Allasani Peddana


Allasani Peddana was a famous Telugu poet and was ranked as the foremost of the Ashtadiggajalu, the title for the group of eight poets in the court of King Krishnadevaraya, a ruler of the Vijayanagara Empire.

Biography

There were difference of opinions on birth place of
Allasani Peddana..
1.He is the native of Pedda dornala of present prakasam district which is near to Srisailam..
2.Peddana was a native of Somandepalli near Anantapur. He later moved to Peddanapadu, a small village located at 5 km from Yerraguntla on Yerraguntla-Vempalli road in Kadapa District, which is an Agraharam given by Krishnadevarayalu.
He wrote the first major Prabandha, a form of fictional poetry in Telugu, and for this reason, he is revered as Andhra Kavita Pitamahudu. It is believed that he was also a minister in the king's court and is hence sometimes referred as Peddanaamaatyudu. He dedicated his works to king Krishnadevarayalu.

Lores

Meaning I became a living dead by not going to heaven along with Sri Krishna Deva Raya.

Works

His famous work was Swaarochisha Manu Sambhavam. This work is the development of an episode in Markandeya Puranam relating to the birth of Svarochishamanu, who
is one of the fourteen Manus. Pravarudu is a pious Brahmin youth who goes to Himalayas for sight seeing. In Himalayas Varudhini, a Gandharva girl falls in love with him, but Pravara rejects her love as he is already married. Knowing this a Gandharva youth who was earlier rejected by Varudhini assumes the form of Pravara and succeeds to win her love. To them is born Svarochi, the father of SvArochishamanu.
Some of his other famous works such as Harikathaasaaramu are untraceable now.
The theme for his Manu Charitra is a short story from Markandeya Purana. It is about second Manu of fourteen manus, translated into Telugu from Sanskrit by Marana, disciple of Tikkana. The original story was around 150 poems and Peddana extended into six chapters with 600 poems by adding fiction and descriptions.
His work was treated as one of the Pancha Kavyas, the five best works in Telugu. Peddana used a mix of words from Telugu and Sanskrit and a small number of Kannada words.

Awards and Titles