ప్రొఫెసర్ వెల్చేరు నారాయణ రావు Prof. Velcheru Narayana Rao

• Velcheru Narayana Rao
• Krishnadevaraya Professor of Languages and Cultures of Asia, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Research in the Humanities
• Professor Narayana Rao is the author of several books on Telugu Literature and South Indian history. His publications include Girls for Sale: Kanyasulkam. A Play from colonial India(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007), God On the Hill: Temple songs from Tirupati, With David Shulman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005)Textures of Time : Writing History in South India co-authored with Sanjay Subrahmanyam and David Shulman, ( New York: The Other Press, 2003), and Hibiscus on the Lake: Twentieth Century Telugu Poetry from India, (University of Wisconsin Press, 2003).

Velcheru Narayana Rao.
Formal Education
1954 B.A. Sir C.R.Reddy College, Andhra University
1968 M.A. Andhra University
1970 Diploma in Linguistics, Osmania University
1974 Ph.D. Andhra University
Appointments
1971 Lecturer, Department of South Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin-
Madison.
1975 Assistant Professor, Department of South Asian Studies, University of
Wisconsin-Madison.
1981 Associate Professor, Department of South Asian Studies, University of
Wisconsin-Madison.
1987 Professor, Department of South Asian Studies, now Languages and Cultures
of Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
2009-10 Visiting Professor, University of Chicago
2010 Fall Visiting Professor, Emory University.
Publications
In Telugu
Books: Select list; complete list too long to give here.
Narayana Ravu Kathalu. Short stories, Eluru: Gita Book House, 1965.
Telugulo Kavita Viplavala Svarupam. (Structure of Literary Revolutions in Telugu).
Revised form of Ph.D. dissertation, Vijayawada: Visalaandhra Publishing House.
1978. Second edition, Hyderabad Book Trust, 1988. Third revised edition, Tana
Publications, 2009.
In English.
Books:
For the Lord of the Animals: Poems from the Telugu Kalahastisvara Satakamu of
Dhurjati. Translation with Introduction, Notes and Afterword. With Hank Heifetz.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.
Siva's Warriors: Basava Purana of Palkuriki Somanatha. Translation assisted by Gene
Roghair, with a critical introduction and notes. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1990.
Symbols of Substance: Court and State in Nayaka-Period Tamilnadu. With David
Shulman and Sanjay Subrahmanyam. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992.
When God is a Customer: Telugu Courtesan Songs by Ksetrayya and Others. With
A.K.Ramanujan and David Shulman, Berkeley: University of California Press,
1994.
A Poem at the Right Moment : Remembered Verses from Premodern South India. With
David Shulman. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
Classical Telugu Poetry: An Anthology. Edited and translated With David Shulman;
University of California Press, Berkeley, 2002. Indian edition, Oxford University
Press, Delhi. 2001
Twentieth Century Telugu Poetry. An anthology of modern poetry translated from the
Telugu, with an introduction, notes and an Afteressay, Oxford University Press,
Delhi.2001
Lover’s Guide to Warrangal: Vallabharaya’s Kridabhiramamu. A 15th century parody
translated from the Telugu, with an Afterword. With David Shulman. New Delhi:
Permanent Black. 2002
Textures of Time: Writing History in South India. With David Shulman, and
Sanjay Subrahmanyam. Indian edition: New Delhi: Permanent Black.2002;
American edition: New York: Other Press, 2003.
Hibiscus on the Lake: Twentieth Century Telugu Poetry from India. With an introduction,
notes and an Afteressay. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.2003
Sound of the Kiss, or the Story that Must Never be Told: Translation of the sixteenth
century Telugu Novel in verse, Kalapurnodayamu of Pinglai Surana, with an
Afterword. With David Shulman. New York: Columbia University press.2003
Textures du temps Ecrire l’histoire en Inde. (with David Shulman and Sanjay
Subrahmnayam.) French translation of Textures of Time. Paris: Editions du Seuil,
2004.
