Profiles

The Vampire of Doubts

V Si. had doubts at every step. “If I put it this way, this question crops up. If I say it that way, another question arises!” – This kind of uncertainty crept into his writings as well.

To this, DVG had said, “Questions keep popping up, but answers too must come up, right?”

I happen to recollect one such incident.

After V. P. Madhava Rao, Thanjavur Ananda Rao came to power as the Diwan. He was rich by birth and also possessed all the great attributes that a wealthy person should have. His father, Raja Sir. T. Madhava Rao, had been the Diwan of Baroda (Vadodara) and Travancore; He was well known as a person of remarkable intellect and competence. ‘Raja’ and ‘Sir’ were the titles conferred on him by the British Government. Sir. T. Madhava Rao served as the president of the Reception Committee at the first ever Congress session held in Madras.

The debate took place in Sanskrit.

Shastri’s argument was as follows – In the Vedic tradition, marriage is an instrument for dharma not enjoyment; so to facilitate refinement of the individual the child marriage is emphasized, and that is considered right.

V Si.’s World of Riches

H V R Iyengar, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India had immense respect for V Si. ‘Fate has not dealt too kindly with V Sitaramaiah’ – was the sum and substance of the worldly life of V Si.

The Case

The government filed a case against Sitarama Shastri and Ashvatthanarayana Rao, accusing the article published in Navajīvana to be treasonous.

Shastri had severely criticized the government’s callous attitude towards its own people in the January 1929 issue of Vīrakesari. The issue published on 15th January had an article titled Will Tyranny Win? The contents were as follows –

Journalist

Right from his childhood days, Sitarama Shastri was interested in writing. Observing this, Krishna Shastri sent him to M Venkatakrishnayya in Mysore. Sitarama Shastri started by writing articles to his newspaper and then contributed articles to other newspapers too. During those days he also got acquainted with ‘Tāyināḍu’ P R Ramayya, ‘Sādhvi’ Agaram Rangayya, and others who were trained under M Venkatakrishnayya. In a way it can be said that journalism was in his blood. Combined with that was his erudition.