A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s4.30

c19.s4.30

In the seventeenth century Vijayanagar lost its importance and its place was taken by the feudatory courts such as Gandikōta, Siddhavatam, Nellore, Gingee, Tanjore and Madura. Matli Ananta (1590-1610) of Siddhavatam (Cuddapah district) and his grandson were both poets and composed respectively the Kākusthavijayam and the Kumudvatī-kalyāṇam. About the same time Tarigoppula Mallana wrote a Prabandha—Candrabhānu caritra—at the instance of Pemmasāni Timmānāyudu. Interesting in its own way, this Prabandha ranks far below the masterpieces of the age of Krishnadeva Rāya. Nellore was made famous by the work of Pushpagiri Timmana who rendered Bhartrihari's Nītiśataka into Telugu and described the exploits of Hanumān in a poem called Samirakumāravijayam. He gathered round him a circle of talented friends including the Kankanti brothers—Pāparāja and Narasimha. Pāparāja's Uttararāmāyaṇa challenges comparison with the best works in Telugu; he also wrote a yakṣagāna Viṣṇumāyāvilāsa. His less celebrated brother Narasimha was the author of a mechanical rendering into dvipada metre of the Viṣṇumāyāvilāsa Nāṭaka of Rādhāmādhava Ellaya. The Daśāvatāracarita of Dharaṇidevula Rāmamantri is another notable poem of the period though the author's tendency to parade his learning makes his composition rather heavy. At Tanjore Raghunātha Nāyaka himself became the author of two delightful poems—the Vālmīki-caritram and Rāmāyaṇam. The former is the first important prose work in the language; the latter, though incomplete, shows Raghunātha's art at its best. Less talented than his father, Vijayarāghava, the son of Raghunātha, also composed poems and yakṣagānas but his fame rests more securely on the poets patronized by him. Among them was the celebrated Chēmakūri Venkatakavi whose poems Sārangadhara-caritram and Vijayavilāsa handle respectively the themes of Chitrāngi's love for her step-son and Arjuna's pilgrimage to the sacred tirthas and his marriages with the nāga princess Ulūci and with Subhadrā, the sister of Śrī Krishna. The Vijayavilāsa is rightly counted as one of the great Kāvyas in Telugu. One of the queens of Vijayarāghava, Rangājamma, contributed to the development of the yakshagāna in her Mannārudāsavilāsa where she employs more characters than usual and frequently uses prose in conversations instead of song. Savaram Chinna Nārāyaṇarāju who lived in South Arcot and wrote an excellent Kāvya Kuvalayāśvacaritra was another poet nòtable for the grace of his manner and his wit. Lastly Kadiripati, a cousin of Rāmarāja, the commander-in-chief of Śrīranga III, composed the Śukasaptati, a work of great literary excellence in which he perfected the art of story-telling.