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Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c15.s2: Section III. Telugu

Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c15.s2

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Section III. Telugu

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As already stated, the Vijayanagar period was an age of Telugu renaissance. Great encouragement was given to Telugu and Telugu literary celebrities; and with the fall of the Hindu kingdoms of the Deccan as a result of the Muhammadan attacks and invasions, the learned men of the east coast of Telingana flooded the Vijayanagar court and were received with great cordiality.

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Nācana Sōmanātha Kavi:

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Among the Telugu scholars of the period mention may first be made of Nācana Sōmanātha Kavi, a court poet of Bukka I. Probably dissatisfied with the translation of the Harivaṃśam by Errapraggaḍa, he wrote a poem called Uttaraharivilāsam, using the Sanskrit Harivilāsam as the basis of his work. In his work he employs a flowery style. The work is full of five graces and pregnant with sense. In every way his translation is better than that of Errapraggaḍa. Bukka granted him the village of Pencukaladinne which was named Bukkarāyapaṭṇam. The epigraph which records the grant says that the poet was proficient in eight languages.¹⁰³

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¹⁰³ E.C., X, Gd. 46; M.E.R., 1907, para 53.

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Śrīnātha :

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Śrīnātha, who lived in the latter half of the fourteenth century and the first half of the fifteenth, was a poet of exceptional parts and had easy command over both Telugu and Sanskrit. He was the court poet of the Reḍḍis of Koṇḍavīḍu and paid frequent visits to the Vijayanagar court. Even when he was only in his teens he composed the *Maruttarātcaritram*, and the *Śālivāhanasaptati*; and when he grew of age he translated the *Naiṣadham* of Śrī Harṣa and gave it to the world as his magnum opus. This Telugu *Naiṣadham* of Śrīnātha is considered to be a standard work for the Telugu scholar and finds an honourable place among the *pañcamahākāvyas* of the Telugu literature. It is a work of eight cantos containing in all 1337 stanzas. The author says that he has paid ‘due regard to delicate and choice expression and meaning, the far-reaching idea, interest and emotion, figure of speech and aptness to the context, and carefully avoided all errors of inapt or wrong expressions.’ ‘Full of sonorous and sweet *samāsas* the poem has the complicated symphony of an orchestra. Verses full of sibilant sweetness and labial liquidity abound. Descriptions of women are vivid, delicate and artistic. Lines linger in the memory like forgotten music. The book deserves all the praise that has been bestowed on it.’¹⁰⁴ Śrīnātha wrote a large number of other works among which may be mentioned the *Kāśikhaṇḍam* and the *Vīdhināṭakam*. The former is a Śaiva work, and the theme for it is taken from the *Skānda Purāṇa*. Though it is not a regular translation of the Sanskrit work it is a detailed Telugu account of the original. In the *Vīdhināṭakam* Śrīnātha describes women of various communities and incidentally throws a flood of light on the social customs of the age. He attempts in this work an account of the familiar scenes of every day life. The *Harivilāsam* of Śrīnātha is a Śaiva work in seven cantos dealing with Śiva and his doings. For the materials in this work he was indebted to Kālidāsa’s *Kumārasambhava*, Bhāravi’s *Kirātārjunīya* and Bāṇa’s *Kādambarī*. The book was dedicated to Tippaya Śeṭṭi, a millionaire who had large trade relations with foreign countries. The *Śivarātrimāhātmyam* for which the materials were taken from the *Īśanasamhita* of the *Skānda Purāṇa* is yet another of his works. In all his works Śrīnātha created a style for himself which was imitated by later writers. It is said that at the court of Dēva Rāya II he defeated the Gauḍa poet Diṇḍima Bhaṭṭa in a controversy, and hence the bell metal gong (*kañcudhakka*) of the latter was broken and Śrīnātha was dubbed *Kavisārvabhauma* or *Kaviratna* (best among poets).

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¹⁰⁴ Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, *A History of Telugu Literature*, p. 61.

