Chilakamarti Lakshmi Narasimham

Chilakamarti Lakshmi Narasimham[1] (26 September 1867 – 17 June 1946) was an Indian playwright, novelist and author of short stories, who wrote in the Telugu language.

He was active in the Indian independence movement; he eschewed "foreign cloth" and wore khādī dhoti, shirt, coat and turban.

Chilakamarti Lakshmi Narasimham was born on 26 September 1867 in a Dravida Brahmin family of Aaraama Dravidulu sect.

[citation needed] As a boy, he was said to resemble his maternal grandfather, Bhadraiah Sastry who died a year before the grandson was born.

[7] Kandukuri Veeresalingam is reckoned as the chief architect of the Renaissance of Telugu literature in the later half of the nineteenth century.

As a writer, he was the first to try his hand at many of the modern literary forms such as minor poem, burlesque, biography, autobiography, novel, satire, farce and plays.

The imageries he presented in detail, the way in which he unfolded the story with a special technique of narration, the diction he employed with familiar expression intelligible even to the average reader, above all, the sincerity of purpose with which he wrote went a long way for the success and popularity of his works.

The works of Chilkamarti can be broadly classified into verses, plays, Prahasanas, novels, long stories and biographies of great men and autobiography.

Chilakamarti translated two English novels written by Bengali author Ramesh Chandra Dutt, The Lake of Palms and The Slave Girl of Agra under the titles Sudha Saraschandram(1909–27) and Dasikanya respectively.

He translated the book The Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan or the Central and Western Rajpoot States of India by Colonel James Tod under the title Rajasthana Kathavali around 1906–07.

[8][9] At the request of his friends, despite his blindness and old age (75 years), Chilakamarti wrote his 646 pages long autobiography Sweeyacharitamu[7] in 4 months and 24 days from 18 March 1942 to 12 July 1942.

Due to his lack of sight and unavailability of written records, he recollected his entire life story from memory which included very detailed incidents, dates and people names.