Leaders and Landmarks of Telugu Literature

BY PROF. RAYAPROLU SUBBA RAO^l

(The Osmania University, Hyderabad)

TIKKANA SOMAYAJI AND THE SECOND EPOCH

(1220-1300)

It was not till after nearly half a century, that the noble work commenced by Nannaya Bhattaraka was taken up once again. The scene now passes to the banks of the Pennar, and the leader at this stage was Tikkana Somayaji. Tikkana is not merely the leader of the second epoch in Telugu literature, but he is the greatest of all the Telugu poets, and is known as Kavi Sarvabhauma or the Emperor of Poets. We have a fairly authentic account of the life of Tikkana in contemporary works, and history too has recorded certain events of his life.

Tikkana Somayaji was the minister of Manumasiddhi, a provincial satrap of the Warrangal Kings at Nellore. His brother Rana Tikka was a high military officer. Nellore was noted for its live-stock, and quarrels among neighbouring chiefs were not uncommon regarding pasture lands and boundaries. One such dispute developed into a battle royal, and Manumasiddhi lost his principality. Tikkana Somayaji, the astute minister of Manumasiddhi, undertook an embassy to the Imperial Court at Warrangal to seek the help of the Kakatiya King Ganapatideva. The diplomatic mission was successful, and troops were placed at the service of Tikkana. Nellore was ultimately restored to Manumasiddhi.

Popular legends and folk-lore portray Tikkana as young and handsome, a free-lance in the literary field and an epicurean in his conduct and tastes. Early in life, Tikkana wrote Uttara Ramayanam in Telugu. It is an all-verse composition, thus differing from Nannaya’s work in which he employed both prose and verse. Tikkana perhaps thought that, in a sweet language like Telugu, the all-verse form would be more suitable than the mixed robes of prose and verse. It might also have been that the ancient Sanskrit and the village ballads of Andhra with uni-metrical treatment impressed Tikkana and weighed with him. Anyway Tikkana’s first efforts were a departure from his predecessor Nannaya’s. The Uttararama Charitra of Tikkana, however, did not reach that high standard which marks out an epoch. The strange fact is that Tikkana did not exploit Bhavabhuti’s Sanskrit version of Uttararama Charitra, a first-rate drama, which stands unrivalled for its moving pathos and haunting phrases.

Ketana, a contemporary of Tikkana, dedicated his Dasakumara Charitra to the minister as a mark of great respect. Ketana describes Tikkana’s charming manners and handsome personality. Tikkana was a liberal patron of scholars, and his tastes were very fastidious. Ketana says, "It is not Possible even for the Creator, Brahma, to please Tikkana’s literary tastes." However, Ketana seems to have merited Tikkana’s recognition and patronage. The importance of Ketana in Telugu Literature can be estimated in quite a different way. Because, up to this time Sanskrit works of a quasi-religious nature and of didactic import were selected and rendered into Telugu, chiefly with an eye on the high moral themes. The sole concern of the poets was to create and cultivate classical expression in Telugu and not so much to familiarise the Telugu public with the possibilities of artistic expression without reference to the moral bias of the subject matter. But starting with Tikkana, the artistic element preceded the moralising element. Andhra writers do not seem to have taken kindly either to the theory that all literature should perforce have a moral purport, or to the dictum that verse is the only form of poetry. Ketana’s Dasakumara Charitra was a challenge to both. It displayed a society in which promiscuous life, draink, frivolity and gambling were rampant. That was not all. The original Sanskrit work was done in prose; a prose of rhythmic movement, felicitous phrasing and excellent finish. But its poetic content is very high and is to this day admired by many critics. That Ketana deliberately undertook to produce a Telugu version of such a work and that he elicited unstinted praise from Tikkana cannot but indicate that, from the earliest times, Telugu poets always desired freedom to create their own schools of Poetry.

Tikkana wrote about 50,000 lines of poetry of which about ten per cent is in prose form. Human life of variegated types, and abstract thought of an almost incomprehensible nature, are dealt with in the body of his literary work. In certain contexts, he wields his weapon with supreme mastery. For instance, the diplomatic language that he employs in the seemingly innocent mission of Sanjaya, and, later, in the apparently genuine peace move with which Sri Krishna was sent to the Kaurava Court, is inimitable. The Words are simple, sometimes commonplace. They acquire one meaning in their particular association of words, mean the very opposite by the alteration in emphasis or of a comma, suggest something even more divergent if the intonation is changed, read like an official statement and yet are pregnant with many meanings. The worst things are said in unprovocative language, and the most aggressive expression fails to produce any unpleasantness. Speech falters but the import is firm.