God On the Hill: Temple songs from Tirupati . Translation of a selection of 16th century
Telugu poet Annamayya who wrote songs addressed to lord Venkatesvara of
Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. With David Shulman. New York: Oxford University
Press, 2005.
The Demon’s Daughter: A love story.. Translation with an afteword and notes of a 16th
century novel in verse by Pingali Suranna. With David Shulman. New York: State
University of New York Press, 2006.
Girls for Sale: Kanyasulkam. A Play from Colonial India. Translation of the Telugu play
By Gurajada Apparao, with notes and an Afterword. Indiana University Press,
2007.
How Urvashi was Won. Tr. of Kalidasa’s Vikaramorvasiya. With David Shulman.
Clay Sanskrit Library, 2009.
A Doll’s Wedding and Other Stories. Tr. of short stories by Chaso. With David
Shulman. With an Afterword. Forthcoming from Penguin, India.
2. Articles or Chapters in books
"Political Novel in Telugu." Politics and the Novel in India. Edited by Yogendra K.
Malik. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1975. Pp. 94-105.
“Banditry in Mogul India: Historical and Folk Perspectives," with John Richards.
IndianEconomic and Social History Review. 17 (1980). Pp. 95-120. Reprinted in
Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam. eds. The Moghul State: 1526-1750.
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998.
"Ha Ha Hu Hu." Tr. of a novel by Viswanatha Satyanarayana. Journal of South Asian
Literature, 16.1 (1981). pp. 103-31.
"Horse Headed Gods and White Skinned Men: A Second Look at 'Ha Ha Hu Hu' of
Viswanatha Satyanarayana." Journal of South Asian Literature, 16.1 (1981). pp.
132-45.
The following articles in Adingdon Dictionary of Living Religions, edited by Keith Crim.
Nashville, Tennessee: Adingdon Press, 1981: Agastya, p. 13 Bali, p. 89 Hanuman,
p. 294 Laksmana, p. 421 Rama, p. 597 Ramayana of Valmiki. Pp. 599-600
Sanskrit, Language and Religious Literature, pp. 654-56 Sita. Pp. 695-96 Valmiki,
p. 783
"Proverbs and Riddles." Indian Folklore I, CIIL Folklore Series 3, Mysore: Central
Institute of Indian Languages, 1981. Pp. 22-31.
"Telugu Intellectuals' Role in the Process of Social Change." South Asian Intellectuals
and Social Change edited by Yogendra L. Malik. New Delhi: Heritage Publishers,
1982. Pp. 308-38.
"Valladu the Hero." Tr. of Viravalladu, a novel by Visvanatha Satyanarayana, with a
Foreword. Journal of South Asian Literature, 17.2 (1982). Pp. 193-224.
"Afterword: A Structural View of Viravalladu." Journal of South Asian Literature. 17.2
(1982). Pp. 225-35.
"A Selection of Modern Telugu Poetry." Tr. with Carlo Coppola. Journal of South Asian
Literature. 20.1(1985). Pp. 169-93.
"From For the Lord of the Animals." Tr. with Hank Heifetz from Dhurjati's
Kalahastisvara Satakamu. Translation: The Journal of Literary Translation. 14
(1986). pp. 200-202.
"Epics and Ideologies: Six Telugu Folk Epics," in Another Harmony: New Essays on
the Folklore of India, edited by Stuart Blackburn and A. K. Ramanujan. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1986. pp. 131-65.
The following folk tales from Andhra Pradesh, selected and translated in Folk tales
of India, edited by Brenda E. F. Beck, et al, Chicago: University of Chicago
Press,1987: “Borrowed Earrings.” Pp. 207. “Tenali Ramalingadu.” Pp. 236-38.
“Our Wife.” Pp. 246-47. “I'll Take Two.” p. 247.
