Baddena · Telugu History

Baddena was a Telugu Choda chief who lived in the time of the Kakatiya queen Rudramadevi, in the 13th century.¹ He wrote a book of verse on how a king should rule.¹ Tradition also gives him the Sumati Satakam, the most famous set of moral verses in Telugu after Vemana’s.¹² Whether he really wrote it is uncertain.²³

The chief and his book on kingship

P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, in their history of Telugu literature (1928), date Baddena from 1261.¹ They call him “an Andhra Choda minor feudatory chief” in the reign of Rudramadevi.¹ His land was the country they call “Shatsahasra”, the Six Thousand.¹

His book is the Nitisastra Muktavali (the pearl necklace of the science of politics).¹ Its fifteen chapters, they write, deal with the duties of kings and the choice of officers.¹ They also cover justice, the work of the government and the defence of the country.¹

An earlier king had written on the same subject. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao say that the Kakatiya king they call Prataparudra I wrote a Nitisara, in Sanskrit and in Telugu.⁴ In their account, Baddena refers to that king “as his predecessor in the line”.⁴ See Rudradeva.

The Sumati Satakam

A satakam is a set of about a hundred verses, each ending in the same words.⁵⁶ Every verse of this one ends with the name “Sumati”.³ Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao called it “one of the most widely read moral text-books in the Telugu schools”.¹ In their view this book and Vemana’s verses gave Telugu boys their training in morals.¹⁷

Charles Philip Brown, the English scholar of Telugu, said the same in 1852.⁸ He described the Sumati verses as “teaching morals: these are taught in all the village schools”.⁸ In his 1829 book of Vemana’s verses, he left out some verses that belonged, he thought, to the Sumati collection.⁹

Where the sources disagree

The sources do not agree on who wrote the Sumati Satakam, or when.

Baddena, in the 13th century. In two places, Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao name “Beddanna” as its author.¹⁰¹ Even there, they say only that he “is said to have been the author”.¹
Uncertain. In a later chapter, the same historians wrote that its authorship “is not certain”.² There they named the usual author as “Peddana”, not Beddanna.²
Perhaps the 15th century. P. T. Raju, in his Telugu Literature (1944), also names Baddena, whom he calls Bhadrabhupati.¹¹ But in his anthology he dated the verses to the 15th century, with a question mark.³ He noted that there is “much controversy” about their date and author.³

Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 56 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³
Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 99 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Raju, Telugu Literature (1944), pp. 105–106 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 51 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 97 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 98 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 57 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
Charles Philip Brown, A Dictionary, Telugu and English (1852), p. xiii (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Charles Philip Brown (tr.), The Verses of Vemana (1911 reprint of the 1829 edition), preface, PDF p. 5 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 23 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
P. T. Raju, Telugu Literature (1944), p. 29 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

The chief and his book on kingship

The Sumati Satakam

Where the sources disagree

Footnotes

References