Fifteenth Century Poets

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Śāradā was a gifted poetess of the court of Dēva Rāya II. She wrote eighteen dramas and two prākṛt works.¹⁰⁵ Another contemporary of Dēva Rāya II was one Jakkanna, a Telugu poet who wrote the *Vikramārkacaritram* and dedicated it to Siddhanamantri said to be a minister of Dēva Rāya.¹⁰⁶ Pīna Vīrabhadra a poet who flourished in the days of the Sāḷuvas was the author of the *Jaimini Bhāratamu* which he dedicated to Sāḷuva Narasiṁha.

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¹⁰⁵ Sāḷuva Narasiṁha, *Rāmābhyudayam*; for this and a few other references I am indebted to M. Ramakrishna Kavi, formerly of the Madras University.

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¹⁰⁶ See S. K. Aiyangar, *Sources*, pp. 63-64.

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During the time of Narasā Nāyaka lived the two poets Nandi Mallayya and Ghaṇṭa Siṅgayya, who wrote in a narrative form the story of the Sanskrit drama *Prabodhacandrodaya* of Kṛṣṇamiśra. Their joint work the *Varāha Purāṇam* was dedicated to Narasā Nāyaka. They were also the joint authors of two other poems, the *Varalakṣmī Purāṇam* and the *Narasimha Purāṇam*, which also they dedicated to Narasā Nāyaka.

Aṣṭadiggajas

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The reign of Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya was the Augustan age of Telugu literature. The emperor himself was known as *uru kavi vaibhava-nivaha nidhāna*, "the cause for the highly prosperous condition of great poets."¹⁰⁷ Tradition affirms that in his court flourished the *aṣṭadiggajas*—the eight great poets. The poet laureates who are included in this list are Allasāni Peddana, Nandi Timmanna, Ayyala Rāju, Rāmabhadriah, Dhūrjaṭi, Mādayagāri Mallanna, Tenāli Rāmakṛṣṇa, Piṅgaḷi Sūranna, and Rāma Rāja Bhūṣaṇa. Though it is doubtful if the last two poets lived in Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya’s time yet it appears to be certain that the rest flourished in his court and dedicated their works either to the emperor himself or to one or other of his subordinates.

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¹⁰⁷ M.E.R., Cp. 7 and 8 of 1914-15; Rep., 1915, para 48; *A.S.R.*, 1908-09, p. 185.

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Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya was himself the author of important Telugu works. Among them mention must first be made of the *Āmuktamālyada*, a work written and dedicated to God Veṅkaṭēśa of Tirupati. The emperor while explaining why he chose the Telugu language for writing out the poem says: "Telugu is the language of the poem for that is the country; to them I am the king, and praised by all is that language. Among the languages of the land Telugu is the best." The work describes the story of Periyāḻvār or Viṣṇucitta, the sixth Ālvar, who is said to have converted the Madura king to the Śrī-Vaiṣṇava faith. It also describes the marriage of his adopted daughter Suḍikoḍutta nācciyār to God Śrī Ranganātha of Śrīrangam.

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The Āmuktamālyada is one of the five great kāvyams in the Telugu language, and is considered to be the most difficult of them. Though the language used in the work is conventional yet the form of expression is entirely original. The construction of his sentences appears to be involved. "His style wants perspicuity (to import a western ideal) but is highly admired in India as an example of nārikela pākam (cocoanut-like form of expression), and its outer form (shell) of words has to be broken to get the sweet pulp within." Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya shows himself essentially a poet of nature. "His description of the seasons, of the moon and the dawn, of the details of life such as of the leafy stuffs prepared and eaten with gingelly oil and coarse grains of boiled ariga (a cereal grain), of earthern showels in which the manure of goats was lit up to give heat to Reḍḍis in the rainy weather, the echoes, coming even at midnight from the roof of Viṣṇucitta respectfully beckoning his never-ending tide of guests to a poorly hospitality—(really rich)—which he prefaced with apologies like curry was not plentiful, the victuals were cold, no sweets could be procured and the dinner not rich as befitted such guests—his knowledge and experiences of polity, which only a great ruler and conqueror like him could depict give an originality to his thoughts and make him a nature poet par excellence."

