Pingali Suranna (16th century CE) was a

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 ...

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 w ...

and was one of the ''

Astadiggajas Ashtadiggajas is the collective title given to the eight Telugu scholars and poets in the court of Emperor Krishnadevaraya who ruled the Vijayanagara Empire from 1509 until his death in 1529. During his reign, Telugu literature and culture re ...

''.

Early life

Suranna's exact birthplace is uncertain. He lived in Kanala village near Nandyala. Suranna's parents were Abbamamba (mother) and Amarana (father), scholars themselves. Surana dedicated a work to Nandyala Krishna Raju, a subject 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 ...

Krishna District Krishna district is district in the coastal Andhra Region in Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, with Machilipatnam as its administrative headquarters. It is the coastal district of Andhra Pradesh. Machilipatnam is the most populated city in the ...

. It is now settled that he was from Kanala village, near Nandyala, on Nandyala and Koilakuntla Road of

Kurnool District Kurnool district is one of the eight districts in the Rayalaseema region of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is located in the North western part of the state and is bounded by Jogulamba Gadwal district of Telangana in the north, Rai ...

. There is his samadhi. Potter community celebrates his Jayanthi year after year. There is an old Oriental High School in Kanala, which is said to be the legacy from Pingali Surana. Surana Saraswatha Sangham, Nandyal is a literary organisation in existence for more than 25 years. Dr. G. Sahadevudu, a practicing doctor, Gottimukkala Subrahmanya Sastri, a retired teacher and Koduri Seshapani Sarma, a retired teacher are the President, the Secretary and the Joint Secretary of the organization respectively.

Literary works

Surana wrote ''Garuda Puranam'', ''Prabhavatee Pradyumnamu'', ''Raghava Pandaveeyam'' and ''Kalapurnodayamu'' in 1500 CE. He dedicated ''Garuda Puranam'' to his father and ''Kalapurnodayam'' to the Nandyal King. ''Prabhavati Pradyumnamu'' and ''Kalapurnodayamu'' have been translated into English by Velcheru Narayana Rao and David Shulman. ''The Sound of the Kiss, or The Story that Must Never be Told,'' translation of ''Kalapurnodayamu,'' was published by Columbia University Press in 2002. ''The Demon's Daughter: A Love Story from South India,'' translation of ''Prabhavati Pradyumnamu,'' was published by

SUNY Press The State University of New York (SUNY, , ) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is one of the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. Led by ...

in 2006.''Review
at complete review website''

Style

Two of his works were revolutionary in Telugu and the first of their kind. ''Kalapurnodayam'' is more of a novel than poetry and ''Raghava Pandaveeyam'' is in ''dvayarthi'' (

double meaning A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially a ...

) style. ''Kalapurnodayamu'' means full bloom of art. Surana used advanced literary techniques in Indian literature such as flashbacks and character transformation. Each poem of ''Raghava Pandaveeyam'' references to the stories of

Ramayanam The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages ...

Mahabharatam The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...

simultaneously. The entire work is double entendre. His first work ''Garuda Puranam'' is in Prabandha style, popular for romantic poems.

Awards and Titles

* The critic

Cattamanchi Ramalinga Reddy Sir Cattamanchi Ramalinga Reddy (10 December 1880 – 24 February 1951), also popularly known as Sir C. R. Reddy, was an educationist and political thinker, essayist and economist, poet and literary critic. He was a prominent member of the Just ...

praised ''Kalapurnodayam'' as the best original book ever written in Telugu.

References

External links

Pingal Surana

Telugu literature at bloom in 15th and 16th centuries
* K.A. Nilakanta Sastry, ''History of South India, From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar'', (New Delhi: OUP, 1955, repr. 2002)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Surana, Pingali Indian male poets Telugu people Telugu poets People of the Vijayanagara Empire 16th-century Indian poets Vijayanagara poets Scholars of Vijayanagara Empire