(Spouse) Janakamma B.1853 Kurada
Daughter of Kurada Lakshminarasimham and Sarvalakshmamma
Died 27-9-1927 Bezwada @ residence of Dasu Vishnurao garu.

LIFE OF DASU TRIVIKRAMA RAO

D.T.Rao: A biographical note

Dasu Trivikrama Rao, known outside his family and friends as D.T.Rao, was born in 1894 at Kondamudi in Guntur district into a family of printing pioneers and littérateurs. His father was Dasu Kesava Rao who ran the biggest and most modern printing plant outside Madras. Kesava Rao was also the author of Vade Mecum, an Anglo-Vernacular Reader, that sold 17 editions. Trivikrama Rao’s aunt Sarada wrote a classical dance-drama Nagnajiti Parinayam at the age of 14. More than anything, his grandfather was the celebrated Mahakavi Dasu Sree Ramulu, author of much acclaimed Devi Bhagavatham and scores of other works that added to the glory of Telugu literature.

Shades of this illustrious pedigree surfaced quite early in Rao’s life as a student of the Church Mission High School, Bezwada, now known as Vijayawada. He did his matriculation in Allahabad in 1911. He took time off to visit Delhi at the time of King George V’s visit for his acclamation as Emperor of India and wrote a book entitled My Delhi Durbar Trip.

Nursing an ambition to become a barrister, Rao left in 1912 for Bombay on his way to England without the knowledge of his parents but with the help of an uncle, Dasu Vishnu Rao. The parents caught up with him at Bombay but allowed him to proceed to England. He first appeared for the London matriculation examination and cleared it with distinction. Later, he enrolled for sessions at the Gray’s Inn, one of the four great law schools in the empire. Meanwhile, the First World War broke out and Rao had to return home. As the war went on, a restless Rao left for Ceylon to join the King’s College in Colombo, affiliated to the University of London, to do LL.B (Hons). During this time, he also served the Daily News, Colombo, as assistant editor.

After the war, he returned to England to enlist at the Gray’s Inn. At this time, he worked with the India desk of the London Times. It is here he met former President V.V.Giri laying the foundation for a long-lasting friendship. Rao became the vice-president of the Indian Railwaymen’s Federation when Giri was its president. When Krishna Menon visited India as a member of a Labour Party delegation, he and Ellen Wilkinson, later to become a minister in the British cabinet, traveled all the way to Bezwada to call on Rao.

When he returned to India, Rao was offered a place on the bench of the Madras High Court. Bound as he was by an oath he had taken in the company of V.V.Giri and other nationalists, he declined it. They vowed not to appear before any court as long the British ruled India.

Rao was also in the vanguard of the library movement in the south. In 1935, he launched the first Telugu daily Andhra Varta in the Andhra region of Madras presidency. Many people believe that the slide in family fortunes began with the launch of this newspaper. Between 1939 and 1942, he ran an English daily called the Daily News.

He migrated to Hyderabad in 1942 to the state of Hyderabad where, till the time of his illness, he occupied high positions ranging from mining advisor to the government of Hyderabad to labour advisor to the same government. He was also chairman of the Minimum Wages Committee for the Oil Industry. Twice, he was chief labour officer of the Singareni Collieries, the country’s biggest coal mining unit. He was the only Indian officer of the British company with headquarters in London.

Rao passed away in 1960.