SATYAM SANKARAMANCHI’S AMARAVATI KATHALU AS THE MIRROR OF TELUGU LIFE AND CULTURE

Abstract

International scholarship in the last three decades has paid increased attention to the study and interpretation of the literary and cultural merits of regional texts. This process has helped the global literary communities and readers to identify and understand the invaluable treasury of wisdom and the fountain of beauty, sympathy, and passion locked in the regional writings. In sync with this trend, this study proposes a cultural analysis of Amaravati Kathalu, a collection of short stories authored by the Telugu story writer Sathyam Sankaramanchi. The stories were first published in the Andhra Jyothi newspaper and later on, compiled as a book by Navodaya Publishers. Each of this collection of 101 stories contains a simple picture drawn by a renowned artist Bapu. Although the stories are works of imagination and fiction, they are influenced by the multiple incidents and folk stories on Amaravati. One of the best collections of 20th century Telugu fiction, this book won the Andhra Sahitya Academy award in 1979. Subsequently, the veteran film producer Shyam Benegal has directed and run a TV serial based on these stories with the title “Amaravati ki Kathayein”.
The stories take after the style of Anthon Chekhov, the famous Russian writer. They are heart-warming and they delineate the experiences that people encounter in their day to day lives. Richly sensuous and evocative, the stories capture the sights, smells, sounds, touches, tastes and surrealistic depiction of the flora and fauna of Amaravati. The stories are delightful and funny and with an occasional note of the cruelties and vagaries of life. Sankaramanchi’s esemplastic imagination reworks on the real-life and culture to weave a whole new world around the tiny village of Amaravati and the river Krishna. This important work of art needs to be presented before the global readers and the twin important means of achieving this goal is translation and critical inquiry. Against this backdrop, this study proposes a cultural analysis of Amaravati Kathalu utilizing the cultural theories of ‘text’, ‘context’, ‘dialogue’, ‘position’, ‘articulation’, and ‘mediation’.