Vavilla Ramaswamy Sastrulu (1812–1891) was Telugu Pundit and owner of Telugu Publishing house, Saraswati Mudralayamu which later got renamed as Vavilla Press. Vavilla family in Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...

 secured a page in history as a premier publishing house owning a press.

Birth and Childhood

Ramaswamy Sastrulu was born at Vavilla

Vavilla

Vavilla is a big village in Vidavaluru mandal, Kovuru Constitution, Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh, India. Most of the families in Vavilla are very well educated and has more than one employee in the family. The village has supplied Engineers, Professors, Govt.officers, Teachers and specialists...

 a village nearby Allur

Allur

Allur is a major village in Nellore district in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is also the headquarters of Allur Mandal.- Geography :The village is located at .It is about 25 km north of Nellore and 25 km south of Kavali...

, Nellore District

Nellore district

Sri Amarajeevi Potti Sri Ramulu Nellore District is one of the 23 districts of Andhra Pradesh. Nellore is famous for high paddy field, and so it got its name from "Nelli". The population of the district was 2,966,082 of which 22.45% were urban as of 2011....

. He is youngest among the five children of his parents. He lost his mother at a very young age, afterwhich his father shifted to another village named Dandikunta. Along with his brother Sri Anantanarayana Sastrulu had Vedādhyāyana (Learning of Vedas) from most famed Pundits Sri Gattupalli Sastrulu and Sri Krishna Upadhyayulu at Nellore

Nellore

Nellore , is a city and headquarters of Potti Sri Ramulu Nellore District, formerly Nellore district.And in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Ancient name of Nellore was "Vikrama Simhapuri"....

. Later he learnt Vyākarana (Grammar) from Pundit Sri Papayya Sastri at Draksharama

Draksharama

Draksharama is one of the Pancharama Kshetras in South India. It is located approximately 28 km southwest of the city of Kakinada, in the East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh....

.

First Printing Press in Telugu

Vavilla Ramaswamy Sastrulu started telugu press in 1854 in Chennai in a press named Hindu Bhasha Sanjeevini. Later he established "Adi Saraswathi Nilayam". During his lifetime till 1891, he published about 50 important books in Telugu and Sanskrit languages. Even C.P. Brown appreciated his efforts quoting "In days when people had to read books written by hand, V.Ramaswamy Sastrulu relieved their difficulties by starting a printing press". It was later handled by his son Vavilla Venkateswara Sastrulu and improved it greatly printing more than 900 books in Telugu, Tamil and English.

External links

• Vavilla press in The Great Indian patriots by P. Rajeshwar Rao.