SRI KRISHNADEVARAYA TELUGU BHASHA NILAYAM (Sultan Bazar, Hyderabad), one of the oldest libraries in Telangana, was established on September 1st, 1901 by eminent personalities such as Jagirdar Sri Ravichettu Ranga Rao, Sri Komarraju Venkata Laxmana Rao (Diwan of Munagala Raja), and Sri Adiraju Veerabhadra Rao to protect the Telugu language and culture. It began its operations from Jagirdar Ranga Rao’s own bungalow in Ramkoti. As it became very popular with increased number of readers, it was shifted to a rented bungalow in Koti. 


Following sudden death of Sri Ranga Rao on July 3rd, 1910, his wife Smt Lakshmi Narasamma, resolved to fulfill her husband’s dream of providing its own building to this library. She donated Rs.3000 for the purchase of a old tiled house in Ramkoti (the same place where the present multistoried building stands) to accommodate this library. In 1915, Sri Madapati Hanumantha Rao, who took over as Secretary of this library, collected donations worth Rs.12000 from people, dismantled the old tiled house and completed the present building in 1921.Unfortunately Smt Lakshmi Narasamma passed away on October 25th, 1918 without seeing the new building. It was her contribution of Rs.3000, a big amount in those times, which laid the strong foundation for a great heritage library. It celebrated its 125th anniversary on September 1st this year.  It has an invaluable collection of 53776 books in Telugu, English, Urdu, and Hindi.

Recently, a faculty member of English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) approached this heritage library for the book History of Japan, published in 1906. It is a matter of great delight that this book was retrieved within minutes. The document treasure we see today in this library is the result of selfless service and sacrifice, spanning 125 years, of several individuals such as Sri Boorgula Ramakrishna Rao, Sri Kodati Narayana Rao, Prof. B Rama Raju, Dr. Dasarathi and Sri ML Narasimha Rao.

T.V. Prafulla Chandra
Professional Asst (Retd)
English & Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad

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