Writer Janumaddi passes away

The 88-year-old linguist was also the founder-secretary of C.P. Brown Memorial Library, Kadapa

Founder-secretary of C.P. Brown Memorial Library Janumaddi Hanumath Sastry, 88, passed away due to ill-health at RIMS Hospital here on Friday.

Born in Rayadurg in Anantapur district on September 5, 1926, where he studied up to high school, Dr. Hanumath Sastry began his career as a secondary grade teacher in the Government Training school at Bellary in Karnataka. Furthering his thirst for knowledge, he passed Visarada in Hindu and B.A. privately and worked as junior and senior deputy inspector and acquired MA degree in Telugu as well as English. He retired as lecturer in English from the Government College for Men in Kadapa.

A multi-faceted personality, he founded Kadapa District Writers Association and as its secretary for two decades, conducted over 400 literary meetings and eight anniversary functions. He was a member of lok adalat, honorary president of Association of Journalists of Kadapa district and selection committee member for light music and folk programmes in AIR, Kadapa.

His efforts and persistence led to establishment of Charles Phillip Brown Memorial Library in 1995 at the site where the former Assistant Collector in the British regime resided in Kadapa. Dr. Hanumath Sastry devoted most of his time and scholarship to perpetuate the memory of C.P. Brown, who was fascinated by Telugu and its richness that he not only studied it, but engaged Telugu pandits to collect and classify Telugu literary works. Brown library was taken over by Yogi Vemana University and being run as C.P. Brown Language Research Centre.

A prolific writer, he authored books such as “Maa Seema Kavulu, Mana Devathalu, Rasavadghattalu, Bellary Raghava, Mokshagundam Visweswarayya, C.P. Brown Charitra, Dr. Ambedkar, Ganapati “and translated the book Kasturi from Kannada to Telugu. He delivered over 150 talks on AIR and wrote over 2,000 articles for various magazines.

He organised C.P. Brown bicentennial celebrations in November 1998. Dr. Hanumath Sastry was a synonym for untiring service to literature and the Telugu University conferred Doctor of Letters on him in 1998. He is survived by wife Subbaratnamma, 80, two sons Janumaddi Vijayabhaskar and J. Nagaraju and three daughters Sarada, Swarnalatha and Lalitha.