Manavalli Ramakrishna Kavi · Telugu History

Manavalli Ramakrishna Kavi was a Telugu scholar who spent years searching for lost Telugu books.¹ He found and printed several old works that had been almost forgotten, the most famous being Nannechoda’s Kumarasambhava.¹² His prefaces and his views on the dates of poets set off debates that went on for decades.²³

The search for old Telugu

Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, writing in 1928, describe his work. He “scoured the country” to find out whether there had been Telugu literature before Nannaya.¹ He collected many manuscripts that had never been printed. Whatever they proved about the age before Nannaya, they wrote, they added greatly to the stock of Telugu books.¹

His greatest find was the Kumarasambhava of Nannechoda. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao called its discovery and printing “a literary event of capital importance”.¹ A review in the journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society (1937–38) notes that he printed it in two parts, in 1909 and 1914.²

Editor of old books

He also brought out other old texts for the first time. Arudra, in his history of Telugu literature, mentions several:⁴³⁵

the Nitisastra Muktavali, a book of political wisdom by Baddena
the Sakalaniti Sammatamu, an anthology of verses on good conduct compiled by Madiki Singana
verses that the anthology quotes from older books, such as the Mudramatyam and the Nitibhushanam³⁵

He shared his finds with others. Bhavaraju Venkata Krishna Rao says that an old work on metre was first brought to his notice by “Mr. Manavalli Ramakrishna Kavi, M.A.”.⁶ Mikkilineni Radhakrishna Murthy quotes the definition of bahurupa, a form of dance, from Ramakrishna Kavi’s work Bharatakosam.⁷

A scholar of his time

K. Sitaramaiya, writing in 1943, named him among the older scholars “responsible for a large output” of research.⁸ He also counted him with Veturi Prabhakara Sastri among those who carried on the literary research begun by K. V. Lakshmana Rao.⁹ See Veturi Prabhakara Sastri.

Where the sources disagree

The date of Nannechoda. Ramakrishna Kavi argued that the Kumarasambhava was a century older than Nannaya’s Mahabharata. He placed the poet in the first half of the 10th century, and held that he died in 940 in a war with the Western Chalukyas.² The review of 1937–38 says that many scholars later rejected this. Most placed Nannechoda in the 12th century, between Nannaya and Tikkana, and some even after Tikkana.² See Telugu literature.

Who wrote the Sumati Satakam. Arudra reports that Ramakrishna Kavi took Baddena, author of the Nitisastra Muktavali, to be the author of the famous Sumati Satakam.⁴ But Ramakrishna Kavi himself noted that the verse naming the Sumati Satakam was found in only one of his copies, and that the two works differ in style.⁴

The author of the Mudramatyam. Ramakrishna Kavi suggested that the Mudramatyam was written by a poet called Lakkabhattu, who bore the title Kshemendra. Arudra points out that he gave no reason for this guess.³

P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 110 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Review of Sreepada Lakshmipathi Sastri, A Critique on Nanne Choda Deva’s Kumarasambhavam (1937), Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society, Vol. XI (1937–38), p. 216 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Arudra, Samagra Andhra Sahityam, p. 287 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Arudra, Samagra Andhra Sahityam, p. 220 (in Telugu) (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³
Arudra, Samagra Andhra Sahityam, p. 349 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²
Bhavaraju Venkata Krishna Rao, A History of the Early Dynasties of Andhradesa (1942), p. 544, note 2 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩
Mikkilineni Radhakrishna Murthy, Teluguvari Janapada Kalarupalu (Hyderabad: Telugu University, 1992), p. 105 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩
K. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), p. 99 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩
Sitaramaiya, Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), p. 105 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

The search for old Telugu

Editor of old books

A scholar of his time

Where the sources disagree

Footnotes

References