A history of Telugu literature; - Cristo Raul

116 A HISTORY OF TELUGU LITERATURE
workmanship. The historic and domestic novel is represented
by translations from Bengali, mainly from Bankim
Chandra Chattopadhyaya and Romesh Chandra Dutt. The
credit of being the pathfinder in this field belongs to
Mr. Viresalingam, whose Raja Sekhara Charitra, adapted
from the Vicar of Wakefield, is the earliest novel. The
detective novel is just making its appearance, and it is too
early to predict its future. In the construction of the plot
and development of interest and vividness of style
Ch. Lakshmmarasimhan stands head and shoulders over the
writers of the day.
3. Satire. In the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries
A.D., two poets became conspicuous by their satirical
writings. Their humour, never polished, often malicious,
and occasionally descending to vulgarity, was intended to
hurt. Jaggakavi's Chandra Rekha Vilapam, though marred
by long stretches of low humour, is of a better type. He holds
up to ridicule the life of the idle-rich the zamindars of the
day their vanity, vulgarity and crude immorality. He
was a master of invective. Ravana Dommlyamu, known as
Lanka Vijaya, is an instance of satire after the manner of
the Dimciad. Parody is represented by Girata.
In the twentieth century, following the example of
English humorists, a new type of literature has come into
existence. Mr. Viresalingam 's prahasanas lead the way for
social satire. Genial and kindly, pointed but never painful,
the author's light farces are models to be followed. A
worthy successor to him is Panuganti Lakshminarasirhham,
whose Sakshi (Spectator) is an example of clean, sparkling
humour, which seeks to kill social vices without
cruelty.
4. New Prose. Up to the eighteenth century, verse
was the universal medium of Telugu literature. Such
prose as existed occurred in parenthetical snatches, introduced
as a literary device. The eighteenth century prose
was more a creature of necessity than of literary perception.
As a result of modern controversies, there is a clearer
delineation of the province of prose and verse, and a
clearer perception of the possibilities of prose. Modern
prose, like Nanniah's, is simpler and more malleable than