Indian Antiquary Vol 27

SR No.: 032519
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 404
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1898.
Krishnaddvaraya, it cannot be far from the truth to say that the grandson of the person who fought the battle must have been living thirty or forty years later.
The inference, therefore, is that Pingali Sûrana must have lived about 1560 A. D. We may infer the same thing from a study of the Råghavapk ndaviya. We know that this work is dedicated to Pedda Venkatîdri of Akavidu, about twelve miles to the west of Koilkuntla in the Kurnul district on the banks of the Tungabhadra. "We learn from the poem that Veukatadri's grandfather, Immarya, conquered the country as far as Rajahmundry in the district of Godaveri. We learn further that Immarêya and NÄraparáys were kings tributary to Kșishwadevaraya, and that they led his forces against the Muhammadans. We have already seen that Krishnadêvarîya conquered Vijayanagara in 1515 A. D. It is highly probable that Immarîya may have been with him at the time. That the Akavida kings were feudatories of the kings of Vijayanagara is borne out by the Raghavapándaviya. From that reference, we are led to infer that the poem must have been written previous to the dissolation of the kingdom of Vijayanagara in 1565 A. D.
There is also a story current which confirms the above statements. It is said that this Sûrana was the husband of Allasâni Peddana's grand-daughter, and in his young days roamed about like a loafer in the streets, and so the people not only laughed at him but also at his wife for having secured a pudding-headed husband. Sûrana enraged at this treatment went away to a foreign place, became a good pandit, returned home, and began to write the Raghavapandaviya. When the matter was reported to Peddana by his grand-danghter, he asked the poet Sûrana to read a stanza from it. A certain portion of a stanza was read, when Peddana said that it was a laboured one, but before the same stanza was completed, he changed his opinion, and extolled his grandson. As Sûrana lived with the Âkapidu kings and wrote the Raghavapándaviya before his other work, the Kaldpurn daya, was written, he must have written it about 1550 A. D., when he was in the first flush of manhood. The Garudapurána, written previous to this date, is lost.
Surana is by far the best of medieval poets and makes & near approach to Tikkana. We learn from the opening stanzas in his Prabhávati-Pradyumna that he wrote previously the Garudapurana, the Rágharapandaviya and the Kalapúrnodaya. Râmarâjabbtshana's Harichandra-Nalopakhyána was composed after Sûrana's Raghavapandaviya. Súrana was the pioneer in the production of those complete poetical works, of which each stanza carries two meanings and so continuously tells two stories. Such poetical compositions are called duyartha. kávyas in Telugu. In the preface to his Ragharapdndaviya, Sûrana has well defined the way in which such kávyas ought to be written, and has thus paved the way for the guidance of future poets treading on the same lines.
We have already pointed out that the Raghavapandaviya must have been written by Surana in the flush of manhood. Taste, the handling of subjects, and style, generally differ with men with the advance of age. This is clearly brought before us in the case of poets generally. Take Srinatha for instance, who has written voluminoably, and compare the poetry of his youth with that of his manhood and old age, and one perceives a world of difference. There is a world of difference between his Vidhi nataka and his Naishadha between his Marutaratcharitra and his Sáliváhanasaptašati, between his Kasikhanda and his Panditárid-yacharitra. The spectacles through which poets view the world are different at different stages of their life. When a man begins to write poetry in his youth his head is so stuffed with a surfeit of Sanskrit poetry and dramatic lore that he merely pours forth his book-learned skill. But when the flush of youth bas cooled down, when he is no longer brisk when he is tossed about in the wider sphere of busy and active life, he no longer sees through the spectacles of his books, but observes things as they are in the work-a-day world. When men come to view life through the spectacles of Nature, a wide change comes over them, which s brought very vividly before us in their style, no longer laboured, no longer that of the studious recluse, but flowing like running water.