Kancherla Gopanna (Bhakta Ramadas)

Kancherla Gopanna, known as Ramadas, is the hero of one of the best-loved Telugu devotional legends.¹²³ He was a revenue officer who spent the king’s money on the temple of Rama at Bhadrachalam on the Godavari, and he was thrown into prison.¹²³ He was set free when Rama and his brother Lakshmana themselves paid the debt.¹²³

The written sources used here agree on the legend but not on his date.¹²³ Two of them make him a nephew of Madanna, the Brahmin minister of Abul Hasan Tana Shah of Golconda.¹²³ A third places him about 1725, a generation after the fall of the Qutb Shahi kingdom.¹²³

Bhadrachalam

The Imperial Gazetteer of 1908 describes Bhadrachalam as a place of pilgrimage on the left bank of the Godavari, about a hundred miles above Rajahmundry.⁴ There “stands an ancient temple of Ramachandra, surrounded by twenty-four smaller pagodas”.⁴

The Godavari district gazetteer of 1907 explains the name as “the hill of Bhadra”.³ Bhadra was a saint who lived there when Rama passed through in search of Sita.³ The gazetteer records the legend that the first shrine was built by a bairági (ascetic) who carved a rough image of Rama.³

The country around the temple was linked with the story of the Ramayana.⁵ The gazetteer notes “many legendary associations” with Ravana’s capture of Sita.⁵

The story in the sources

The earliest of these accounts is in Gordon Mackenzie’s manual of the Krishna (then Kistna) district (1883).¹ He tells it as “another legend of this period”, the reign of Abul Hasan.¹ A peshkar is a revenue officer. In Mackenzie’s words, “Madanna Pantulu had a nephew, Gópanna, who was appointed Péshkar of the Kammamett Táluq, which includes the village of Bhadráchellam on the Godávari”.¹

Gopanna was so devoted to Rama “that he assumed the name of Rámdás”.¹ He “set to work to improve the temple of Ráma at Bhadráchellam, using freely the public money that came into his hands”.¹ When the spending reached some lakhs of rupees, he was called to account and thrown into a dungeon.¹

Mackenzie then gives the miracle as the ballads tell it.¹ Two soldiers came to the sleeping king at Hyderabad with a great weight of treasure.¹ They poured it on the floor, asked for a release for Gopanna’s debt, and vanished.¹ In the morning the money was found to be the exact sum, and “the king knew that it was Ráma and Lakshmana who had brought the treasure”.¹ He released Rámdás and gave the temple the revenues of several villages, which it still held.¹

Mackenzie adds that the legend “is told in a printed book of ballads entitled Rámdás Khaidu (imprisonment of Rámdás)”.¹⁶ The ballads are “sung by many devout Hindus with much feeling”.¹⁶ People especially admired the verse in which Rámdás laments his imprisonment.¹⁶

Jadunath Sarkar wrote an appendix on Madanna in 1930.² He gives the same identification, on information from Professor K. V. Rangaswami Aiyangar.² “Their nephew Gopanna, surnamed Ramdas Swami, was appointed revenue collector at Bhadrachalam”.² But he “fearlessly spent six lakhs of pagodas of Government money in building halls, shrines and corridors for the god Ram”.²

He was arrested and tortured by royal order.² He was released “through the miraculous interposition of Ram and Lakshman”.² They “appeared in the guise of men and paid up the deficit to the Sultan on behalf of their devotee, who is now worshipped as a saint”.²

A later date

The Godavari district gazetteer of 1907, describing Bhadrachalam, puts the story in a different century.³ After the legendary beginnings of the shrine, it says, “more authenticated history commences about 1725”.³ That was “when Ráma Dás, an official of the Nizam’s government, was sent to collect the revenues of this taluk”.³

Instead of sending the money, he spent it on enlarging the shrine and building towers.³ His superiors had him carried to Hyderabad, “where he died after an imprisonment of twelve years”.³

The gazetteer gives the miracle as tradition.³ Rama and Lakshmana “appeared before the then Nizam in person” and paid his ransom.³ He returned to Bhadrachalam, “where he disappeared and became one with the god”.³

The gazetteer names the man who next held his office, Tumu Lakshminarasimha Rao.³ He sent part of the revenue each year and spent the rest on finishing the work.³

The gazetteer does not give its evidence for the date of 1725.³¹² Mackenzie and Sarkar give none for the family link with Madanna.³¹² Neither account rests on a document of Gopanna’s own time quoted in these works.³¹²

The poet

Gopanna is remembered as a poet as well as a devotee.⁷⁸ P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao wrote a history of Telugu literature in 1928.⁷⁸ They list the “Dásarathi Sataka” among the most popular devotional satakas (poems of a hundred verses).⁷⁸ They describe it as “by Kancherla Gopanna, the celebrated Rama Bhakta of Bhadrachellam and a disciple of Kabir”.⁷⁸

The Godavari gazetteer says that his adventures are the subject of a book of Telugu poems, “called the Ráma Dás kírtana, which is widely known throughout the country”.³ The Telugu bards (bhagavatas) often sang its songs at social gatherings throughout South India.³

Footnotes

1. Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District (1883), p. 37 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³

2. Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol. IV (2nd ed., 1930), p. 421 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶

3. Hemingway, Godavari, Vol. I (1907), p. 261 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴

4. Imperial Gazetteer of India: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 164 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

5. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (1907), p. 258 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

6. Mackenzie, Kistna District (1883), p. 38 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

7. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 99 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

8. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 100 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