Kandukuri Veeresalingam was a social reformer and writer from the Madras Presidency, British India.
18 Facts About Kandukuri Veeresalingam
2.
Kandukuri Veeresalingam is considered as the father of the Telugu Renaissance movement.
3.
Kandukuri Veeresalingam was one of the early social reformers who encouraged the education of women and the remarriage of widows.
4.
Kandukuri Veeresalingam fought against child marriage and the dowry system.
5.
Kandukuri Veeresalingam started a school in Dowlaiswaram in 1874, constructed the 'Brahmo Mandir' in 1887 and built the 'Hithakarini School' in 1908 in Andhra Pradesh.
6.
Kandukuri Veeresalingam is often considered Raja Ram Mohan Roy of Andhra.
7.
Kandukuri Veeresalingam was known by the title Gadya Tikkana, or 'the Tikkana of Prose'.
8.
Kandukuri Veeresalingam completed his matriculation in 1869 and got his first job as a teacher in Korangi village.
9.
Kandukuri Veeresalingam wrote plays such as Prahlada and Satya Harischandra.
10.
Kandukuri Veeresalingam published a novel Rajashekhara Charita in 1880, originally serialised in Viveka Chandrika from 1878.
11.
Kandukuri Veeresalingam started Andhra Pradesh's first Brahmo Mandir in Rajahmundry in 1887.
12.
One of the greatest reforms of Veeresalingam was to promote women's education, which was a taboo in those days.
13.
Kandukuri Veeresalingam's opponents used to organise special meetings and debates to counter his arguments, and even resorted to physical violence against him when they failed to stop him.
14.
Undeterred, Kandukuri Veeresalingam started a Remarriage Association and sent his students all over Andhra Pradesh to find young single men willing to marry widows.
15.
Kandukuri Veeresalingam arranged the first widow remarriage on 11 December 1881.
16.
Kandukuri Veeresalingam was one of the attendees of the first Indian National Congress meeting in 1885.
17.
Kandukuri Veeresalingam died on 27 May 1919 at the age of 71.
18.
Kandukuri Veeresalingam's statue has been unveiled on the Beach Road in Vishakhapatnam.