The poet

The peculiar interest of this biographical poem is that its author Gangā Dēvi was the wife of the hero whom it celebrates, and that in all probability she accompanied her husband in his sojourns in the South. She was the chief queen of Kampaņa II, and though nothing is known about her lineage, must have sprung from a noble family as the Dēvi suffix would imply. She was very highly accomplished and was endowed with all charms and grace. Kampaņa lavished all his love and attention on her though he had other wives.

1. This is only a guess. But there is, however, an interesting point which need not mean much by way of substantiating the state ment, but which is not wholly unimportant. At the end of canto 1 there is a salutation to goddess Minakshi immediately after the colophon. In all probability this must have been written by Gangā Dēvi herself, because if the original copyist of the manuscript had written the words Minākshiai namah he would have written them at the end of every canto. Possibly Gangā Dēvi had omitted the salutation in the other cantos and in the verbatim copy of the original that omission was perpetuated.

Moreover Kampana lived in Kancīpuram after taking it from the Sambuvarayas and cantos 6 and 7 describe his happy life with his queens.

Gangā Dēvi was a poet of a very high order. She was a great student of the classics. She was well versed in the Vedic lore also. That she chose Kālidāsa Bhatta Bāna, Bhāravi, Dandin and Bhavabūti along with Vālmīki and Vyāsa out of a thousand names in Samskrit is sufficient proof of her discerning ability.

2. Madhurāvijayam, canto 3, slokas 18 and 19; also cantos 6 and 7. 3. Ibid., canto 1. 4. Ibid., canto 1. 5. Ibid., canto 1, slokas 5 to 11.

These names are representative of Samskrit literature at its highest level and Gangā Dēvi plays, very remarkably, the critic of these most reputed luminaries. In a single verse devoted to each she brings out the special merit of the poet Kālidāsa, according to her, must prove a model for all writers of good poetry.: Bhatta Bāna’s facility of expression and eloquence appealed to her very much.’ The depth of meaning in the writings of Bhāravi and the literary flourishes of Ācārya Dandin captivated our poet greatly.8 According to her, Bhavabūti, the immortal author of Uttararāmacaritam produced in the ears of the learned a pleasure akin to the tasting of amrita.10

6. Ibid., canto 1 sloka 7. 7. Ibid., canto 1 sloka 8. 8. Ibid., canto 1 sloka 9. 9. Ibid., canto 1 sloka 11. 10. Ibid., canto 1 slokas 13 to 16. 11. Ibid., canto 1 sloka 4.

In addition to these “mighty minds of old” many contemporary poets have come in for notice in the Madhurāvijayam.10 It is not unlikely that some of them influenced her and inspired her greatly. Of these Kriyāṣakti Pandita gets the pride of place in the poem.11 Immediately after the invocation to god she makes her obeisance to Guru Kriyāșakti. This is significant. According to Sri Gopinatha Rao, the early kings of Vijayanagara were all Saivas of the Saivāgama sect and not of the Vedānta sect.12

• 12. T. A. Gopinatha Rao in his introduction to the Trivandrum edition of the Madhuravijayam.

The tradition of the foundation of Vijayanagara by Madhava Vidyāranya cannot be given much credence though Vidyāranya did influence the thought of the age as a great savant. His part at the time of the inauguration of the kingdom could not have been as prominent as it is usually made out. Vidyāranya’s influence was at its height only in the last quarter of the fourteenth century, nearly forty years after the foundation of the kingdom. At the commencement it was Kriyāṣakti Pandita, a high-priest of the Srikanthāgama sect who occupied the exalted position of guru to the Vijayanagara monarchs. In a Mysore inscription Harihara II acknowledges Kriyāṣakti as the kula guru.13 Kriyāsakti was held in such high veneration that the early Vijayanagara rulers looked to him not only for spiritual guidance but also for advice on matters of state. It is believed that it was largely through his influence that Vidyāranya under took to write a commentary on the Srauta Sūtras. Even after Vidyāraṇya’s ascendancy to fame and in fluence in the last quarter of the fourteenth century, Kriyāṣakti continued to enjoy the same regard and esteem as at the inauguration of the kingdom. Natu rally the first kula guru received the obeisance of the poet in this poem. In all probability Kriyāsakti had some part in shaping Gangā Dēvi into a poet and it was possibly a high sense of duty and gratitude that prompted her to give him the place next only to Pārvati and Paramēsvara in her invocations.

