Digavalli venkata Sivarao
14 February 1898 – 03 October 1992
Introduction Mr. Sivarao, a lawyer by profession, writer and historian by his interest had done vast and memorable literary work. He was a known fighter for truth and honesty. His characteristic personal traits were sharp memory, straightforwardness and diligence. He was outspoken and upright with principles, honest in conduct and actions in professional, public and private life. Several historical facts and events were brought out by his research work and his articles were lucid and interesting. Even the titles of his articles generated curiosity to the readers. He never took advantage of his political and professional connections. He lived frugally and shunned pomp and show. Despite many requests and offers that came in his way as in the case of other freedom fighters, with humility he refused to be called as freedom fighter since he was a practicing lawyer and did not go to Jail. He shunned publicity and attending meetings.As a freedom fighter he did considerable work during Gandhiji’s Satyagraha movement knowing fully well sooner or later that he will be arrested, jailed and even beaten like so many others. He was ready to sacrifice his lucrative legal practice for the freedom of the country exposing his his family with wife and small children to the risk of resultant consequences. It was sheer providence that he escaped jail despite two sedition cases against him and his house searches. His contribution during freedom movement was valuable in the form of his educative writings exposing the British rule in India exploitation the people and economy of our country. The common man and the congress worker at grass root level were enlightened by his writings on political, economic, democratic and constitutional aspects. Whenever he finds time he immersed in his literary work. It is evident from his diary that his father left behind a huge burden of debt and a large alienated/ mortgaged property when Mr. Sivarao was 10 years old. He had no proper schooling till then. As a young boy he passed through severe financial hardship. Fortunately his brother in law Mr. Boddapati Purnahiah[1870- 1939] who was a Telegraph Master in 1910 at Calicut [ later Superintendent of Telegraphs] took him and his mother under his protection and put him in proper school. Though literary work was dear to his heart, he never neglected his profession. He was considered as legal luminary during his times. He had handled complicated and sensational cases of very prominent clients. Well known aspects of his literary work were his many articles and books which speak by themselves about his literary work. His other lesser known memorable work which he did before and after independence can be summed up in a few points before going into relevant particulars of these aspects: (1) Collected and collated important information relating to Madras and Andhra provinces for the Congress central command during Gandhiji’s freedom movements for independence. (2) Drafted several pamphlets, resolutions memoranda, lection manifestos, felicitation addresses (3) Translated circulars and important statutory instructions including bye laws and cooperative rules and regulations for co operative and the congress volunteers (4) worked in cooperative movement as Director for Andhra Cooperative Institue and also Secretary of Krishna District Cooperative Stores. As lawyer he appeared in legal cases defending workers of cooperative society including it Chairman, Singaraju Subbarao and others(5) Drafted memoranda and submitted to visiting commissions and committees like India League, Khosla Committee on River water project s etc (6) Confronted the erring officers in public and judicial domain (7) Mobilized public opinion and exposed the substandard literary output of Govt committees (8) Helped to publish books of two prominent celebrities of the time (9) Wrote introductions, forewords to some books (10) Dedicated some of his books to other (11) Gave few speeches in select meetings and conventions including on All India Radio at Madras and Bezawada Broadcasting stations (12) his reminiscences were recorded by the Govt for who is who in freedom movement. Right from the time he joined the Bezawada Bar in 1922 , besides legal practice his hobby was history and politics. He used to get lot of books from Ramamohan library and also consignments of books from Connemara Library Madras for many years. Sivarao garu outlived most of his contemporaries [1898-1992]. With razor sharp memory he was able to speak with facts and figures and locate the required subject from out of many bundles of vast notes he gathered over years. He invariably took down notes simultaneously as he read a book. That had helped him in long run to write fresh articles with bibiliography even at advanced age. Despite failing eye sight he continued his literary work for a few years without cataract operation. When he was past 93, one day he