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The authorship of the Āmuktamālyada is attributed by a few scholars to Peddana.¹⁰⁸ But the differences in style between the Manucarita of Peddana and the Āmuktamālyada show that the authors of the two works must have been different persons. The style of the former is simple, easy flowing and musical while that of the Āmuktamālyada is very involved, though it is not wanting in elegance. Peddana freely uses in his work Sanskrit and foreign words, while the Āmuktamālyada does not contain so many foreign words. Strict rules of grammar are not adhered to in the latter work, a feature unknown to Peddana's work. Further the verses in the *Āmuktamālyada* that describe the deeds and conquests of Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya are borrowed from the works of his contemporary Peddana, and this literary plagiarism could not have been committed by any ordinary author. Since the author of the work under consideration was a prince and since Peddana was his favourite court poet, Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya could have taken some privilege in that matter. The colophons in the *Āmuktamālyada* are in verse and not in prose as are those in the *Manucarita*. These considerations weigh much against the view that the work was written by Peddana.¹⁰⁹

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¹⁰⁸ Wilson, Mac. Mss., p. 281.

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¹⁰⁹ See for a discussion on the *Āmuktamālyada*, *A Historical Sketch of Telugu Literature*, by T. Rajagopala Rao, pp. 82-84; Mys. Gaz., II, Pt. iii, pp. 1920-1922.

Allasāni Peddana

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Among the group of poets commonly known as the *aṣṭadiggajas*, the most important was Allasāni Peddana. Born in the village of Doranala in the Dupad taluk in the Bellary district he slowly rose to the position of the poet laureate in the court of Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya. His eminence as a poet and his influence in the royal court of Vijayanagar "made him an autocrat in the world of letters." His most important work is the *Svārociṣa Manucarita*, being an episode from the *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa* and written in six *āśvāsas*. The work is an ideal *prabandham* containing the required eighteen kinds of descriptions such as a city, the sea, the mountains, the seasons, the sunrise, the rise of the moon, a pleasure garden, a pleasant tank, recreations, a marriage, the birth of a child, a journey, war, gambling, the separation of lovers and the like. Peddana got the material for his work from the *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa*, but he has taken liberties with it, and diverged from the original and used his own imagination and creative genius in presenting a story which satisfies the reader. The author's indebtedness to earlier poets, like Śrīnātha, and contemporaries like Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya are discernible. The *Manucarita* illustrates what we may call 'eclecticism in composition', a very noticeable feature of latter day poetry.¹¹⁰ The work is full of imagery and wonderful descriptions of nature, and contains a large number of Muhammadan and other foreign words. Peddana's work also abounds with long Sanskrit compounds. He was followed in this method of writing poetry by many poets and hence he came to be called *Andhrakavitāpitāmaha*, the creator of Telugu poetry. He was a great favourite of Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya, and tradition has it that wherever Kṛṣṇa Rāya saw him he took him on his elephant and showed great regard and respect for him. He was the recipient of grants of land from his royal patron.¹¹¹

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¹¹⁰ See Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, *op. cit.*, p. 73.

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¹¹¹ 623 of 1915, Rep., 1916, para 66; 105 of 1921; Rep., 1921, para 50.

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Nandi Timmanna :

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The next important poet was Timmanna. He wrote the Pārijātāpaharaṇamu in Telugu and dedicated it to Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya. The work deals with the procuring of the divine pārijāta plant by Śrī Kṛṣṇa from the garden of Indra to please his consort, Satyabhāmā. According to tradition the work was written by the author to restore queen Cinnādēvī to king Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya’s favour, for according to the account, she had fallen from his favour as she had accidentally kicked him while he was asleep. The Pārijātāpaharaṇamu is a model of good poetry. The style of the work is easy and smooth flowing, the diction is elegant and “the images and similes are bold and striking.” Unlike others the author avoids the profuse use of Sanskrit words in his work. Timmanna is generally known as Mukku Timmanna, perhaps on account of his long and bold nose, or on account of the excellent description which according to tradition he gives of a nose in a verse which Rāma Rāja Bhūṣaṇa is said to have incorporated in his Vasucaritramu.

