By Nandiraju Radhakrishna
Mutnuri Krishna Rao Panthulu, a legendary editor, is the foremost among the great personalities who have set a trend and command respect to Telugu magazines and editors. As the editor of “Krishnapatrika”, Krishna Rao, who made the Telugu people conscious and served as the editor of the magazine for nearly four decades, and he remains the exemplary editor of Telugu Nata (Land) – even today.
Well acquainted with Telugu, English and Sanskrit literature, Krishna Rao was not only a powerful political commentator but also known as an art connoisseur. In his days, holding Krishna Patrika was a decoration for a literature lover.
Like Himalayan Mountain, he dresses in snow-white clothes and wrapped in a white turban, if he walked briskly on roads in Machilipatnam, people used to salute him as a mark of respect.
Multi-faceted scholar Mutnuri belongs to the group illustrated writers and scholars Chilakamarthi Lakshmi Narasimham, Komarraju Lakshmanarao, Kashinathuni Nageswara Rao, Unnava Lakshminarayana, Tanguturi Prakasam and others. They have shown their talents in the field of education, literature, journalism, national movement, drama etc.
He used to hold durbars and acted as a coordinator for those meetings in the office of Krishna Patrika, wherein eminent poets and writers like Katuri Venkateswara Rao, Kolavennu Ramakoteswara Rao, Pingali Nagendra Rao, Malladi Ramakrishna Sastri, Kodali Anjaneyulu, Puvvada Seshagiri Rao, Munimanikyam Narasimha Rao, Madhavapedi Buchi Sundararama Sastri and Jalasutram Rukmininatha Sastri used to participate. That literary congregation was described as Bhuvana Vijayam, the literary court of king Srikrishna Devaraya.
Pattabhi Sitaramaiah, Chellapilla Venkata Sastri, Chittoor Nagaiah and others used to participate in those meetings from time to time. The punch and sharpness that a newspaper editor should have are owned by Krishna Rao. Adivi Bapirajugaru named it as ‘Krishna Raya Darbaru’. It was those meetings that made him a prominent editor. Famous poet Sri Sri described him as a real and perfect editor.
Krishna Rao was born in 1879 in Mutnur, Krishna District. His mother passed away at birth, and he grew up in the care of his father’s brother due to his father’s death in childhood. Primary education was at Bandar Hindu High School, followed by FA (in those days it is equal to Intermediate) at Bandar Noble College where Raghupathi Venkataratnam Naidu was a lecturer.
Krishna Rao was influenced by Naidu’s social reform, anti-superstition movements and religious lectures in Brahma Samaj. Naidu tried to mould Krishna Rao not only as an ideal student but also as a propagandist of Brahma Samaj.
During his graduation days in Madras Christian College, Bipin Chandrapal used to visit Madras to give lectures for the Brahma Samaj. Much influenced by his lectures and principles Krishna Rao became his follower. He became very close to Pattabhi Sitaramaiah, his college mate in Madras. He went to Bengal along with him and led secret life. During his one year stay in Calcutta he had opportunities to mingle with Aravinda Ghosh and Tagore with the help of Bipin.
Having comeback to home town Bandar (Machilipatnam), in 1903 he joined Telugu Krishna Patrika as an assistant editor, started by the ‘patriot’ Konda Venkatappaiah. He took over the editorial duties of that magazine within four years. Krishna Rao was lured to his magazine by Kashinathuni Nageswara Rao, the editor of Andhra Patrika, promising a salary of five hundred rupees. On the other hand, Pattabhi Sitaramaiah tried his best to bring Krishna Rao into politics as a state level Congress leader, but Krishna Rao did not want to be away from the people he was born and raised in.
He worked in Krishna Patrika for the rest of his life and served the Telugu language. He studied Sanskrit literature as well as modern English literature. He used to read the works of Western writers like Emerson, Walt Whitman, Shelley, Cooper whenever he got a chance. Krishna Rao has the distinction of being the editor of the same magazine for all the years, not only in Telugu but in any other language. He set many new standards in his 38 years of editorial career.
He also managed a literary magazine “Andhra Bharati” for some time.
There were many discussions on political, art, cultural and social issues in the offices of Krishna Patrika, which was active during the national movement. Mutnuri considered managing the editorship of a magazine efficiently as an art and a penance. People had tremendous faith in the news in Krishna Patrika. While being an editor, he also worked as the district president of the Congress Committee.
An important characteristic of Krishna Rao’s personality was his independence. Krishna Rao was imprisoned in 1930, 1932 and 1943. He was dare enough to openly defied the rulers who forced him to pay price for his patriotism. Deeply acquainted with Telugu, English and Sanskrit literature, Krishna Rao was not only a powerful political commentator but also a well-known connoisseur of art. He was a sage of knowledge. He breathed his last on 25 June 1945. Subsequently, his fans compiled Mutnuri’s editorials into a book.
(June 25th, 79th death anniversary)
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