read in the Times of India about the IOL implantation. Then he was convinced about its advantages over the conventional cataract operation and decided to undergo the procedure. His cataract operation was done in June 1991 at Anand in Gujarat when he was living in Madhya Pradesh. Thereafter he continued to read and write with sense of purpose and direction. He had vast source material at hand for writing articles. He was born on 14/02/1898 at Kakinada. He settled down in Vijayawada as lawyer from 1922. When his hearing was impaired in1965 stopped going to courts. His wife Kamala [d/o Budhiraju Murthyraju] died in 1978. He continued his chamber practice till 1980 and shifted to Hyderabad. He maintained a voluminous diary which he named it as “Family History and diary of chronological events”. Mr. Sivarao recorded dates of several events of pubic importance from 1815 to corroborate his grandfather’s personal events. Similarly he covered the timeline of his father and his own life time till 1992. The events during1929 (self rule declared) to 1947( independence achieved) covering salt Satyagraha and Civil Disobedience and Quit India movements in West Krishna District and Bezawada throw light on freedom fight and sacrifice of several people who had gone into oblivian. He incorporated in his diary special passages as ‘reminiscence’ of his favourite subjects like that of his parents, cultural life at Rajahmundry during his high school days from1910 to 1916 , Presidency college and Victoria Hostel in Madras from 1917 to 1922., Salt styagraha & Civil Disobedience movements in Krishna District of 1930s. Some of the inmates of Victoria hostel who were his contemporaries in different faculties were in touch with him throughout their life span. Mr. Advai Bapiraju B.A.(Hon), Basavaju Apparao B.A B.L , Dr. Dandu Subba Reddy M.D, Dr. Chaganti Suryanrayana Murthy MBBS, Dr. K. L. Rao M.Sc., Ph.D, Mr. Avinash Lingam Chettiar B.A { Philonthrophist of Coimbator}, Mr. M.Bhakthavatsalam[Ex CM of Tamil Nadu] , Mr. Koka Subbarao [Retired Chief Justice of India ] etc to recall a few. He continued his reading and writing till he died on 03/10/1992 at Bhopal. He literally breathed his last while reading Major Dirrom’s book “a narrative of the campaign in India which terminated the war with Tippusultan in 1792”. History of Digavalli Family: Main portion of his write up “History of Digavalli family” is incorporated here in the first person [I/we] of Mr. Sivarao. “From an old genealogical tree written on Kondapalli paper preserved in our family records, I could trace that the progenitor of our family was Sri Digavalli Yerram Raju garu and my paternal grand father Timmarazu Pantulu garu was his descendent of the sixth generation .Allowing thirty years per generation our family history goes back to the year 1626 when Golconda Sultans ruled the northern circars. My grand father mentioned in his Will dated 13.1.1856 that our family had got the Mirasi right of Collecting Lavazmal, a fee collected on the village affairs by the samprati karanam who was the head of a group of villages . We belong to the Aruvela Niyogi sect of Telugu Brahmins of Koundinya Sagotra Apasthambha Sootra of the Yajussakha of the Vedas. From our house name it can easily be understood that we originally belonged to Digavalli, a village which is situated near Nuzvidu town which is a taluq head quarters and also the seat of the Nuzvidu Zamindars in the Krishna District. A distant kinsman of ours still continues to act as Karanam of Digavalli village. The ancestors of my grand father settled in Koyyur a village near Digavalli. They owned lands in that village as well as in Ramanakkapeta and Bommuluru. On account of the failure of crops due to frequent draughts and need to maintain a big family and the necessity of spending heavy amounts for marriages and obsequies my grandfather’s father Ramalingam garu became indebted. Sri Narasimha Appa Rao the Nuziveedu Zamindar had lot of trouble with the corrupt members of the Machilipatnam Chief Council and was removed from the Zaminadari. Collector was appointed to advise the Zamindari. Narasimha Appa Rao fled to the forests in the Nuzividu and began to raid the villages around Nuzividu . He was ultimately allowed to stay in Nuzividu but died. The Estate was placed under the Court of Wards during the minority of successor and ultimately it was partitioned between two sons. Thus there was no peace or order for long time in that region. My grandfather, Timmarazu garu who was born about the year 1794 studied in the village school for some time and after his upanayanamu he left for Ellore [present Eluru] town in 1807 where he studied for three years learnt English also and went to Rajahmundry to seek his fortune. Thimmaraju garu entered the services of the East India Company in 1811 as Assistant to English record keeper in the Court of the District Judge of Rajahmundry. Later in 1820 he was appointed as English Record Keeper at the