Sumati Shatakam (

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 ...

: సుమతీ శతకము) is one of the most famous Telugu Shatakam. It is a neeti (moral) Shatakam. Baddena

Sataka Karta (Sataka Creator)

Sumati Satakam is composed of more than a 100 poems (padyalu). According to many literary critics Sumati Satakam was reputedly composed by Baddena Bhupaludu (AD 1220-1280). He was also known as Bhadra Bhupala. He was a

Chola The Chola dynasty was a Tamils, Tamil thalassocratic Tamil Dynasties, empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated ...

prince and was a Vassal under the

Kakatiya The Kakatiya dynasty (IAST: Kākatīya) was an Indian dynasty that ruled most of eastern Deccan region comprising present day Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and parts of eastern Karnataka and southern Odisha between 12th and 14th centuries. Th ...

empress

Rani Rudrama Devi Rudrama Devi, also Maharani Rudramma Devi, was a queen of the Kakatiya dynasty in the Deccan Plateau from 1263 to 1289 (or 1295) until her death. She was among the women to rule as monarchs in India and promoted a male image in order to do s ...

during the thirteenth century. He was a pupil 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 tra ...

, a Telugu writer. If we assume that the Sumatee Satakam was indeed written by Baddena, it would rank as one of the earliest Satakams in Telugu along with ''Vrushadhipa Satakam'' of

Palkuriki Somanatha Palkuriki Somanatha was one of the most noted Telugu language writers of the 12th or 13th century. He was also an accomplished writer in the Kannada and Sanskrit languages and penned several classics in those languages. He was a Lingayat a follo ...

and ''Sarveswara Satakam'' by Yathavakkula Annamayya. The Sumatee Satakam is also one of the earliest Telugu works to be translated into European languages. Sri Riasat Ali Taj (1930-1999), poet, critic, writer, linguist & translator from Karimnagar has made poetic translations (Manzoom Tarjuma in Urdu Rubaiyaat) published in popular Urdu magazines and news papers in early 1950s.

Features

Sumati Satakam has been extremely popular for a long time with parents and teachers who try to teach the right conduct and social values to young children. The language used is very simple. The poems have the musical quality of classical meters. Most of the words are simple Telugu. The use of Sanskrit words is very limited. There are hardly any words unfamiliar to modern readers. The poems do not look anything like the sophisticated compositions using the highly cultivated language of . Since the Telugu used by the author is so close to what the common people used, the poems look surprisingly familiar to the users of the Telugu. The poems have an astonishing communication power. All the poems are in kanda padyam meter. Being in short meter and being unconnected to each other the poems are easy to remember. Even if one does not remember the entire poem, it is commonplace to quote some gem like statements from the Satakam. Each generation of school children learns some of them during elementary and high schools.

External links

Open Source Audio by Dr. Goli Anjaneyulu.
{{Authority control Telugu-language literature Indian poetry collections