The ''Raghunāthābhyudayam'' (or ''Raghunāthā-bhyudayam'', ''Raghunāthābhyudaya'', ''Ragunatha Abhyudaya'') by

Rāmabhadrāmbā Rāmabhadrāmbā was a poet and consort of the Thanjavur Nayak king Raghunatha Nayak (r. 1600–34). She wrote the Sanskrit epic '' Raghunathabhyudayam'', a biography of her husband. Ramabhadramba was also a disciple of the Telugu poet Chengal ...

, one of the wives of the

Thanjavur Nayak The Thanjavur Nayak kingdom or Thanjavur Nayak dynasty were the rulers of Thanjavur in the 15th and 17th centuries. The Nayaks of the Balija social group, were originally appointed as provincial governors by the Vijayanagara Empire, Vijayanagar ...

king

Raghunatha Nayak Raghunatha Nayak was the most powerful king of the Thanjavur Nayak Dynasty. He was the third ruler of Thanjavur, southern India, from the Nayak dynasty. He ruled from 1600 to 1634 and is noted for the attainments of Thanjavur in literature, art, ...

(r. 1600–34), is a Sanskrit ''

mahākāvya Mahākāvya (lit. great kāvya, court epic), also known as ''sargabandha'', is a genre of Indian epic poetry in Classical Sanskrit. The genre is characterised by ornate and elaborate descriptions of scenery, love, battles and so on — in short, ev ...

'' in twelve cantos. It was designed to valorise Raghunatha, situating his career as a type of the life of Rāma-Viṣṇu-Kṛṣṇa. The first few cantos of the poem invoke Raghunatha, seeking his patronage and assistance, and praise his generosity, piety, and intellect. In ''Raghunāthābhyudaya'' Raghunadha Nayaka was praised as a Kamma Vakkana. Canto 4 presents Raghunatha's ancestry and the subsequent cantos discuss his early life and military successes. He succeeds his father

Achuthappa Nayak Achuthappa Nayak was the Thanjavur Nayak king who ruled from 1560 to 1614. From 1560 to 1580, he was co-monarch along with his father and from 1580 to 1614, he ruled on his own. His reign is generally regarded as one of peace and stability. Per ...

in canto 8 and continues with his military exploits. The last two cantos focus on the cultural activities and artistic achievements of his court, with a colophon in which Rāmabhadrāmbā emphasises her own merits. The poem was first brought to scholarly attention by S. Krishnaswami Ayyangar in 1919, after he found it in November 1916. The poem was fiercely criticised by an early reviewer of the first scholarly edition, who claimed that Rāmabhadrāmbā 'had thoroughly assimilated the art of composing a poem of surpassing tediousness and consisting of the most abject flattery of her royal patron' and did not think the poem would have any interest to historians. But it has since been identified as a significant source for the cultural history of seventeenth-century south India. Rāmabhadrāmbā's Sanskrit ''Raghunāthābhyudayam'' is not to be confused with the identically named Telugu poem the ''Raghunāthābhyudayam'' and the similarly named ''Raghunāthanāyakabhyudayamu'', both composed by Raghunatha's eldest son and successor, Vijayarāghava Nāyaka.''Raghunāthanāyakābhyudayamu and Raghunāthābhyudayamu'', ed. by N. Venkataramanayya and M. Somasekhara Sarma, Madras: Government Oriental Series, 49/Tanjore Saraswathi Mahal Series, 32 (Madras, 1951).

Editions and translations

* Rāmabhadrāmbā, 'Raghunāthābhyudayam', in ''Sources of Vijayanagar History (Selected and Edited for the University)'', ed. by S. Krishnaswami Ayyangar nd A. Rangaswami Sarasvati The Madras University Historical Series, 1 (Madras: University of Madras, 1919), pp. 284–302 o. 91 https://archive.org/details/sourcesofvijayan00krisrich. bridged edition and translation.* ''Raghunāthābhyudayamahākāvyam: Rāmabhadrāmbāviracitam'', ed. by Ti. Rā. Cintāmaṇiḥ, Bulletins of the Sanskrit Department, University of Madras, 2 (

adras Mike Adras (born June 25, 1961) is an American college basketball coach. He most recently was the head men's basketball coach at Northern Arizona University. He was promoted from assistant coach after the 1998–99 season, when Ben Howland left f ...

Madrapurīyaviśvavidyālayaḥ, 1934)

References

Indian literature {{India-lit-stub