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Dhūrjaṭi :

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Dhūrjaṭi was another eminent Telugu poet who flourished at Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya’s court. He was a staunch Śaiva. This is proved by his Kāḷahasti Māhātmyam and Kāḷahastīśvara Śatakam. These two works were written by the author in praise of the God at Kāḷahasti and dedicated to Śiva. The former is a Telugu poetical work of a very high order. Dhūrjaṭi took his material from the Ṣaḍadhyāya in Sanskrit but he greatly improved upon his material. The style of his work is elegant and chaste. His thoughts are levelled at a high pitch. But he does not adhere strictly to the rules of grammar and freely uses Tamil and Kanarese words in his work.

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Piṅgaḷi Sūranna :

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Piṅgaḷi Sūranna was another great poet of the age. He appears to have lived till the close of the sixteenth century and he was patronised by the Nandyāla chief Kṛṣṇa Rāja, who, we learn from an epigraph of A.D. 1571, had a son Veṅkaṭādri Rāja.¹¹² He was one of the very few who used homely language tuned to a melodious sweet musical diction. He was the author of Kalāpūrṇodayamu which deals with a story narrated by Brahmā to his wife Sarasvati’s parrot, every word of which was applicable to her. His *Rāghavapāṇḍavīyamu* is a *dvayārtha kāvya*, and is the first of its kind in the extant Telugu literature. Some of his words have two meanings and the compounds which he has used, when split, give two different senses. It is one of the five Telugu *mahākāvyas* and was dedicated to Ākuvīṭi Veṅkaṭādri. He was also the author of *Prabhāvati Pradhyumnam*, which he dedicated to his father Amarayya. It is a work in five cantos and has a balanced style. The works of Sūranna abound in figures of speech, and the author attains perfection in his creative imagination. His characters are not types, but individuals. In their characterisation “Sūranna exhibits a living world with all its subtle shades of difference.”¹¹³ He appears to have lived to a ripe old age, and to have been a contemporary of Tirumala I also.

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¹¹² 699 of 1917.

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¹¹³ T. Rajagopala Rao, *Hist. Sketch of Telugu Lit.*, p. 115.

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*Tenāli Rāmakṛṣṇa* :

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Tenāli Rāmakṛṣṇa was the son of Rāmayya. It appears he was first known as Rāmalinga, and afterwards, when he changed his faith to Vaiṣṇavism, came to be known as Rāmakṛṣṇa. He appears to have been a contemporary of Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya and it is said he was one of the *aṣṭadiggajas*. It is highly doubtful if he could have been a contemporary of Tātācārya and Appayya Dīkṣita who lived during the time of Śrī Raṅga and Veṅkaṭa II. According to a horoscope of his, he was born in A.D. 1462 and Kāvali Veṅkaṭarāmasvāmi accepts the date. But it is difficult to say how far this horoscope is genuine. His earliest poem *Udbhaṭārādhya Caritramu* was dedicated to Nādinḍla Gōpa, Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya’s governor of Koṇḍavīḍu. This evidence is alone enough to fix the date and period of Tenāli Rāmakṛṣṇa. He is credited with the authorship of *Liṅgapurāṇamu*. The *Pāṇḍuraṅga Māhātmyamu*, another of his works, has great literary merit. It is said that it was dedicated to one Vinuri Vēdādri. Tenāli Rāmakṛṣṇa was also the author of a work called the *Ghaṭikācala Māhātmyamu*, a work of great interest. There are many stories and traditions current about the vagaries of this Rāmakṛṣṇa Kavi. He appears to have been a successful jesting poet and cracked his jokes with great impunity not only with a Tātācārya who appears to have been a contemporary of his but also with the emperor.¹¹⁴ The stories that are widely current about him show that he was a very popular poet of the period.

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¹¹⁴ See Some discursive remarks on the Augustan Age of Telugu Literature, *Ind. Ant.*, XXVII, pp. 324-26.