13. T. A. Gopinath Rao mentions this. 14. Madhuravijayam canto 1 sloka 14.

Among the others of the period mentioned by Gangā Dēvi Agastya is described as the author of “seventy-four poetic compositions”.14 This Agastya was different from the Agastya of ancient tradition. He was a poet at the court of Pratāparudradēva of Warrangal and was an elder contemporary of Gangā Dēvi. It is guessed, not without sufficient reasons, that he was under the patronage of Sangama and Bukka I also. The Pratāparudrayaṣābhūshana was among his noted works. The authorship of this is attributed to Vidyānātha whom we could easily identify with Agastya from a verse in the Pratāparudiya.15 Possibly Vidyānātha was a title conferred on poet Agastya in recognition of his talents. Of the seventy four works attributed to him a few are extant. These are the Bālabhārata (a poem, not a campu, as has been erroneously stated by both Dr. S. K. Iyengar and Mr. Burnell), Krishnacarita, the Nalakīrtikaumudi, the Lakṣmi Stotra, the Șivāstava, the Lalita Sahasranāmam, the Maniparīksha, the Siva Samhita and the Sakalādhikaara. Agastya seems to have distinguished himself as a writer of excellent prose also.

Agastya’s nephew Gangadhara was a dramatist and wrote at least three plays, the Mahābhārata, the Candra Vilāsa and the Rāghavābudhayam. Gangā Dēvi greets him, appropriately enough, as the second Vyāsa who made the Bhārata story visually enjoyable.16 Visvanātha and Narasimha were the two talented sons of Gangādhara. We do not know why Gangā Dēvi has omitted to mention Narasimha. Narasimha dramatised the Kādambari into a play in eight acts. Visvanātha was a contemporary of Agastya and graced the court of Pratāparudradēva about the same time as Agastya.

• 15. The verse begins with the words aunnatyam yadi varnayaté sikharināh etc.
• 16. Madhvrāvijayjam, canto 1, sloka 15.

That both Agastya and Visvanātha influenced Gangā Dēvi not only by the models of literary works they supplied but also perhaps directly may be inferred from Gangā Dēvi’s style. Her poetry shows no small influence of Agastya and her style, though undoubtedly her own, has yet the mark of the new literary move ment inaugurated by Kriyāsakti and Agastya. While Gangā Dēvi stops with paying fitting tributes to each of the other poets, she acknowledges Visvanātha explicitly as her guru. Describing him as Kavisvara she prays for his longevity. She says, “it is by his grace, even in individuals like myself has dawned a sense of omniscience”. 17

Gangā Dēvi was a connoisseur of true poetry. In the galaxy she has supplied only the most famous find a place. As a poet herself she has freely imitated the most eminent writers of Samskrit poetry. She would consider it a merit of good poetry that it is an imitation of Kālidāsa.18 Playing the sedulous ape to master minds, according to her, is no fault. Being a biographer first and then only a poet, her literary “borrowings” do not affect the work in any way.

According to her it is not possible to find a poetical work in which all the best ingredients are present. But that cannot be an excuse for serious literary flaws. A man of learning will not be satisfied if a poem merely conformed to the techniques of poetical composition though the technique is as important as the beauty of any piece of poetry. Eloquence, depth of meaning, wealth of expression and learning and a power to affect are among the qualities that a true connoisseur of poetry will look for in any poem. But Gangā Dēvi does not mean to be hypercritical.19

17. Ibid., canto 1 sloka 16. 18. Ibid., canto 1. 19. Ibid., canto 1 slokas 17 to