuesday. A large number of his admirers and people from literary field paid homage. Some of the mourners opined that the life history of Dasarathi be included in the school curriculum in Telangana.

Paying tributes to Dasarathi at his residence on behalf of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari consoled the family members and conveyed the State government’s decision to conduct the poet’s funeral with honors.Born in 1928 in China Gudur village in Warangal district, Dasarathi participated in the fight against the Nizam and was arrested once.

He went underground later and remained active in the Telangana Armed Struggle. Dasarathi received kudos from the literary world after penning novels like “Chillara Devullu”, “Modugu Poolu” and many folk stories. The two novels are the rarest of big novels from Telangana.

He had also written a book on Telangana Armed Struggle and detailed about the slavish life standards of the people during the erstwhile Nizam’s rule. He penned these novels in the dialect of Telangana Telugu against the opinion of the traditionalists. He wanted his novels to be easily understood by people and there was no other way to do that, except in writing in the language of the people.

Seeing many ups and downs in his life, Dasarathi worked as a government teacher during 1951-57. He later worked in Secunderabad Municipal Corporation from 1957 to 1988. He had received Kendra Sahitya Akademi award for his novel “Chillara Devullu”. He achieved a unique distinction of translating the “Four Vedas” into Telugu creating history in the Telugu literature. He had also written “Srimad Ramayanam” and “Sri Maha Bharatam” in pure Telugu.