Noble College
During my Lady Ampthill days, as we ran around the school play grounds at the backside, the huge buildings of the Noble college used to be visible quite clearly.....There used to be a swamplike wasteland at the back of the school and a Dharma sathram used to exist, slightly to the left of that area ...I do not know if it is there still... ...a road runs between this wasteland and Noble College....The Govt hospital buildings were on extreme right,while the vast grounds and the stately , high roofed buildings of Noble college,teeming with it"s energetic scholars, stood looking like a proud,but weather beaten old campaigner .......
That was in early seventies of the last century..(my god...Has it come to that?...Last century')...and it already looked a bit time-worn even then...Heaven knows how it looks like now....None the worse , i hope....Once , we were taken there for an essay competition and i had a chance to see some of it"s big, galleried class rooms--the wood,smoothened by age,turning black with years of regular handling--,and you wished how beautiful the whole edifice would have been with a fresh coat of paint....I was surprised to learn later on, that these buildings originally used to house the collectorate of Krishna district till the notorious vuppena in 1864.......Only when they got inundated during the storm,that the collectorate was shifted elsewhere...
I never knew, or may be at that age even never cared to know, for the fact, ,that i was looking at the first college of AndhraPradesh......For, indeed it was the first college, to have been established in the Andhra region of the erstwhile Madras Presidency....And for a long span of time, just one of the two colleges of the entire provinces, the other one being situated at Madras... None of the graduates from Andhra region of those days had any choice but to go either to Madras or Bandar to pursue their studies, so much so, that a list of it"s alumni reads like a who"s who of the eminent personalities of AndhraPradesh.....It was stated to have been once praised by Charles Trevelyan, the governor of Madras, as the Cambridge of South India....
In the beginning, the college started off as a school, called The Native English School on November 21 st of 1843, with just two British teachers---(Turning ton Noble and Edmond Sharkey,.....Noble was a teacher and Fawkes, a missionary.).. and two students called Manchala Venkataratnam, a brahmin convert to Christianity and one Inaala Nagabhushanam, another convert from velama community and it"s purpose was quite unabashed proselytisation....In fact, the two English teachers were expressly called all the way from Brighton, England just to do that...Interestingly, contrary to the popularly held belief, their first targets had been the so-called upper castes ......Few notable personalities among them indeed got converted and attained high positions in the institution itself as headmasters, teachers and administrators.....Only later in the course of time, the college started accepting students from backward communities also...
Whether we like it or not, proselytisation----which they called SPREADING THE GOSPEL--- is a very essential part and mission of Christianity and in those days they pursued it rather aggressively.. ..Bible classes used to be mandatory and sops were offered to entice new converts...While the zeal of the original followers might be normal, the neophytes sometimes took it to ridiculous lengths...My mother, who had been a former student of Bishop Cotton"s" school at Vijayawada, says that sometimes teachers made them pray in closed rooms and pointed the shadows from outside as angels hovering around...:)..
Whatever might be ,to be fair, the School imparted first quality education too..., It ran well, went form strenghth to strenth, turned into a higher secondary one soon..(1855),and by 1864 became a college...and even had it"s own press called, The Dove, probably the first press in AndhraPradesh, where it got it"s papers printed and had been utilised by the local newspapers as well......It started a teacher"s training School on it"s diamond jubilee year.(1918)..again, the fist of it"s kind and it is no wonder that almost all of the teachers of that era came out from the school....
The college lost some of it"s sheen in the early twenties with the appearance of Hindu College locally while the non-local students dwindled as several others had been established all over the state...More ignonimously, it had been merged with A.C.college, Guntur, for few years from 1938, and opened again only in 1966 by the consorted efforts by the locals.....It is stilll running , though i do not know how well the general colleges are doing in these days of EAMCETs and I.I.T s....