Tikkana’s delineation of Droupadi is a wonderful study of feminine psychology, not on its sensuous and emotional side but in that violent state when modesty has been outraged and vengeance gathers momentum. The character of Droupadi, the heroine of Mahabharata, is in many respects unique. She was born of the sacrificial fire. She had five husbands. She was pawned by one of them in the game of dice. She was lost to the opponents. She was sought to be brutally unclothed before an open Royal Court, yet her person and chastity were

always on the lofty pedestal of virtue. No woman had passed through crises of a more serious nature. To comprehend fully the various emotions and moods of such a character, and to command suitable language to express them, is a literary feat. Tikkana did it, and with amazing ease and success. As his diplomatic language is perfectly apt in its place, so is the speech of Droupadi to her husband and her appeal to Krishna, the ambassador designate, supreme in effectiveness and beauty. In bitter shame, smarting under deep injury, she lives as if for the sole purpose of wreaking vengeance upon the wrong-doers. She refers to those diabolical deeds in piercing phrases, shrieks in pain, speaks sarcastically about her husbands’ indifference, now appeals in piteous tones and now lashes their deadened sense of self-respect. When she invokes Krishna’s aid in the name of Dharma, we are moved deeply. And when she taunts her husbands, we are in the presence of a supreme sarcasm that moves us not to laughter but to tears.

We now come to another aspect of Tikkana’s literary glory. This concerns his treatment of the heroic sentiment in poetry. This sentiment has been sustained at great length but with a sense of proportion in Tikkana’s work. In his pages, all the fierce battles of the Mahabharata war seem to be re-fought with that precision and that perfection of detail which only Tikkana, himself a warrior, could supply. And this great war was not only hideous with its seas of blood and its heaps of heads but was also interesting on account of all the manoeuvres that strategy ever discovered or designed. Roughly 21,000 lines of poetry and five cantoes carry us through this deadly fighting under five commandants. Personal bravery and chivalrous conduct were exhibited, duels were fought, marksmanship and mental alertness were disclosed, spirited offensives and skilful defensives were planned and the loss of the dearest and the nearest was faced. All these phases of heroic life were to be visualized mentally, their thought-forms had to be grasped and expressed in terms of literary convention. And this was done thoroughly and to perfection. It is indeed an extraordinary phenomenon, associated with only a few great poets of the world. To read these five cantoes in which Tikkana covered the story of regular battle, it takes about a hundred hours. But one never gets bored, one never feels repelled. On the other hand, severe verbal economy is manifest, together with a complete absence of redundancy. Even amidst roaring drums and rattling chariots we can easily follow the track of the principal hero, either by the sound of his bugle or by the flutter of his flag. There is no confusion, no groping for the way. The narrative steers a clear path, no matter whether it is through the thick of the fight or across a plain field.

Having said so much about Tikkana Somayaji, it is worth our while to compare and contrast the two great poets, Nannaya and Tikkana. Nannaya’s objective, as he himself stated, was to please the elite and the expert; his anxiety was to disarm all opposition to his literary aims, and to secure recognition from the learned ‘Sabbas’ or Academies of the day. Tikkana, according to his own declaration, wrote to provide pleasure for the millions of Andhras, and never cared for the critic nor appeared eager to earn the applause of the scholars. It was he who pointed out that the use of archaic words was not proper. What he wrote became the standard of literary expression. Nannaya was keen on selecting such Telugu words as would fit in with Sanskrit samasas; and the speech of the upper classes, if not exclusively of the Brahmins, was his norm. To Tikkana, every word that danced on Telugu lips was precious, and it was for the writer to set it artistically and in the proper place. What is the percentage of Telugu in Nannaya’s composition, and what was the Sanskrit element that Tikkana found it expedient to retain in his literary medium? Nannaya’s style is noble, ornamental, even elegant, but spreads only over a select range. Tikkana’s style betokens enormous wealth and natural beauty, for it is virile, un-polished, and pervades all classes of people and all states and situations. In a sense, perhaps, Nannaya was a poet, and Tikkana a dramatist. No doubt the lives of these two great men influenced their style and their work a great deal. Nannaya’s vision was to a large extent confined to Sanskrit studies and the learned academies of his time. His life and activities were also limited, inasmuch as his religious observances at home and scholarly duties in the Royal Court were enough for the day. Tikkana inherited the Brahminical intellect, but he also bore the loss of a warrior-brother, who died sword in hand. As a Minister of State, he handled all kinds of business, met men of varying calibre and capacity. In fact, he moved in society with the honour of a Minister, and observed that society with the heart of a poet. The rich and many-sided experience thus gained, doubtless invested his literary production with an individuality that defies comparison and defeats imitation. When one enjoys Nannaya’s poetry, one feels as if one was in a beautiful garden, where the green lawns are nicely mown and only fleshy fruit trees of special variety and size were grown, and creepers with fine flowers and foliage were nursed. In Tikkana’s, it is one enormous area of cultivated ground, heavy with crops, vivid with verdure, sustained by running streams and marked by incessant growth and wild animation.

There is one particular feature in Nannaya’s poetry worthy of reference here. And that is his sense of music. Like an organ in a church, his voice releases a huge volume of harmony that brings all clashing emotions to a happy balance, and the final emotion is unified. There is an arresting grandeur in his tone. Even when it is tuned to the lovely and the tender, Tikkana’s music is that of an orchestra, where each part wakes up its own notes, and has its distinct place in the entire concord.

l The first article was published in Triveni for April 1939.