Malliya Rechana was a

Telugu language Telugu (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken by Telugu people predominantly living in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it is also the official language. It is the most widely spoken member of the Dravidian language fam ...

poet and writer, who lived around 940 CE, in present-day Vemulawada,

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the eleventh-largest state and the twelfth-most populated state in India with a geographical area of and 3 ...

region of India. He has written the first Telugu prosody ('' chandassu'') book called Kavijanasrayam. The most antique reference to Malliya Rechana is 11th century Tamil literature 'Yaappirungulam Kaarikai' mentioning the Kavi "Renchi kouyaaruseyida vaduga chandamu". "For the well being of the stainless rules of (Peosy) the sweet poet Mallia Recan (Worthy of the favour of bolds) hath composed in the Telugu language this admirable prosody entitled the Refuge Of Poets -" C.P. BrownMungili,2009

Early life

Malliya Rechana was a Jain Komati from a place near Vemulawada,

Karimnagar Karimnagar is also known as Elagandula (Ancient name) is a city and District Headquarters in the Indian state of Telangana. Karimnagar is a major urban agglomeration and fifth largest City in the state. It is governed by Municipal corporation a ...

district of Telangana. Rechana was born to father "Bhima" and mother "Mallamma". ''"He from Nizam Rashram and his father is Malliya"''.''"There are a lot of Jain Komatis in Karimnagar region even till this day(1917)"''.''"Scholars uniformly agree that Kavijanasrayam's author is associated with Vemulawada"'' Vemulawada was the seat of Jain literature. The book Kavijanasrayam establishes the contributions of Jain Literature to Telugu.

Chalukyas of Vemulavada The Chalukyas of Vemulavada were an Indian dynasty that ruled in and around the present-day Telangana between 7th and 10th centuries. Their capital was located at Vemulavada, and they were vassals of the Rashtrakutas. History The 966 C ...

, the local rulers, were great patrons of Kannada Jain literature. Along with Kannada, we could see that an attempt was made in the same direction for Telugu Jain literature. P. V. P Sastry also mentions that 'many Jain works got destroyed'.''''

Contemporaries

Malliya Rechana, Pampa, Jina Vallabha, Somadeva Suri are considered contemporaries.'''' Malliya Rechana's guru is Vaadindra Chudamani. Pampa's guru is Jinendrudu. Rechana refers to "Madanavilasa", "Vachakabharana", "Jinendra" which are all associated to the inscriptions of Vemulawada,

Literary career

He wrote the first Telugu prosody ('' chandassu'') book called Kavijanasrayam. "Nannayya’s Mahabharata shows highly developed technique of Telugu. It presupposes fairly long period of development. Even earlier to Nannayya there may have been Telugu works but which are not extant today. Very recently, P.V.P P Sastry is of the opinion that Malliya Rechana's Kavi Janasrayamu now dated to 12th Gent. A.D. shows archaic Telugu language and it must be dated to 950-980 A.D. He points out that Malliya Rechana in the work refers to one Vachakabharana who helped him to write the work. Vachakabharana as pointed by P.V .P PS astry is none other than Jinavallabha, brother of Pampa, of Kurikyala inscription datable to C.950 A.D. Hence, in his opinion Malliya Rechana' s Kavi Janasrayamu is datable to G.950 A.d. not to 13th Cent. A.D. If his suggestion is accepted, then it is likely that Telugu literary activities also started simultaneously with Kannada literature."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rechana, Malliya Telugu poets 10th-century Indian poets