he extends it to literature which reflects the ideas which permeate the intellectual atmosphere of Europe, there is no such literature at all in Telugu.
Let us consider the novels in Mr. Ramalinga Reddi’s lists, where if anywhere in contemporary Telugu literature, one would expect literary treatment of modern social problems, Indian or European. But to the Telugu novelist, the present is a sealed book, and the historical novel has a fatal fascination, because there he thinks he is absolved from the embarrassing restraints of probability and can indulge to his hearts content in describing the imaginary patriotism, of (individuals) and the perfidy, cruelty and some times cowardice (the...) novels of the Vijnanachandrika series and his (...) is almost all contemporary fiction like wise historical. Most of these novelists have no idea of the requirements of a historical novel and many of them have no acquaintance with English literature. The history of the periods treated in the novels hardly exists. It is being laboriously worked out by specialists who find the ground uncertain everywhere through paucity of materials. The authors are ignorant alike of history and methods of historical research and do incalculable harm to society by spreading false ideas.
A cursory examination of the novels of the Vijnanachandrika series, will convince anyone, of the justice of my estimate. Let us take the latest publication, a prize novel entitled the Empire of Vizianagar, which was heralded with a fanfare of trumpets.
It should be borne in mind that both the General Editor of the series and the Manager of the publishing society are responsible for the contents, because the author acknowledges in the Preface that the Manager has revised the novel, and the Editor adds a Foreword lauding the novelist for his glowing account of the Empire of Vizianagara.
Without feeling the absurdity of it, the author tells the reader in the Preface that he had commenced a study of the Indian History on the 28th of April 1913 with a view to writing a story, that is, historical novel; started writing it on the 1st May and finished it on the 26th of the same 1’ 956 My Own Thoughts
