3.5.12 Telugu language and classical literature notes

1. 3.5.12.1Origin of Telugu: early inscriptions, Trilinga and classical language status

   Telugu is a Dravidian language whose words first appear in Prakrit records, whose first full inscription is the Kalamalla record of about 575 CE, whose first inscribed verse is at Addanki, and which India declared a classical language in 2008.

   Standard · 8 min · Full course
2. 3.5.12.2Nannaya and the beginning of the Andhra Mahabharatam

   Nannaya, court poet of the Eastern Chalukya king Rajaraja Narendra at Rajamahendravaram in the 11th century, began the Telugu Mahabharata and so began Telugu literature; he is the Adikavi.

   Standard · 7 min · Full course
3. 3.5.12.3Tikkana and Errana: completing the Kavitrayam Mahabharata

   Tikkana, minister-poet of Manumasiddhi of Nellore in the 13th century, wrote 15 parvas of the Telugu Mahabharata, and Errana, court poet of Prolaya Vema Reddi in the 14th century, finished the Aranya parva that Nannaya had left, completing the Kavitrayam epic.

   Standard · 7 min · Full course
4. 3.5.12.4Kakatiya-age literature: Saiva poets, Ketana, Marana and the Ranganatha Ramayanam

   In the Kakatiya age (12th–14th centuries) Telugu literature widened beyond the epic: Saiva poets brought the people's dwipada metre, Ketana wrote the first Telugu grammar in Telugu, Tikkana's circle rendered Sanskrit works, and Gona Budda Reddy wrote the first complete Telugu Ramayana.

   Standard · 8 min · Full course
5. 3.5.12.5Srinatha and Potana

   In the 14th–15th centuries two very different poets dominated Telugu: Srinatha, the courtly Kavi Sarvabhauma of the Reddi kings, and Potana, the devotional Sahaja Kavi of Bammera who wrote the Andhra Mahabhagavatamu.

   Standard · 7 min · Full course
6. 3.5.12.6Prabandha age: Krishnadevaraya and the Ashtadiggajas

   Under Krishnadevaraya (1509–1529) of Vijayanagara, Telugu poetry reached its classical peak in the prabandha, an ornate kavya on a single story, written by the king himself and by the eight poets of his court tradition, the Ashtadiggajas.

   Standard · 7 min · Full course
7. 3.5.12.7Women writers of medieval Andhra: Gangadevi to Molla and Muddupalani

   From the 14th to the 18th century a line of women poets, queens, a saint's wife, a potter's daughter and court courtesans, wrote in Sanskrit and Telugu; the names and works are a favourite matching question.

   Standard · 7 min · Full course
8. 3.5.12.8Saint poets and satakas: Annamacharya, Vemana and Ramadasu

   Alongside court poetry, Telugu had a people's tradition of devotional songs and moral verse: Annamacharya's songs to Venkateswara, Kshetrayya's padams, Ramadasu's songs to Rama of Bhadrachalam, and Vemana's sharp satakas.

   Standard · 7 min · Full course
9. 3.5.12.9Qutb Shahi and southern-school literature: Telaganarya, Yakshagana and the Nayak courts

   After the fall of Vijayanagara (1565), Telugu poetry found two new homes: the Qutb Shahi court of Golconda, whose Muslim rulers patronised Telugu poets, and the Nayak and Maratha courts of Tanjore and Madurai, where the "southern school" made the yakshagana its signature form.

   Standard · 6 min · Full course

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