Sarangu Timmana

Sarangu Timmana was a Telugu poet of the late 16th century.¹² He wrote the Vaijayanti Vilasamu, also called the Vipranarayana Charitramu (the story of Vipranarayana).¹³ It tells of a Vaishnava devotee whom two sisters of the courtesan class tried to lead astray.¹ G. R. Subramiah Pantulu wrote in 1898 that the poet described himself as an official of Golconda.²

The poet

P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, in their history of Telugu literature (1928), call him “Sarungu Timmanna, the Madhva poet”.¹ They list him among the lesser poets of the second half of the 16th century.¹

Subramiah Pantulu used Timmana to date Tenali Ramakrishna.² He noted that both poets name the same teacher, Kandala Appalacharya.² He wrote that Timmana “speaks of himself in his Vilasa as the Karanam of Golconda”, that is, its accountant.² Golconda was then ruled by the king he calls “Mahmud Shah”.² Subramiah Pantulu dated that king’s rule to 1581–1611.²

The Vaijayanti Vilasamu

Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao tell the story briefly.¹ Two sisters of the courtesan class, Madhuravani and Devadevi, tried to turn a Vaishnava devotee from his chaste life.¹ They nearly succeeded, but the god Vishnu “stretched forth his hand to save him”.¹ They add that Chadalavada Malliah, a descendant of Errapragada, put the same story into verse in 1585.¹

Charles Philip Brown described the poem in 1852.³ He wrote that it “was printed with a commentary in 1849”.³ He called the story “modern”, “of Tamil origin: and concerning Tamil personages”.³ Like most “devout” tales, he wrote, it was “very blasphemous”.³ He compared it to the Catholic legends of the temptations of Saint Anthony.³

Where the sources disagree

• Where the poem belongs. Subramiah Pantulu ties the poet to Golconda.² K. Sitaramaiya, in 1943, lists the Vaijayanti Vilasamu among the great works of the southern Nayaka courts of Madurai and Thanjavur.⁴

Footnotes

1. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 84 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

2. G. R. Subramiah Pantulu, “Discursive Remarks on the Augustan Age of Telugu Literature”, Indian Antiquary XXVII (1898), p. 328 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

3. Charles Philip Brown, A Dictionary, Telugu and English (1852), p. xiv (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. K. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), p. 51 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