Kankanti Paparaju

Kankanti Paparaju is the name on a famous Telugu Uttara Ramayanamu, the story of Rama after his return to Ayodhya.¹² By the 19th century it had pushed the older Telugu versions of that story aside.² But Charles Philip Brown, the English scholar of Telugu, recorded a story that Paparaju was not its real author.² He is also named as the author of one of the first Telugu plays.³

The Uttara Ramayanamu

The Uttara Ramayana is the last part of the Rama story.¹ It tells of his reign, the birth of his sons and his death.¹ P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, in their history of Telugu literature (1928), list three Telugu versions.¹ Tikkana wrote one wholly in verse, Kachavibhudu one in couplets, and “Karmkanti Paparaju” one in champu, a mix of verse and prose.¹

William Taylor catalogued the manuscripts of the old College at Madras in 1860.⁴ He described a copy of the “Uttara Ramayanam, by Kaukati papu raju”.⁴ It begins with the sage Agastya’s visit to Rama, and goes on to the family and birth of Ravana.⁴ The copy was missing parts of some cantos.⁴

Brown’s story of the authorship

Brown described the poem in the list of books quoted in his Telugu dictionary of 1852.² He counted eight books and 3,500 verses.² He wrote that “Pushpagiri Timmanna is the author”.² He reported what was said about how the poem got another name:²

• Timmanna owed money to “Kanacanti Papa raz”, an ameen (revenue official) at Pulicat
• Paparaju took the book in payment of the debt
• he published it in his own name, about the year 1790²

Brown called the poem “a mere fiction”, but “so popular that it has superseded the older versions”.² In another entry he called Pushpagiri Timmanna “a modern poet, of great eminence”, who wrote a Dasavatara and the Uttara Ramayan.⁵ “Neither work is in his own name”, he added.⁵

A play

Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao counted only a few early Telugu plays.³ After Vinukonda Vallabharaya’s Kridabhiramamu of the Kakatiya age, they wrote, the next plays came in the 18th century.³ They named Balasarasvati’s Rangakaumudi and “Karmkanti Papa Raju’s Vishnu Maya Vilasa”.³

Where the sources disagree

• Who wrote the Uttara Ramayanamu. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao and Taylor give it to Paparaju without comment.¹⁴ Brown says it was written by Pushpagiri Timmanna and only published under Paparaju’s name.²⁵
• Who wrote the Vishnumaya Vilasamu. In one chapter Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao give this play to Paparaju.³ In another they give a play of that name to Nutanakavi Suranna, at the end of the 17th century.⁶

Footnotes

1. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 54 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. Charles Philip Brown, A Dictionary, Telugu and English (1852), p. x (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

3. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 114 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. William Taylor, A Catalogue Raisonnée of Oriental Manuscripts in the Library of the (late) College, Fort Saint George, Vol. II (1860), p. 612, No. 418 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

5. Brown, A Dictionary, Telugu and English (1852), p. xi (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 90 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