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Gona Budda Reddi

Chief of the Gona family in the Kakatiya period, named in its colophons as the author of the Ranganatha Ramayana, the Telugu Ramayana in the native dvipada metre. His sons completed it with the Uttara Ramayana. His daughter Kuppamamba was the wife of Ganapatideva's general Malyala Gunda.

Gona Budda Reddi was a chief of the Gona family in Kakatiya times.12 The colophons (closing notes) of the Ranganatha Ramayana, a Telugu Ramayana, name him as its author.1 Parabrahma Sastry identified him with the father of Kuppamamba, wife of Ganapatideva’s general Malyala Gunda.2

The Ranganatha Ramayana

The Ranganatha Ramayana is a Telugu version of the Ramayana in dvipada, a native metre of rhymed couplets.1 P. V. Parabrahma Sastry calls it the best of the Telugu dvipada poems.1 Tradition names its author as a poet called Ranganatha.1 But its colophons say that it was composed by Buddharaja of the Gona family, son of Vitthala, grandson of Buddha and great-grandson of Rudra.1

P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, in 1928, found the internal evidence and the colophon explicit that it was composed by Buddha Razu.3 They thought it more likely that he wrote it himself and dedicated it to Ranganatha, than that his court poet Ranganatha wrote it in his name.34 They noted that his sons Kachavibhudu and Vittala Raju completed it with the Uttara Ramayana, at their father’s wish.34 They praised its simple, sweet and easily understood style.3

Date and family

The two main sources do not agree on his date. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao dated the poem to about 1230–40, at the opening of the thirteenth century’s run of Telugu Ramayanas.53 Yet in the same passage they called Buddha Razu a chieftain of “Prataparudra II”, the last Kakatiya king, who ruled from 1289.53

Parabrahma Sastry noted that some chiefs of the Gona family appear in late Kakatiya records.1 But he found that very little is known of Buddharaja and his ancestors.1

An inscription of the Kakatiya period fixes him to the middle of the thirteenth century. At Bothpur, in the Mahbubnagar district, Kuppamamba built a temple for her husband’s merit in Saka 1198 (1276–77; Saka is an Indian way of counting years).67 She was the widow of Malyala Gunda, the general of Ganapatideva.67 At that time “the Kakatiya king Rudradeva”, that is, Rudramadevi, was ruling.67

The inscription’s Sanskrit verses describe Kuppamamba as the daughter of Buddhaya, the crest (ornament) of the Gona family.67 Parabrahma Sastry identified this Buddhaya with the author of the Ranganatha Ramayana.2

Other members of the Gona family served the Kakatiyas:

  • Gona Ganapaya, a vassal of Ganapatideva at Vardhamanapura in the Mahbubnagar district, set up an inscription there in 1224.8
  • Gona Vitthala, ruling at the same place, captured Raichur, Adoni and other forts from the Yadavas in 1294.9
  • N. Venkataramanayya and M. Somasekhara Sarma name a Gona Gannaya Reddi among the chiefs who supported Rudramadevi at her accession.10

Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao made the cavalry officer Sahini Mara, to whom the Bhaskara Ramayana was dedicated, a son of Buddha Razu.11 Parabrahma Sastry identified that patron with Maraya Sahini, a subordinate of Prataparudra recorded in 1311.1

Footnotes

  1. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), pp. 297–298. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  2. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 151. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 55 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  4. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 98 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  5. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 54 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  6. P. Sreenivasachar (ed.), A Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts, Part II (1940), No. 50, translation, p. 141 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  7. P. Sreenivasachar (ed.), A Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts, Part II (1940), No. 50, translation, p. 142 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  8. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 217. ↩

  9. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 131. ↩

  10. N. Venkataramanayya and M. Somasekhara Sarma, “The Kakatiyas of Warangal”, in G. Yazdani (ed.), The Early History of the Deccan, Parts VII–XI (1960), p. 622. ↩

  11. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 57 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

References

Sources (4)
  1. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal, Government of Andhra Pradesh, 1978, pp. 131, 151, 217, 297–298. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  2. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (The Heritage of India Series) (opens in a new tab), Association Press (Y.M.C.A.), Calcutta / Oxford University Press, London, 1928, pp. 54–55, 57, 98. [Public domain]
  3. P. Sreenivasachar (ed.), A Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingana Districts of H.E.H. the Nizam's Dominions, Part II: Texts and Translations (opens in a new tab), H.E.H. the Nizam's Government, 1940, pp. 141–142. Bothpur inscription of Malyala Kuppamamba (No. 50). Public domain in India; paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  4. G. Yazdani (ed.); Part VII by K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and N. Venkataramanayya, The Early History of the Deccan, Parts VII-XI, Oxford University Press, London, published under the authority of the Government of Andhra Pradesh, 1960, pp. 622. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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