[2][3] It was named after Rao Venkata Kumara Mahipati Surya Rau, the zamindar of Pitapuram Estate who sponsored the first four volumes of the dictionary.
[8] Rao Venkata Kumara Mahipati Surya Rau, the Maharajah of Pitapuram was interested in the promotion of Telugu language and literary development.
[9] Surya Rau, Mokkapati Subbrayudu, his Dewan and Jayanti Ramaiah Pantulu, a magistrate in the Madras Presidency were crucial in initiating the dictionary.
[6] On 12 May 1911, Surya Rau constituted Saraswata Parishad and fixed the objectives of the dictionary to incorporate etymology and other such information.
Apart from Surya Rau, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Kasinathuni Nageswara Rao, Korada Ramakrishnaiya, Nelaturi Venkata Ramanaiah among others took part in the release function.
The eighth edition saw light because of the efforts of Diwakarla Venkatavadhani and Patibanda Madhava Sarma.
[6][8] According to scholars, Suryarayandhra dictionary is much better in comparison to other works like Andhra Vachaspatyam, Lakshminarayaneeyam, Sabdhardha Chandrika, Andhrapada Parijatam and Sabda Ratnakaram.
Noted scholars Gidugu Ramamurthy and Vadlamudi Venkata Ratnam termed it not comprehensive and full of errors.