Mohanangi

Mohanangi is remembered in Telugu tradition as a daughter of Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagara.¹ She is said to have written a love poem, the Marichi Parinayamu (the marriage of Marichi).¹² The poem is lost.¹² What we know of her comes from stories about her father’s court, and the sources treat these stories with care.³⁴

The lost poem

P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, in their history of Telugu literature (1928), list her among the women poets of the Telugu tradition.⁵¹ They write that she read her Marichi Parinayamu, a love poem, before the full court.¹ The court poets declared it a fine poem.¹ “Though the book is not now extant”, they add, “its existence is well attested”.¹

Kandukuri Veeresalingam was less sure.² He wrote that Mohanangi is only said to have written the Marichi Parinayamu; no copy of the book had been found.² P. T. Raju, in 1944, also wrote that the work “is not available”.⁶

Stories of the princess

In one story she helps a neglected poet.⁷³ Allasani Peddana, out of jealousy, kept Sankusala Nrisimha away from the king.⁷ The starving poet sold verses of his poem in the market.⁷ One reached the princess, who quoted it while playing chess with her father.⁷ The king then learned of the poet, but too late: he had already dedicated his poem to the god of Srirangam.³ Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao tell this “whether the story is true or not”.³ G. R. Subramiah Pantulu told the same story in 1898, though he does not name the princess.⁴

In another story, told by Subramiah Pantulu, the princess reads her poem in court.⁸ She asked her father to keep the jester Tenali Ramakrishna away.⁸ But he came disguised as a maid, and made the court laugh at one of her descriptions, so that she left in shame.⁸ Subramiah Pantulu gives this among the many jokes told of Ramakrishna.⁸

Where the sources disagree

• The poem. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao thought its existence “well attested”, though no copy survives.¹ Veeresalingam wrote only that she “is said” to have written it.²

Footnotes

1. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), pp. 103–104 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

2. Kandukuri Veeresalingam, Andhra Kavula Charitramu, Part III (1911), p. 100 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

3. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 77 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. G. R. Subramiah Pantulu, “Discursive Remarks on the Augustan Age of Telugu Literature”, Indian Antiquary XXVII (1898), p. 299 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

5. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 102 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

6. P. T. Raju, Telugu Literature (1944), p. 42 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

7. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 76 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

8. Subramiah Pantulu, Indian Antiquary XXVII (1898), p. 325 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