ABSTRACT
This chapter by Pingali Lakshmikantham, who is known to be a traditional critic with a modern outlook, is a “Foreword” to what is considered the first “modern” poem in Telugu. Pingali Lakshmikatham, who gave importance to poets while classifying the ages, names them as Pragnannayya yugam, Nannaya yugam, Sivakavi yugam, Tikkana yugam, Yerrapragada yugam, Srinatha yugam, Rayala yugam, Dakshinandhra yugam, Ksheena yugam, Adhunika yugam in his Andhra Sahitya Charitra. His traditional writing steps into the area of examining a modern, long poem centred around a woman. The poem is Musalamma Maranamu (1960) by Cattamanchi Ramalinga Reddy. Cattamanchi’s poem is modern in more than one way. Cattamanchi is one of the passionate followers and advocates of the use of people’s language in literature. The poem is also written in a language that is accessible to people. Pingali observes the close connections between the nation and the literature. He attributes the credit to modern poets for elevating the women characters and the shringara rasa. According to him, modern literature has changed the meanings of shringara into a union of one’s own self and beauty into beauty of character. He hails Cattamanchi as one of the prominent pioneers in the early years of modernity and appreciates the way he protects the respect in the characterisation of women for his women characters are respected by the society for their beautiful nobility of conduct but not attracted to their physical beauty. The theme of the poem is also not about a legendary or mythical hero but about a woman. This woman is also not the target of male gaze and sensuous desire but a woman who sacrifices her life for the sake of the village.