My own Grandfather, Sri.vinnakota Udaya Bheemaraju graduated from Noble college....On some of those leisurely evenings and holiday times, as we gathered round him, listening to the past stories,he used to narrate some of the college anecdotes.....How, as an occasional hosteler, (when his parents went away,..after all, our house was in Chinthaguntapalem), he spent his time there...Lanterns were lit every evening at dusk and every student had to sit by them and study....Not many students were there either...They used to have dinner very early, and ...no curry in the evenings...Instead a dal chutney was served... and soup and curds...The principal and lecturers personally mentored the students and when Thathayya was sick with typhoid for two months, W.C.Penn, the principal, very kindly visited him at home and enquired after his well-being.....There was such a heart-warming old world courtesy within the college that when Grandpa passed away in 1977, the principal of the college, personally came down, placed a wreath and described him as an illustrious alumnus of their proud institution....
Eminent personalities associated with Noble college, either as staff or students;
Sri.Bhogaraju Pattabhi Seetharamayya,President Of Indian National Congress
Sri.Raghupathi Venkataratnam Nayudu, the first Indian vice-chancellor of Madras University..
Mutnuri Krishna Rao, Editor, journalist, freedom-fighter
Sri.K.T.RamaRao, peethathipathi of Kourtallam Math..
Sri.Viwanatha SatyaNarayana, poet,winner of Jnanpeeth award
G.H.Cranswick, Bishop of Zips land
Bethapudi Prakasam, the chief Translator , Madras,
Pingali Lakshmikantham, litterateur,
Manchala Krishnamma, the first woman graduate from Madras Presidency..
Velagapudi Sundara Ramayya, the first post-graduate from Madras presidency..
M.R.Apparao, vice-chancellor of Andhra university..
Narla Venkateswara Rao, Journalist..
B.H.Somasundara Rao, Director Of education,TN..
Tripuraneni Ramaswami Choudhary, poet
Korada Ramakrishnayya, Proffessor of Linguistics,Madras university..
Padmasri.Banda KanakaLingeswara Rao,Dramatist
Malladi Ramakrishna Sasthry,
Vavilala Vasudeva Sasthry
K.Brahmananda Reddy, former Chief Minister A.P
B.V.Subba Reddy, speaker, A.P
A. kaleswara Rao
B.Sankara Reddy,minister, A.p
Kala Venkata Rao,minister,A.P..
Mutnuri Krishna Rao, Editor, journalist, freedom-fighter,
Gottipati.Brahmayya,chairman,A.P. Legislative Assembly...
Justice,Koka Ramachandra Rao
And Many Others...
That was in early seventies of the last century..(my god...Has it come to that?...Last century')...and it already looked a bit time-worn even then...Heaven knows how it looks like now....None the worse , i hope....Once , we were taken there for an essay competition and i had a chance to see some of it"s big, galleried class rooms--the wood,smoothened by age,turning black with years of regular handling--,and you wished how beautiful the whole edifice would have been with a fresh coat of paint....I was surprised to learn later on, that these buildings originally used to house the collectorate of Krishna district till the notorious vuppena in 1864.......Only when they got inundated during the storm,that the collectorate was shifted elsewhere...
I never knew, or may be at that age even never cared to know, for the fact, ,that i was looking at the first college of AndhraPradesh......For, indeed it was the first college, to have been established in the Andhra region of the erstwhile Madras Presidency....And for a long span of time, just one of the two colleges of the entire provinces, the other one being situated at Madras... None of the graduates from Andhra region of those days had any choice but to go either to Madras or Bandar to pursue their studies, so much so, that a list of it"s alumni reads like a who"s who of the eminent personalities of AndhraPradesh.....It was stated to have been once praised by Charles Trevelyan, the governor of Madras, as the Cambridge of South India....
In the beginning, the college started off as a school, called The Native English School on November 21 st of 1843, with just two British teachers---(Turning ton Noble and Edmond Sharkey,.....Noble was a teacher and Fawkes, a missionary.).. and two students called Manchala Venkataratnam, a brahmin convert to Christianity and one Inaala Nagabhushanam, another convert from velama community and it"s purpose was quite unabashed proselytisation....In fact, the two English teachers were expressly called all the way from Brighton, England just to do that...Interestingly, contrary to the popularly held belief, their first targets had been the so-called upper castes ......Few notable personalities among them indeed got converted and attained high positions in the institution itself as headmasters, teachers and administrators.....Only later in the course of time, the college started accepting students from backward communities also...