Office of the Rajahmundry District Collector with head quarters at Kakinada. He held various posts in the court and also acted as Sadar Amin or native judge. While so, three former divisions under the Collectors of Kakinada and Mogaliturru and Rajhamundry were constituted into the single district of Rajahmundry in 1820 and Mr. G.M.C Robertson was appointed as the Collector of the new District. My grandfather thought that he will have a better prospects if he entered Revenue Dpt of the new District and requested Mr.Vileart the District Judge to recommend him to Mr. Robertson for a job in his office. He was accordingly appointed as the English Record Keeper in the Huzur Office Kakinada which was the head quarters of the Rajhamundry district. In 1822 Thimmaraju garu was granted a big house site of 8640 sq. yards in Kakinada by Mr.Robertson in 1822. He was very diligent in his work and rose to be a Tahasildar by 1827. Mr.Austry, the then Collector was very kind to him. He had great influence with the Zamindars of the District. Besides building a house in the house site at Kakinada Thimmaraju garu built the great Temple of Sri Bhimeswara Swami. Two inscriptions of 1828 and 1831 in the temple mention this great act of piety. He was English Record Keeper in 1834-35. There is a file in A.P. State Archives about Timmarazu garu’s enquiry in the case against Khambam Narasingarao. Thimmaraju garu was appointed as Sheristadar in the office of the Subcollector in-charge of Godavari Anicut and Dhawaleswaram from1847. He was appointed as Court of Wards manager of Pithapur Estate on the demise of Rao Surya rao garu in 1850. One K.Subbarayadu garu the father of Viresalingam pantulu garu worked under him 1851. Thimmaraju Pantulu garu was also appointed to act as the Huzur Sheristadar from 1852 which job he held till he retired in 1855 He died on 7.2.1856. His eldest son Venkata Siva Rao garu was 26 years old then. His second son Venkata Ratnam garu (my father) was then a boy of six years old. My paternal uncle Siva Rao garu was Dewan of Pithapur raja from 1813 for 18 years. He brought up my father and educated him, performed his upanayanam and marriage. My father entered the revenue department and after rising to the rank of a Deputy Tahasildar retired as a Sub-magistrate in 1904. He had one son and two daughters by his first wife and daughter and son (my self) by his second wife. My brother was employed as a Tahsildar when he was appointed at Court of Wards manager for Vuyyuru Zamindari. He retired as Dewan of Vuyyuru Raja in 1926. His first son was an advocate and his second son a health officer and died as a Director of Public Health in 1956. Thus our family has been closely associated with the British Government during the days of the East India Company till transfer of power in 1947. I was born in my ancestral house at Kakinada on 14the February 1898 when my father was a Sub-magistrate at Peddapur. My father was highly conscious of aristocratic traditions of our family and lived in a grand style though the pay he got was small. Ever since my paternal uncle died in 1892 my father was spending money without any restraint. He celebrated బాలసార and other functions on a lavish scale on many occasions. He would camp at కోటిపల్లి and other places of pilgrimage and feed Brahmins. He would invite Kuchipudi actors and ask them to present their యక్ష గానం and dramas including భామకలాపం. I came to know that he even invited పువ్వుల పాపాచలం, famous danseurs from Ellore. He spent money for completing the వాహనం కొట్లు in Bhimeswara Temple and celebrating Kalyanam every year for five days on a grand scale. He would also celebrate Navaratri puja, Pongal and other festivals in the same style. He employed a Brahmin for daily worship besides the casual cook and other servants. My father would give money freely to his sister and daughters and others. He actually gave away a house to his sister and eldest daughter in 1900 a s a gift valuing at Rs1200/-. This was recently (1980s) sold away for Rs one and half lakhs by a boy who was adopted by their descendents. My father was a Noble soul and was very liberal in his dealings with others. He was easily deceived by the people. His one weakness was to listen to the flattery with pleasure. The sycophants took full advantage of this weakness of his. Although he inherited larger properties and lands in various places he was interested to purchase new lands in Cheyyeru in Amalapuram taluq, wet and dry lands by borrowing large sums. He foolishly took over 12 acres offered as maintenance to his second daughter agreeing to pay Rs 12000. He became indebted to the extent of Rs34000/- by these two transactions besides other debts be had incurred from time to time. He had to approach creditors some of them were cruel money lenders. He mortgaged properties to the pressing creditors and pledged valuable jewelry to Marwadis to raise money to pay pressing creditors. He had to retire from service in 1904 two year
