Allasani Peddana (15th and 16th centuries CE) was a famous

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wr ...

and was ranked as the foremost of the '' Ashtadiggajalu'', the title for the group of eight poets in the

court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to Adjudication, adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and carry out the administration of justice in Civil law (common law), civil, C ...

of King Krishnadevaraya, a ruler of the

Vijayanagara Empire The Vijayanagara Empire, also called the Karnata Kingdom, was a Hindu empire based in the region of South India, which consisted the modern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and some parts of Telangana and Mahar ...

Biography

There were difference of opinions on birth place of Allasani Peddana.. 1.He is the native of Pedda dornala of present prakasam district which is near to Srisailam.. 2.Peddana was a native of Somandepalli near

Anantapur Anantapur, officially Anantapuramu, is a city in Anantapur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the mandal headquarters of Anantapuru mandal and also the divisional headquarters of Anantapur revenue division. The city is loca ...

. He later moved to Peddanapadu, a small village located at 5 km from Yerraguntla on Yerraguntla-Vempalli road in

Kadapa Kadapa (colonial spelled Cuddapah) is a city in the southern part of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is located in the Rayalaseema region, and is the district headquarters of YSR Kadapa district. As of the 2022 Census of India, the city had a popula ...

District, which is an Agraharam given by Krishnadevarayalu. He wrote the first major Prabandha, a form of fictional poetry in

, and for this reason, he is revered as ''Andhra Kavita Pitamahudu'' (''the grand father of Telugu poetry''). It is believed that he was also a minister in the king's court and is hence sometimes referred as ''Peddanaamaatyudu'' (

Sandhi Sandhi ( sa, सन्धि ' , "joining") is a cover term for a wide variety of sound changes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries. Examples include fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of one sound depending on near ...

: Peddana + Amaatyudu = Peddana, the minister). He dedicated his works to king Krishnadevarayalu.

Lores

* The emperor himself lifted and bore the weight of the palanquin in which Peddana was seated. * He was bestowed with Kanakabhishekam by the king. * He was the only poet who had the privilege of mounting the royal elephants. * On the demise of Sri KrishnaDevaRayalu the poet Peddana expressed his profound sorrows telling that " Atti Krishna Rayala thoti divikegaleka brathiki yundithi jeevatchavambu naguchu " Meaning I became a living dead by not going to heaven along with Sri Krishna Deva Raya .

Works

His famous work was ''Swaarochisha Manu Sambhavam'' (also known as ''Manu Charitramu''). This work is the development of an episode in ''Markandeya-purana'' relating to the birth of Svarochisha-manu, who is one of the fourteen

Manu Manu may refer to: Geography *Manú Province, a province of Peru, in the Madre de Dios Region ** Manú National Park, Peru **Manú River, in southeastern Peru * Manu River (Tripura), which originates in India and flows into Bangladesh *Manu Temp ...

s. Pravaa, a pious

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests ( purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers ( ...

youth. goes to the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over ...

for sightseeing. In he Himalayas, a

Gandharva A gandharva () is a member of a class of celestial beings in Dharmic religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, whose males are divine performers such as musicians and singers, and the females are divine dancers. In Hinduism, they are ...

woman called Varudhini falls in love with him, but Pravara rejects her love as he is already married. Knowing this, a Gandharva youth who was earlier rejected by Varudhini, assumes the form of Pravara and succeeds to win her love. To the couple is born Svarochi, the father of Svarochisha-manu. Some of his other famous works such as ''Harikathaasaaramu'' are untraceable now. Krishnadevaraya ornamented Peddana's leg with a big golden bangle/bracelet called ''ganda-penderam'' as a mark of excellent poetry

Style

The theme for his ''Manu Charitra'' is a short story from

Markandeya Purana The ''Markandeya Purana'' ( sa, मार्कण्डेय पुराण; IAST: ) is a Sanskrit text of Hinduism, and one of the eighteen major Puranas. The text's title Markandeya refers to a sage in Hindu History, who is the central ch ...

. It is about second ''Manu'' of fourteen manus (fathers of mankind societies according to Hindu mythology), translated into Telugu from Sanskrit by Marana (1291–1323), disciple of

Tikkana Tikkana (or Tikkana Somayaji) (1205–1288) was a 13th century Telugu poet. Born into a Telugu-speaking Niyogi Brahmin family during the golden age of the Kakatiya dynasty, he was the second poet of the "Trinity of Poets ( Kavi Trayam)" that t ...

. The original story was around 150 poems and Peddana extended into six chapters with 600 poems by adding fiction and descriptions. His work was treated as one of the Pancha Kavyas, the five best works in Telugu. Peddana used a mix of words from

and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...

Awards and Titles

* He was honoured with Title ''Andhra Kavita Pitamaha'' by Krishnadevaraya. * His style of poetry was described as 'Allasani Vari Allika Jigi Bigi' by

Tenali Ramakrishna Tenali Ramakrishna (born Garlapati Ramakrishna; also known as Tenali Rama) was an Indian poet, scholar, thinker and a special advisor in the court of the Vijayanagar king Krishnadevaraya, who ruled from C.E. 1509 to 1529. He was a Telugu poet ...

References

Notes

A Great Compilation of Telugu poets / poetesses

* K.A. Nilakanta Sastry, History of South India, From Prehistoric times to fall of Vijayanagar, 1955, OUP, New Delhi (Reprinted 2002)

Modern editions

* ''The Story of

'', by Allasani Peddana, translated by Velcheru Narayana Rao and David Shulman,

Murty Classical Library of India The Murty Classical Library of India began publishing classics of Indian literature in January 2015. The books, which are in dual-language format with the original language and English facing, are published by Harvard University Press. The Columbia ...

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the reti ...

(January 2015), hardcover, 656 pages, {{DEFAULTSORT:Peddana, Allasani Telugu poets People of the Vijayanagara Empire Telugu writers Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown Indian male poets 15th-century Indian poets 16th-century Indian poets Poets from Andhra Pradesh Vijayanagara poets Scholars of Vijayanagara Empire