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Mulaghatika Ketana

Telugu poet and scholar of the 13th century, a younger contemporary of Tikkana. He put Dandin's Sanskrit romance Dasakumaracharita into Telugu and dedicated it to Tikkana, wrote an early Telugu grammar, the Andhra Bhasha Bhushanamu, and turned the Mitakshara law code into Telugu.

Mulaghatika Ketana was a Telugu poet and scholar of the 13th century.1 He lived in the time of Tikkana, and dedicated his main poem to him.1 He is remembered for three works: a story-poem, a grammar of Telugu and a Telugu version of a famous law book.1

Life and date

P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, in their history of Telugu literature (1928), date Ketana from about 1250.1 His title was Abhinava Dandi, “the new Dandin”, after the Sanskrit author whose book he translated.1 The sources used here say nothing about his family or his home.

They found no mention of Tikkana’s Mahabharata in Ketana’s work.1 From this they guessed that Ketana wrote before Tikkana began his translation.1 This is their reasoning, not a date given by Ketana himself.1

His works

Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao list three works:1

  • the Dasakumaracharitramu (the story of the ten princes), from Dandin’s Sanskrit, dedicated to Tikkana
  • the Andhra Bhasha Bhushanamu (the ornament of the Telugu language), a grammar
  • a Telugu version of Vijnanesvara’s Mitakshara, the commentary on the law book of Yajnavalkya1

They called the Mitakshara “the governing authority on Hindu law in South India”.1 They wrote that the Dasakumaracharitramu tells stories of common life.1 In their view it “reflects a corrupt state of society of that day”.1 They also named it as the example of the old Telugu prose romance, one of the kinds of story-telling that came before the modern short story.2

The manuscripts at Madras

William Taylor catalogued the manuscripts of the old College at Madras in 1860.3 He described a complete copy of the Andhra Bhasha Bhushanamu, in verse.3 It deals with the kinds of Telugu words: pure Sanskrit words, words made from Sanskrit, native words and rustic words.3 It also explains how Sanskrit words are brought into Telugu, and the rules for joining sounds (sandhi).3 A second copy sorts the words into five classes.4

Taylor also found Ketana’s Telugu law book in a bundle of eleven pieces.5 He called it “a translation by Ketana of the code of Vignanesvara” in three parts.5 The parts cover conduct, law suits and penances.5 He added that it was “very much abridged; an epitome”.5

Footnotes

  1. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. 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

  2. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 118 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  3. William Taylor, A Catalogue Raisonnée of Oriental Manuscripts in the Library of the (late) College, Fort Saint George, Vol. II (1860), p. 527, No. 690 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. Taylor, Catalogue Raisonnée, Vol. II (1860), p. 541, No. 692 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  5. Taylor, Catalogue Raisonnée, Vol. II (1860), p. 573, No. 287 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

References

Sources (2)
  1. 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. 56, 118. [Public domain]
  2. William Taylor, A Catalogue Raisonnée of Oriental Manuscripts in the Library of the (late) College, Fort Saint George, Vol. II (opens in a new tab), H. Smith, Madras, 1860, pp. 527, 541, 573. [Public domain]

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