Prominent Telugu Personalities

My posting about some prominent Telugu personalities in Yahoo groups some time ago.

I thought of giving some more info. and links about Telugu personalities.

--- In telugusabroad@yahoogroups.com, "Sokappadu Ramanaidoo " wrote:
> Dear all
>
> Correct me if I am wrong. Once while visiting Kuala Lumpur,
> the tourist guide started with a brief history of Malaysia.
> I came to know that the written history of Malaysia starts
> with a king by name Parameswara, who was the brother of
> Krishnadevaraya.

Yes, here is a link which gives a brief history of Malacca peninsula.
http://planet.time.net.my/CentralMarket/melaka101/chrono.htm
I have heard Sri Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagaram belonged to the Tuluva dynasty and was probably a Kannadiga . Nevertheless,he was a great patron of Telugu literature,and was the one who coined the famous saying - 'Desa Bhashalandu Telugu Lehhsya'(Telugu is the sweetest of all the languages).

>Some Bhuddish followers should know about Acharya
> Nagarjuna.

Statue depicting Acharya Nagarjuna

Thats true. Acharya Nagarjuna, who lived in the present day Andhra Pradesh / Vidarbha region in 2nd Century AD, and a renowned philosopher, mathematician and alchemist, was thought to have born in Andhra Desa, at Vedali. He was a leader with profound spiritual insights and propounded the Madhyamika ( the "Middle Path" ) philosophy and wrote the treatise Pratitya Mulamadhyamika Karika. He described the concept of Sunyata or "Emptiness".

Here is a description about Nagarjuna and this philosophy :-
http://bahai-library.com/personal/jw/other.pubs/nagarjuna/

Nagarjunakonda, an important Buddhist site near Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh is named after him.
http://www.niharonline.com/culture/tourism/cul_tour_sagar.php


Nagarjuna University, located near Guntur city in Andhra Pradesh, is named after this great scholar. It also has a center for Mahayana Buddhist studies.
http://www.nagarjunauniversity.ac.in/aboutus.asp


> In many countries today we have followers of Sai Baba.
>
> All students of Statistics should know of Prof Rao, the
> famous Rao Cramer theory.

Yes, Prof. Calyampudi R. Rao was a Telugu born at Hadagali in Karnataka, and is among the century's foremost statisticians.
About CR Rao - http://www.mrs.umn.edu/~sungurea/introstat/history/w98/Rao.html
his achievements -
http://members.aol.com/Ndialogue/raoinfo.html
and his official page at Penn State Univ.
http://www.stat.psu.edu/people/faculty/crrao.html


Another great Telugu scientist I would like to mention is Dr. Yellapragada Subba Rao. He is also known as the 'Man who made miracle drugs'. An american once said about him - "You've probably never heard of Dr. Yellapragada SubbaRow, yet because he lived you may be alive and well today. Because he lived you may live longer."

Many say he was worthy of winning the Nobel Prize. Born in a poor family in Bhimavaram in Andhra Pradesh, he later went to States, and inspite of doing the job of a night porter in a hospital to make his ends meet, went on to create life-saving medicines like tetracyline , folic acid vitamin, anti-malarial and anti-filarial drugs etc. Dr. Subba Rao founded the Fiske-Subba Rao effect .These articles give an insight into his life , which is a touching story of determination and struggle

http://www.vigyanprasar.com/dream/july99/JULYarticle2.htm
http://medind.nic.in/jac/t01/i1/jact01i1p96.pdf

Bharat Ratna Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya , India's most celebrated engineer was a Telugu, born on August 28, 1860 at Muddenahalli, a village in Kolar District of the then Mysore State (now Karnataka). Visvesvaraya's ancestors had migrated from Mokshagundam/ Siddanur village in Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh.

He was the architect of the KrishnaRajaSagar Dam , Brindavan Gardens.....one of the biggest dams in India, which irrigates a 120,000 acres of land. September 15th is celebrated as Engineer's Day in India in his rememberance. More about him: http://www.vigyanprasar.com/dream/feb2000/article1.htm

Prof. Raj Reddy, an Indian researcher in artificial intelligence and a professor at Carnegie Mellon University has designed a wirelessly networked personal computer , a low cost PC which can be afforded many people in the developing nations. He was a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and Engineering , Co-Chairman of US President's IT advisory committee and was instrumental in establishing a strong research centerin Computer Vision at IIIT, Hyderabad.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/818541.cms

Bharat Ratna Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (September 5, 1888 - April 17, 1975) is best known as the man who introduced the thinking of western idealist philosophers into Indian thought. He was an Oxford don who became the first Vice President and the second President of India. His mother tongue was Telugu.

September 5th is now celebrated as 'Teacher's Day' in India.
http://www.cs.memphis.edu/~ramamurt/srk_phil.html


Ravi Arimilli was the person awarded maximum number of patents in year 2003 in US.
http://www.tlca.com/youth/awesome-ravi.html

Sai Gunturi won the 76th US National Scripps Howard Spelling Bee Championship in 2003.
http://www.tlca.com/youth/awesome-kids-1.html

Another Telugu personality who achieved fame worldwide was Jiddu Krishnamurti. He is regarded as one of the greatest philosophical minds of the 20th Century. Born on 11th May 1895 in a small village near Madanepalle, Chittoor District, AP, he was later adopted by Ms.Annie Besant of the Theosophical Society. The Krishnamurti Foundation branches are present in most countries and his books have been translated into more than 50 languages.

A brief biography:-
http://physics.syr.edu/~qamar/Rajghat/JKrishnamurti.html
His philosophy:-
http://www.katinkahesselink.net/kr/
Krishnamurti Intl. Website
http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/


Vedam Venkata Sastri ( clearly a Telugu name) was the original name of Sri Bharati Krsna Tirthaji (1884-1960) ( please correct me if im wrong on this bit ) , the person who rediscovered Vedic Mathematics, an ancient system of fast mathematical computation ( this has recently been included in some mba courses' curriculum in UK colleges ).

Finally, in this topic, i cannot leave out the name of the great poet saint Thyagaraja (1767-1847), one of the trinity of Carnatic music [the other two being Syama Sastri (also a telugu) and Muthuswamy Dixitar]. His ancestors had migrated from Kakarla in Prakasam district to Tiruvayuru on the banks of the river Cauvery, which was then the nerve center of South Indian literature and music. He was hailed as "on whose art no human hand can improve!" http://home.att.net/~s-prasad/tyagaraja.htm

These are just a few examples which show the talent among people of Telugu origin. This list is endless.

Here are the names of some more eminent Telugu personalities:-
http://www.engr.mun.ca/~adluri/telugu/pictures/peoplepics.html

> One common thing is that they are all telugus/ andhras,
> whom we should be proud of. We are a great nation. But
> unfortunately lot has to be done to make us known.

Yes, it is unfortunate that most of us are not aware about our own history and the great leaders our nation and culture has produced. Go to any Thyagaraja Aaradhana...and see how many Telugus are actually present there and sing his keerthanas. How many of us are really aware that such eminent scientists, philosophers and social reformers came from the Telugu community ?

vtel
Proud to be a Telugu