Kommuri Sambasiva Rao (1926–1994) was a Telugu novelist and a journalist.^[2][3] He was born into a family of writers. He wrote over 90 novels in Telugu, including the first horror novel in the language.^[4] He is best known for his detective novels.

Life

He was born on 26 October 1926 in Tenali, Guntur district, Madras State to Venkatramaiah, Padmavathi.^[1] Venkatramaiah used to own a printing press in Tenali. He is the younger brother of famous Telugu writer Chalam. Because Chalam was adopted by his grand father his surname got changed to Gudipati. His mother Padmavathi used to play stage dramas along with Bellary Raghava. Sambasiva Rao's elder sister Varudhini is a wife of Kodavatiganti Kutumba Rao, another famous writer.^[5] His younger sister Usha Rani was the chairman of Telugu division of National Book Trust, New Delhi.^[6]

He wrote short stories at the age of 14 years. He extensively wrote between 1957–1980. He was inspired the English writer Edgar Wallace.^[1] Indian ex-prime minister P. V. Narasimha Rao used to like his writings.^[1] Popular Telugu writer Malladi Venkata Krishna Murthy is also inspired by his writings.^[7]

Writings

He wrote first spy thriller called No.888 in Telugu. The first horror novel in Telugu Chavu Tappite Chalu was also written by him.^[1] He worked as a journalist for a magazine called Telugu Cinema. Later he ran a literatary journal called Manjusha. He is best known for his detective novels.^[8] He wrote 75 detective novels and close to 20 social novels. Close to 1 million copies of his novels were sold. Prominent character in his novels are Detective Yugandhar, and his assistant Raju, and Inspector Swarajya Rao. Background for most of the novels is Madras. Below is the partial list of novels written by him.

References