V For Veeraswamayya Enugula

 Veeraswamayya Enugula or Enugula Veeraswamy was the first travel writer in Telugu. Perhaps in the history of Indian travelogues, he could have been the earliest one who brought out a book on his travel. He started his travel in May 1830 from Chennai and reached Varanasi in September 1831. There were no buses, cars, or any vehicles. He used horses and palanquins. With establishing tents for resting whenever they got tired amidst the journey, Veeraswamayya launched his adventurous journey with his friends and relatives. He paid all expenses for them. 

It was a pilgrimage basically but he described all contemporary social, economic, and political things that come across throughout his sojourn. He embarked on an upward journey through Tirupathi, Srisailam, Hyderabad, Nirmal, Nagpur, Jabalpur, and Prayaga and a downward journey through Patna, Calcutta, Berhampur, Chatrapur, Srikakulam, Rajahmundry and Nellore. All journey culminated in approximately four thousand kilometers. We could know how lives went on in different provinces and petty kingdoms or princely states. In brief, the British India stood in front of our eyes.

Veeraswamayya wrote two letters every day to his friend Komaleswarapuram Srinivasa Pillai. He described every interesting bit about different kinds of places and people. We should know one thing Veeraswamayya was fluent in Telugu, Tamil, and English. Worked as a head interpreter in the Supreme Court of Chennai. And he obtained needed recommendation letters from British Judges. So his journey went on with fewer obstacles. However, he excelled in some problems with meticulous planning and of course with armed people. Now, that old type edition turned into easy modern Telugu by the effort of  Dr. Machavarapu Adinarayana. 

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