Whether we like it or not, proselytisation----which they called SPREADING THE GOSPEL--- is a very essential part and mission of Christianity and in those days they pursued it rather aggressively.. ..Bible classes used to be mandatory and sops were offered to entice new converts...While the zeal of the original followers might be normal, the neophytes sometimes took it to ridiculous lengths...My mother, who had been a former student of Bishop Cotton"s" school at Vijayawada, says that sometimes teachers made them pray in closed rooms and pointed the shadows from outside as angels hovering around...:)..
Whatever might be ,to be fair, the School imparted first quality education too..., It ran well, went form strenghth to strenth, turned into a higher secondary one soon..(1855),and by 1864 became a college...and even had it"s own press called, The Dove, probably the first press in AndhraPradesh, where it got it"s papers printed and had been utilised by the local newspapers as well......It started a teacher"s training School on it"s diamond jubilee year.(1918)..again, the fist of it"s kind and it is no wonder that almost all of the teachers of that era came out from the school....
The college lost some of it"s sheen in the early twenties with the appearance of Hindu College locally while the non-local students dwindled as several others had been established all over the state...More ignonimously, it had been merged with A.C.college, Guntur, for few years from 1938, and opened again only in 1966 by the consorted efforts by the locals.....It is stilll running , though i do not know how well the general colleges are doing in these days of EAMCETs and I.I.T s....
My own Grandfather, Sri.vinnakota Udaya Bheemaraju graduated from Noble college....On some of those leisurely evenings and holiday times, as we gathered round him, listening to the past stories,he used to narrate some of the college anecdotes.....How, as an occasional hosteler, (when his parents went away,..after all, our house was in Chinthaguntapalem), he spent his time there...Lanterns were lit every evening at dusk and every student had to sit by them and study....Not many students were there either...They used to have dinner very early, and ...no curry in the evenings...Instead a dal chutney was served... and soup and curds...The principal and lecturers personally mentored the students and when Thathayya was sick with typhoid for two months, W.C.Penn, the principal, very kindly visited him at home and enquired after his well-being.....There was such a heart-warming old world courtesy within the college that when Grandpa passed away in 1977, the principal of the college, personally came down, placed a wreath and described him as an illustrious alumnus of their proud institution....
Eminent personalities associated with Noble college, either as staff or students;
Sri.Bhogaraju Pattabhi Seetharamayya,President Of Indian National Congress
Sri.Raghupathi Venkataratnam Nayudu, the first Indian vice-chancellor of Madras University..
Mutnuri Krishna Rao, Editor, journalist, freedom-fighter
Sri.K.T.RamaRao, peethathipathi of Kourtallam Math..
Sri.Viwanatha SatyaNarayana, poet,winner of Jnanpeeth award
G.H.Cranswick, Bishop of Zips land
Bethapudi Prakasam, the chief Translator , Madras,
Pingali Lakshmikantham, litterateur,
Manchala Krishnamma, the first woman graduate from Madras Presidency..
Velagapudi Sundara Ramayya, the first post-graduate from Madras presidency..
M.R.Apparao, vice-chancellor of Andhra university..
Narla Venkateswara Rao, Journalist..
B.H.Somasundara Rao, Director Of education,TN..
Tripuraneni Ramaswami Choudhary, poet
Korada Ramakrishnayya, Proffessor of Linguistics,Madras university..
Padmasri.Banda KanakaLingeswara Rao,Dramatist
Malladi Ramakrishna Sasthry,
Vavilala Vasudeva Sasthry
K.Brahmananda Reddy, former Chief Minister A.P
B.V.Subba Reddy, speaker, A.P
A. kaleswara Rao
B.Sankara Reddy,minister, A.p
Kala Venkata Rao,minister,A.P..
Mutnuri Krishna Rao, Editor, journalist, freedom-fighter,
Gottipati.Brahmayya,chairman,A.P. Legislative Assembly...
Justice,Koka Ramachandra Rao
And Many Others...
Comments
Thanks again Ratna garu.
Do not stop writing. I will definitely try to meet you one day.