Gurajada Apparao (1862--1915) is regarded as the father of modern Telugu literature.Velcheru Narayana Rao is Krishnadevaraya Professor of Languages and Cultures of Asia at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Pingali Suranna wrote during the Vijayanagara period, the heyday of classical Telugu poetry.Velcheru Narayana Rao is Krishnadevaraya Professor of Languages and Cultures of Asia at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the author of pathbreaking works on the history of Telugu and Sanskrit literature and poetics.David Shulman is professor of Indian studies and comparative religion at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and one of the preeminent scholars of South Asian literature.