The following articles in the Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea
Eliade. “Hanuman.” Pp. 6:194-95. “ Ramayana.” Pp. 12:213-15. “Rama.” Pp.
12:208-09. “Tulsidas.” Pp. 15:81. “Valmiki.” Pp. 15:184-85.
"The Sinless Man." Parabola, 12.2. Summer 1987. Pp. 72-74.
"Tricking the Goddess: Cowherd Katamaruju and Goddess Ganga in the Telugu Folk
Epic," in Criminal Gods and Demon Devotees: Essays on the Guardians of
Popular Hinduism, edited by Alf Hiltebeitel. Albany: State University of New
York Press, 1989. Pp. 105-121.
"History, Biography and Poetry at the Tanjavur Nayaka Court." (with David Shulman) in
Social Analysis. 25, September 1989, special issue on Identity, Consciousness and
the Past: The South Asian Scene. ed. H.L. Seneviratne. Pp. 115-130.
"Courts and Lawyers: Images from Literature and Folklore", in Law, Politics and Society
in India, edited by Yogindra K. Malik and Dhirendra Vajpeyi. Delhi: Chanakya
Publications. 1990. Pp. 196-214.
"A Ramayana of Their Own: Women's Oral Tradition in Telugu," in Many Ramayanas:
The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia, edited by Paula Richman.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. Pp. 114-136.
"Powers of Parody in Nayaka Period Tanjavur," with David Shulman, in Gender Genre
and Power in South Asian Expressive Traditions, edited by Arjun Appadurai, Frank
Korom and Margaret Mills. 1992. Pp. 428-464
"Marriage-Broker for a God: The Tanjavur Nayakas in the Mannarukuti Temple." (with
David Shulman), in The Sacred Center as the Focus of Political Interest, edited by
Hans Bakker, Groningen Oriental Studies. Vol. VI Egbert Forsten: Groningen,
1992. Pp. 179-203.
"Purana as Brahminic Ideology." in Purana Perennis: Reciprocity and Transformation in
Hindu and Jaina Texts, edited by Wendy Doniger. New York: State University of
New York Press, 1993. Pp. 85-100; 265-266.
Review of Philip Lutgendorf's Life of a Text: Ramacaritmanas of Tulsidas, Journal of
Asian Studies, 54 (2), May 1995. Pp. 600-603.
"Texture and Authority: Telugu Riddles and Enigmas," in Untying the Knot: On Riddles
and other Enigmatic Modes, edited by. Galit-Hasan-Rokem and David Shulman.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Pp. 191-207.
"Coconut and Honey: Sanskrit and Telugu in Premodern Andhra." Social Scientist 23
(10-12), October-December, 1996. Pp. 24-40.
“Literature”, a review article in India’s World and U.S. Scholars, 1947-1997, ed. Joesph
W. Elder, Edward C. Dimock, Jr. and Ainslie Embree. New Delhi: Manohar and
American Institute of Indian Studies, 1998. Pp. 335-353.
“The Wooden Horse.” Translation of Nagnamuni’s Koyya Gurram. Indian Literature,
XLIV.196. March-April 2000. Pp. 151-165.
“A Storm and a Poem: Nagnamuni’s Koyyagurram Revisited After Twenty Years,”
Indian Literature, XLIV.196. March-April 2000. Pp. 166-77.
“Politics of an Epic: Colonialism, Print Culture and Literary Movements in Telugu
Ramayanas.” in Questioning Ramayanas , edited by Paula Richman. University
of California, Berkeley, 2001. Pp. 159-185.
“Circulation, Piety and Innovation: Recounting Travels in Early Nineteenth Century
South India”. With Sanjay Subrahmanyam. In Society and Circulation: Mobile
people and Itinerant Cultures in South Asia 1750-950. Edited by Claude
Markovits et al. New Delhi: Permanent Black. 2003. Pp. 306-355.
