Muppala Ranganayakamma

Muppala Ranganayakamma Biography

Muppala Ranganayakamma is a well-known Telugu writer, best known for feminist writings. She is a writer and critic, mononymously known as Ranganayakamma. She is attracted to Marxism. She won the Andhra Pradesh Government Sahitya Akademi Award for the novel Balipeetam in 1965. Janaki Vimukti, Rachayitri, Balipeetham, Krishnaveni, Pekamedalu, Koolina Godalu, Stree, Chaduvukunna Kamala, Kala Enduku, Sweet Home, Andhakaaramlo, Ramayana Vishavruksham and Idandee Mahabharatam are her published works. The main theme in her works is gender equality and most of them are women-centric ones. She published a total of 60 books.

Muppala Ranganayakamma was born in Bommidi village near Tadepalligudem in West Godavari in 1939, now a part of Andhra Pradesh. She completed her 10^th standard studies in 1955. As her parents couldn’t afford her expenses to send her to a distant college, she couldn’t study further. After three years her parents married her off. But the marriage lasted for only 12 years, and the couple separated in 1970. Muppala was the surname of her husband. She had children from the marriage. Later she lived with Bapuji (alias Gandhi) without a civil marriage ceremony, along with her kids from first marriage. Bapuji was a bachelor ten years junior to her.

As a writer she started off writing soon after discontinuing studies at the age of 15-16. As a writer she contributed 15 Telugu novels, 70 short stories, apart from a few essays. She came into contact with Marxism in 1973, almost 18 years after she started writing. After that her books reflected leftist ideologies. Ramayana Vishavruksham (1974) is her major work, which criticized the Hindu epic Ramayana from Marxist point of view. Marx Capital parichayam, an introduction to Marx's Das Kapital is another major work.

Published: October 08, 2018

Updated: October 08, 2018