The Illustrated History of South India – K.A. The three translators of the Mahabharata have always been held in the highest esteem as the ‘Kavitraya’ – the three poets of Telugu, and subsequent authors generally began their writings by making obeisance to them. Thus, the three great poets of the Telugu language – the ‘Kavitraya’ (Kavi + Triya) were separated by time (Tikkana and Yerrapragada may have overlapped) and space, but were linked together by the Mahabharata. This gap was filled by Yerrapragada (1280-1350) of the court of Prolaya Vema Reddi who bore the title ‘Sambhu-Dasa’ for being a great devotee of Siva. 261)Īfter the efforts of Adikavi Nannaya and Tikkana, there remained the portion of the Vana Parva, which Nannaya could not complete and Tikkana would not touch. Tikkana’s translation is complete for the rest of the Bharata. He commenced his translation with the Virata parva, evidently because he did not wish to start where Nannnaya’s work had been so unhappily interrupted. He performed a sacrifice and earned the title Somayaji. Tikana was himself a successful cortier and diplomat, and on one occasion he secured Ganapati’s aid for Manumasiddhi in regaining his throne. The poet’s grandfather was a minister and poet, and his father and cousin were renowned warriors. He was a niyogi Brahmin of the court of Manumasiddhi, chief of Nellore and subordinate of Kakatiya Ganapati. The translation of the Mahabharata was resumed by Tikkana (1220-1300), perhaps the greatest Telugu poet. Unlike Nannaya, Tikkana was able to complete the translation. Instead he chose to resume the translation from the Virata Parva, possibly avoiding the Vana Parva because Nannaya had been so inauspiciously interrupted while translating it. Tikkana (also known as Somayaji) did not begin from where Nannaya left off.
Tikkana of the court of Manumasiddhi ( the chief of Nellore and a sub-ordinate of the Kakatiya’s) would resume the translation of the Mahabharata more than 200 years later. Rajaraja Narendra of the Vengi Chalukyas patronized Nannaya. The son of Narendra and Ammangadevi was Kulottunga I who took over the Chola throne from Adhi Rajendra in 1070 (Adhi Rajendra was killed in a ‘popular’ uprising). Rajendra Chola’s daughter was married to Rajaraja Narendra of the Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi (in the Krishna and Godavari Districts). To place Nannaya’s time in its proper historical context, Rajaraja Chola I reigned from 985 to 1014 and Rajendra Chola I reigned from 1014 to 1044. He was able to complete the translation of only two parvas (Adi and Sabha) and of a part of the third (Vana) The Illustrated History of South India – K.A.Nilakanta Sastri (pg. Rajaraja’s reign was troubled time, and it is not known if the political troubles hampered the work of Nannaya. Nannnaya undertook the great work at the king’s instance and had for his assistant a certain Narayana Bhatta, also a talented poet, who was rewarded richly by the monarch. Telugu literature as we know it begins with Nannaya’s translation of the Mahabharata undertaken in the reign of Rajaraja Narendra (1019-61). He completed translating the Adi, Sabha parvas and a part of Vana Parva. Nannaya was however, not able to complete the translation that he began. Nannaya’s incomplete translation of the Mahabharata is said to mark the beginning of Telugu literature (and hence the title of Adikavi). Nannaya is considered to be the author of the first Telugu Grammar – the Andhra-Sabha-Cintamani. The first of these poets was Nannaya (Bhattaraka), the Adikavi of Telugu literature. Instead, three different poets worked on different sections of the Sanskrit Itihasa to complete a translated whole. The translation of the Mahabharata to Telugu was not the outcome of the effort of one person. (The primary source material for this post is K.A.Nilakanta Sastri’s The Illustrated History of South India)