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Among the other poets who lived in the period was one Kōnērunātha, the poet who was the author of the *Bāla Bhāgavatamu*, a Telugu work dedicated to Cinna Timma Rāja, the younger brother of Viṭṭhala who led a campaign against the ruler of Travancore. Cinna Timma is described as the *kṛtināyakuṇḍu*. The work deals with the story of the *Bhāgavata* in a simple and popular style.¹¹⁵ Siddharāju Timmarāju Bhūpāla, a nephew of Tirumala I, was the author of the *Paramayogivilāsamu*, a Telugu work dealing with the lives of the Ālvārs.¹¹⁶

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¹¹⁵ S. K. Aiyangar, *Sources*, pp. 204-09.

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¹¹⁶ *Ibid.*, pp. 211-12.

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*Rāmabhadraiah* :

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In the latter half of the sixteenth century flourished such poets as Ayyalarāju Rāmabhadraiah and Rāma Rāja Bhūṣaṇa. Rāmabhadraiah flourished about 1570 and wrote the *Rāmābhyudayam* in Telugu. It is the story of the *Rāmāyaṇa* in the *prabandha* style which was adopted to produce effect. It is said that according to a competition he had with Rāma Rāja Bhūṣaṇa, the author of the *Vasucaritramu*, he undertook to write within a period of six months a work which would be better than that of the latter. He did not even begin his work till the last day, but on the night of that day god Śrī Rāma wrote the work for Rāmabhadraiah. The work, though very popular, is not free from certain grammatical flaws.

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*Rāma Rāja Bhūṣaṇa* :

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Bhaṭṭu Mūrti or Rāma Rāja Bhūṣaṇa (ornament of Rāma Rāja's court), as he was more familiarly known, was the court poet of Rāma Rāja. He was the author of *Vasucaritramu* dedicated to Tirumala. This work is considered to be a model *Prabandham* for the Telugu language. It is full of rhyme and alliteration "and the stanzas are of enrapturing beauty, many of which bear more than one meaning." It is one of the five *mahākāvyas* of the Telugu literature. The work is full of sublime thought and is very widely read; its erotic character betrays the taste of the times.¹¹⁷ Rāma Rāja Bhūṣaṇa was also the author of the *Hariścandra, Naḷopākhyāna*, which narrates the story of Hariścandra and Naḷa in one compass. This is also a *dvayārthakāvya* like the *Rāghava-pāṇḍavīya* of Piṅgaḷi Sūranna; but the style and language of the work are a little difficult. Rāma Rāja Bhūṣaṇa appears to have written also a third work called *Narasa Bhūpālīyamu*. This work deals with poetics and is an adaptation of the famous *Pratāparudrīyam*, a Sanskrit work of a Vidyānātha Kavi. According to Rajagopala Rao, though "there is a dispute as to the authorship of the *Narasabhūpālīyamu* internal evidence is conclusive in assigning it to Rāma Rāja Bhūṣaṇa."[118] The work is dedicated to Ragantī Narasarāju, a nephew and son-in-law of Tirumala.

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¹¹⁷ See Wilson, Mack. Coll., p. 295.

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*Vēmana*:

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Vēmana was another popular poet who lived probably in the sixteenth century. According to some scholars he belonged to the family of Anavēma Reḍḍi, a chief in the Candanūl country. The name he bore appears to have been his personal name, but he never disclosed his family name. Brown thinks that he was a *jangam*, the sect of Śūdras who were seceders from the common religion, worshipped Śiva alone and gave up their family appellation, but were called only by the name of the sect. It was only this creed that appears to have been taught by Vēmana and hence none escaped his satires. Vēmana was a moralist who satirised the vices and follies of men, their blind traditional beliefs, and caste and women. He was socialistic in his views on private property and accumulation of wealth and argued that there should be no private property. From his verses it appears he had a dislike for the Brahmans. He was essentially a poet of rural life.[119]

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In the days of Kōdaṇḍarāma there lived the poet Veṅkayya who wrote the *Rāmarājīyamu*, also known as *Narapativijayamu*. He traces the history of the Vijayanagar empire under the Aravīḍu line of kings. Though a late work its historical accuracy has been confirmed not only by contemporary literature but also by the inscriptions of the different periods about which it deals.

Cites (24)