PANCHAKAVYAS IN TELUGU LITERATURE

by Sonti Venkata Suryanarayana Rao.

Before proceeding to ‘Vasu Charitra’ by Rama Raja Bhushana, Peddana’s disciple and later his rival in reputation, it will be of interest to take up ‘Amuktamalyada’ the toughest among the Telugu Panchakavyas about which even learned scholars prefer to keep silent. It was written by none other than the Vijayanagara emperor, Krishna Deva Raya himself. Although Telugu was not his mother tongue, he was brought up in the Telugu country and he states in the introduction that while he was camping at Vijayawada during Kalinga campaign, Andhra Vishnu the local deity commanded him to try his hand in Telugu since it was the best language in India. Being a Vaishnavite he had chosen the life of Goda Devi, the South Indian saint also known as Andal who had left behind a collection of enchanting hymns in Tamil addressed to Lord Ranganatha, the deity of Srirangam. She is counted as one among the Alwars or Vaishnavite minstrels of South India along with her father Vishnuchitta or perailwar. Goda Devi is considered an incarnation of Satyabhama. Krishna Deva Raya devoted only the last two chapters of his work to the main story. He has prefaced it with many other stories dealing with her father, an unlettered man called upon by God himself to visit the Pandya King at Madura and defeat the rival philosophers the story of Khandikya and Kesadhwaja from Vishnu Purana and the story of an untouchable devotee from Varaha Purana. The last one dealing with the lowcast votary is the most impressive portion of his Kavya and speaks volumes of his catholic and liberal outlook. In the middle, Krishna Deva Raya included lengthy descriptions of seasons and a long discourse on the art of governance (Rajaneethi).

Amuktamalyada is a strange combination of passionate love albeit towards God, abstruse metaphysics and thoughtful maxims of a successful ruler. Probably, Krishna Deva Raya is greater man than King Bhoja for whom 'Sringara' is the only sentiment or Rasa worth cultivating for a poet. His work would have attained greater circulation if only he had chosen a simpler diction. Earlier poets like Tikkana or Srinatha also preferred sense to sound; but they did not ignore the latter. Unfortunately Krishna Deva Raya employed a large number of uncommon words and expressions both in Telugu and Sanskrit in a taut and intricate style in many passages which have become brain teasers. He could be simple if he had wanted (as shown by several smooth and easy verses); but on the whole it is a difficult work to comprehend even for scholars. But it is several times worth all the trouble since there is abundant novelty and original imagery; and, inspite of the mythological and religious elements, there is an all pervading spirit of realism as compared to professional poets of the era. The title itself needs some explanation. Goda Devi some of whose beautiful 'Pasurams' in Tamil have been translated recently by the modern Telugu lyrical poet Devulapalli Krishna Sastry, used to prepared the garlands daily meant for the deity and wear them herself before handling over to her father before he left for the temple; hence 'Amukta'+ 'malya'+'da' (Giver of worn garlands) Her father thought it was a sacrilege till god himself willed it that way. In the end she merges herself with Lord Ranganatha like the Rajasthan saintess Meera in Northern India. With this memorable contribution to Telugu literature which is one of the panch kavyas, Krishna Deva Raya became an adopted son of Andhra and is remembered today as their greatest ruler. His Sanskrit play 'Jambavathiparinayama' was recently published from Hyderabad and he claims to have written many more works in Sanskrit in his introduction to the Telugu work. His zeal for literature explains the presence of a large number of top ranking poets in Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. Telugu poetry reached its apogee under his patronage.