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Molla

Telugu woman poet of the potter caste, author of the Molla Ramayanamu, a short verse retelling of the Ramayana. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao placed her in Krishnadeva Raya's reign (1509–30) and called hers the most widely read of all the Telugu Ramayanas; C. P. Brown described the poem in 1852 as 'an imitation of Valmiki'.

Molla was a Telugu woman poet of the potter caste.12 She wrote a Ramayana in Telugu verse, known after her as the Molla Ramayanamu.2 P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao placed her in the reign of Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagara.12 Her poem is one of the few works by a woman that the old Telugu histories treat as a classic.23

Life

Almost nothing is known of her life from the sources used here. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, in their history of Telugu literature (1928), call her “Kummari Molla”, Molla the potter woman.42 They give her dates as 1509–30, the years of Krishnadeva Raya’s reign.2 They list her and Kumara Dhurjati as “two other poets of the reign”, after the court poets.4 Charles Philip Brown, the English scholar of Telugu, wrote in 1852 that the poem was “written by the daughter of a potter”.5

Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao counted her among the few women poets of early Telugu literature.2 Sitaramaiya called her the one woman poet of the early part of the period.3

The Molla Ramayanamu

Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao wrote that her Ramayana “has taken its place among the standard works of our literature”.2 In their judgement, “of all the Ramayanas, Molla’s is the most widely read and popular”.2 They thought “the general high level of her composition” placed her among the best Telugu poets.2

Others agreed. K. Sitaramaiya, writing in Hyderabad in 1943, called her poem “a work for all time”.3 He thought it could be classed with any long story-poem of the age.3 P. T. Raju, in 1944, said that boys still read it.6

Brown was less warm. He listed the poem among the Telugu versions of Valmiki’s epic and called it “an imitation of Valmiki”.5

In later stories

Molla also appears in the popular tales of Krishnadeva Raya’s court. Sitaramaiya noted that the stories of the jester Tenali Ramakrishna make him live at the same time as Peddana, Surana and Molla.7 In his view this mixing of poets of different dates shows that the jester of the stories is a figure of legend.7

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

  2. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 103 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  3. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), pp. 56–57 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

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

  5. Charles Philip Brown, A Dictionary, Telugu and English (1852), p. xii (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

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

  7. K. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), p. 49 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

References

Sources (4)
  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. 54, 77, 103. [Public domain]
  2. Charles Philip Brown, A Dictionary, Telugu and English, Explaining the Colloquial Style Used in Business and the Poetical Dialect (opens in a new tab), Christian Knowledge Society's Press, Madras, 1852, xii. [Public domain]
  3. K. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (opens in a new tab), Hyderabad Telugu Academy, Hyderabad (Deccan), 1943, pp. 49, 56. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  4. P. T. Raju, Telugu Literature (Andhra Literature) (The P. E. N. Books, The Indian Literatures, No. XV) (opens in a new tab), International Book House, Bombay, for the P. E. N. All-India Centre, 1944, pp. 42. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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