“Multimple Literary Cultures in Telugu: Court, Temple and Public. In Sheldon Pollock,
Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia. Berkeley:University
of California Press, 2003. Pp. 383-436.
“Print and Prose: Pundits, Karanams and the East India Company in the Making of
Modern Telugu.” In India’s Literary History: Essays on the Nineteenth Century.
Delhi: Permanent Black. 2004. Pp. 146-66.
“When Does Sita Cease To Be Sita: Notes toward a cultural grammar of Indian
Narratives.” In Ramayana Revisted. edited by Mandakranta Bose, Oxford
University Press, New York.2004. Pp.219-240.
“Puranas.” A critical survey of scholarship. In The Hindu World
Routledge. Pp. 97-115.
“Sita Locked Out: A Telugu Women’s Song of Sita”. In Manushi, No.139. Nov-Dec,
2003. Pp. 26-30.
“A new imperial idiom in the sixteenth century: Krishnadevaraya and his political theory
of Vijayanagara.” In South Indian Horizons: Felicitation Volume for Francois
Gro. Ed. Jean-Luc Chevillard. Pondichery: Institut Francaise De Pondichery,
Ecole Francaise D’Extreme-Orient. 2004. Pp. 597-625. To be reprinted in a
volume edited by Sheldon Pollock, forthcoming from Duke University Press.
“Urmila Sleeps: A Telugu Women’s Ramayana Song. in Manushi, 153, March-April,
2006. Pp. 14-21.
"A Family that Sang for the God: Annamayya at Tirupati," with David Shulman,
in Incompatible Visions: South Asian Religions in History and Culture,"
Festschrift for David Knipe. Madison WI: Center for South Asia, University
of Wisconsin-Madison, 2006. pp. 21-34,.
“Sita Locked Out” and “Lakshmana Laughs.” Translation of two Telugu texts with notes.
In Telling Ramayana Stories in Modern South India edited by Paula Richman,
Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
“Textures of Time: A Pragmatic Response,” With David Shulman and Sanjay
Subrahmanyam. History and Theory, Vol. 46, 2007, pp. 408-26.
“Buddhism in Modern Andhra: Literary Representations from Telugu.”
The Journal of Hindu Studies. Advance Access published on September 30,
2008 J Hindu Studies 2008 1: 93-119; doi:10.1093/jhs/hin005
“History and Politics in the Vernacular: Reflections on Medieval and Early Modern
South India”, With Sanjay Subrahmanyam in Raziuddin Aquil and Partha
Chatterjee, eds., History in the Vernacular (New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2008),
pp. 25-66.
“Notes on Political Thought in Medieval and Early Modern South India.” With Sanjay
Subrahmanyam, in Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 43, No. 1, 2009, pp. 175-210.
Work in Progress
Books:
Tishyarakshita. Tr of a Telugu play based on legends about Ashoka’s second wife
Tishyarakshita by Buccibabu, with an introduction and an afterword.
Ha Ha Hu Hu and Vishnu Learns English. Tr. of Viswanatha Satyanarayana's Telugu
Novels with an introductory essay and notes.
Srinatha: A Cultural Biography. Lie of a 15th century Telugu poet. With David Shulman.
Papers or chapters in books:
“Many Lives of a Text: Sumati Śatakamu in Colonial Andhra.” Forthcoming in a volume
edited by Michael Bergunder, Heiko Frese, and Ulrike Schroeder. South Asia
Institute, Heidelberg.
“Nala: The Many Lives of a Story.” With David Shulman. Forthcoming in a volume
tentatively entitled Nala in Indian Literature and Religion. Edited by Susan
Wadley. New Delhi: Chronicle Books.
“Ideologies of State Building in Vijayanagara and Post-Vijayanagara South India.” With
Sanjay Subrahmanyam To appear in a volume on Comparative Empires, edited
by Peter Bang, expected to be submitted to Cambridge University Press.
