Muddupalani

Muddupalani was a Telugu woman poet who lived at Thanjavur (then Tanjore) in the 18th century.¹² She wrote the Radhika Santvanamu (the consoling of Radha), a love poem in four cantos.¹³ Veeresalingam counted her among the very few women who wrote long poems in Telugu verse.¹ Her poem was praised for its skill and blamed for its frankness about love.⁴²

Life

Kandukuri Veeresalingam wrote about her in the third part of his Andhra Kavula Charitramu (lives of the Telugu poets).¹ He called her a vesyangana, a courtesan.¹ The prose colophon of her poem names her mother, Muttyalu.⁴ From the colophon, Veeresalingam judged that Muttyalu was a concubine of Pratapasimha, the Maratha ruler of Thanjavur.⁴

Pratapasimha died in 1765, Veeresalingam wrote.⁴ So Muddupalani was living at Thanjavur about 1760.⁴ She says in the poem that she was skilled in music, poetry and dance.⁴ See Marathas.

The Radhika Santvanamu

The poem has four cantos, and is also called the Iladeviyamu.¹⁴ Charles Philip Brown, in 1852, counted 650 verses.³ He described its author as “an actress at Tanjore”.³ In his view the poem was modelled on an older work, the Radha Madhava Samvadam.³

Veeresalingam thought her verse sweet and well made, and her knowledge of Sanskrit and Telugu good.⁴ He admitted some faults, but said that men’s poetry had them too.⁴ But he found many passages too frank for a woman to write, or for women to hear.⁴

Where the sources disagree

The sources differ on her place at the court and on her poem.

• Her place at court. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, in their history of Telugu literature (1928), call her “a courtesan of Pratapa Sinha”.⁵ K. Sitaramaiya, in 1943, calls her a poet attached to Pratapasimha’s court.⁶ Veeresalingam says it was her mother who was the king’s concubine.⁴
• Her poem. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao praised her “flowing, felicitous rhymes”, but wrote that the poem was “marred by bad taste and utter lack of decency”.² Veeresalingam granted her skill, and linked the poem’s frankness to her birth in a community of courtesans.⁴ P. T. Raju, in 1944, simply named her among the women poets who “deserve mention”.⁷

Footnotes

1. Kandukuri Veeresalingam, Andhra Kavula Charitramu, Part III (1911), p. 100 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 104 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

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

4. Veeresalingam, Andhra Kavula Charitramu, Part III (1911), p. 101 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

5. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 92 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

6. K. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), p. 57 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

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