Addanki Gangadhara

Addanki Gangadhara was a Telugu poet of the 16th century.¹ He wrote the Tapatisamvaranopakhyanamu, the story of King Samvarana and Tapati.¹² He dedicated it to Ibrahim Qutb Shah, the sultan of Golconda.²¹ The poem shows a Muslim ruler of the Deccan as a patron of Telugu poetry.¹³

The poem and its patron

P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, in their history of Telugu literature (1928), list Gangadhara among the “minor poets” of the later 16th century.¹ They write that he and Ponnikanti Telaganarya were attached to the court of Ibrahim, who “was very fond of Telugu literature”.¹ In their view these were “the only kavyas in Telugu literature dedicated to a Muhammadan ruler”.¹ K. Sitaramaiya, in 1943, and P. T. Raju, in 1944, also name Ibrahim as the patron of both poets.⁴³

Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao repeat a story about Ibrahim.¹ After his father’s death he quarrelled with his elder brother, they write, and took refuge with Krishnadeva Raya.¹ See Ponnikanti Telaganarya.

What the opening tells historians

S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar printed the opening of the poem in his Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919).² In his summary, it praises Ibrahim’s conquests in the old Vijayanagara lands after the battle of Talikota.² It says that Ibrahim:²

• defeated the Bijapur sultan in the west and took Koilkonda
• took Panugal and other forts
• took Khammam (then Kambhamumettu) from the Odisha chiefs in the east, and Medak from the Barid in the north
• took the fort of Kondapalli after a victory over the Gajapati king
• carried his conquests to the mouth of the Godavari²

The poem names Haidar Khan as the general who took Kondapalli.² It says he captured alive Harischandra, a general of the Odisha king.²

Where the sources disagree

The sources differ on which Ibrahim the poem honours, and when.

• Before 1543. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao call the patron “Ibrahim Mulk”, and write that he ruled Golconda “between A.D. 1512 and 1543”.¹
• After Talikota. Krishnaswami Aiyangar’s summary makes the patron the Ibrahim who conquered Vijayanagara’s northern lands after the battle of Talikota in 1565.²

Footnotes

1. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 84 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

2. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar (ed.), Sources of Vijayanagar History (1919), p. 238, extract 76, the Tapatisamvaranamu (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

3. P. T. Raju, Telugu Literature (1944), p. 42 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

4. K. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), p. 59 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