Recent Invited talks
“Rasa as human experience: Reading Vikramorvasiya after reading Abhijnana
Sakuntala.” presented at the conference on Sanskrit Kavya: Innovation and
Turning Points, at the Institute for Advanced Study, Hebrew University,
Jerusalem. May 27-30, 2004.
Participant: Exploring the Nature of our Offence: A Symposium on the Study of
Hinduism in a World of Identity Politics and Religious Intolerance. Isalen
Institute. Big Sur, CA. December 16-19. 2004
“Is There a Place for Telugu in World Literature?” (A talk in Telugu for a community of
Telugu people, at Santa Clara Public Library) December 19, 2004
“On Nīti Texts in Medieval and Early Modern South India.” Center for Social Science
Research, Calcutta, India. December 26, 2004.
“Translating from Telugu: Problems and Prospects.” University of Hyderabad, India
January 10, 2005.
“Future of Telugu in an Age of Globalization.” (Talk in Telugu at the Press Club,
Hyderabad, India. January 13, 2005
Inivited for a week’s stay as visiting scholar to work with Sanjay Subrahmanyam,
Department of History, UCLA. March 21-26., 2005.
“Premodern” Modernities: Indian Modernity before the Nineteenth Century.”
Presented at the Symposium on Indian Modernities, at the Central Institute of
English and Foreign Languages Hyderabad, Janaury 7th and 8th, 2006.
“Ideologies of State Building in Vijayanagara and Post-Vijayanagara South India”
(with Sanjay Subrahmanyam.) Paper presented in a conference on Experience of
Empire: the constitution of power and the formation of local élites in the longue
durée, at the Finnish Institute, Athens, Greece. 19-21 June 2006.
“The Five Senses: Do they guide or misguide?” Paper presented at a conference on
Senses of Religion, at Yale University, New haven CT. October 27-29, 2006.
“All the God’s Women: Love life of Venkateswara at Tirupati.” Distinguished lecture at
Columbia University, New York, jointly with David Shulman. January 29, 2007.
“Catu Poems Quoted in Conversation: Literature as public sphere in Early modern south
India.” Paper presented at a South Asia symposium on Vernacular Public Spheres,at
Yale University, New Haven, CT. April 6-7, 2007.
“What happens when a poem is translated into a poem? Sriharsha’s Nishadhiya-carita,
and Srinatha’s Srngara-naishadhamu. Joint talk with David Shulman at the
Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago.
May 18, 2007.
“Poems that Travel: Literary public space in early modern south India.” Paper presented
at a Workshop on Ideas in Circulation, at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University,
Oxford, U.K. May 25-26, 2007.
“ Imagined Biographies and Unwritten Readings: Authors and Texts in Indian
Literature.” Talk at Emory University, April, 27, 2008.
“Dreams of a Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagara in History and Literature.” Paper
presented at Sensitive Readings: Conference to honor David Shulman on his
sixtieth birthday. Jerusalem, December 21-22, 2008.
Awards, Honors and Grants
1987 Fellow, The Institute for Advanced Studies. Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
1991 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow.
1999 Fellowship of the Institute for Research in the Humanities, U.W. Madison,
1999. Appointed Krishnadevaraya Professor of Languages and Cultures of Asia.
2000-2001. Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.
2004. A.K. Ramanujan Prize in Translation awarded jointly to David Shulman and me by
Association for Asian Studies.
2005. Senior Fellow: Institute for Research in the Humanities. U.W. Madison
2005. Invited to Sanskrit Academy, Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University,
Jerusalem for one month.
2005 Elected Radhakrishnan Memorial Lecturer, 2004-05 University of Oxford. Gave
three lectures during April 15-May 15, 2005 at All Souls College, Oxford,
England.
2008 Distinguished faculty lecture at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
2009. Talk at MESAS, Emory University, Atlanta, GA.
2010. Reading Reading: Tex that write Authors in Indian Literatures. Talk at SALC,
University of Chicago.