CHAPTER
1
THE ANTIQUITY OF
ANDHRA : LITERARY AND CULTURAL GREATNESS
It was Appayyadikshita, a
great poet, rhetorician and philosopher of South India, who declared
that to be an Andhra and to speak Telugu is a rare gift won through a
rigorous penance.
आन्ध्रत्वमान्ध्रभाषा
च प्राभाकरपरिश्रम:
|
तत्रापि
याजुषी शाखा नाSल्पस्य
तपस: फलम्
||
The Andhras are a society with
a long antiquity. There are several references to Andhras in the
Vedas, the epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, Puranas as
well as the Buddhistic literature. The foremost reference to
Andhras as a race is as old as the Aitareyabrahmana
of the Rig Veda. An
episode in the Aitareyabrahmana
goes like this.
Harischandra was performing a
Yajna in which the sacrificial animal died before it was actually
offered for the sacrifice. As a remedial measure, he had to
substitute a human being. He accumulated a huge amount of money and
wandered from door to door seeking a human being for the purpose.
Having failed in his effort, he approached the sage Richika, brother-
in- law of Viswamitra, and requested him to spare one of his children
in exchange for the money. Although Richika had as many as three sons
-- Sunahpuccha , Sunassepha and Sunolangula -- he refused to part
with his eldest son while his wife Satyavati was unwilling to give
away the youngest son. Thus it fell to the lot of Sunassepha, the
middle boy, to oblige Harischandra and undergo the ordeal. While he
was reluctantly following Harischandra, he came
across Viswamitra, his maternal
uncle, and prostrated before him for relief from the predicament.
Having taken pity on him, Viswamitra wanted any one of his own sons
to follow Harischandra
in lieu of Sunassepha.
It so happened that one of his sons bore the name Andhra. Since none
of his sons were willing, Viswamitra grew angry and cursed them.
Though not strictly relevant
here, the reader may get curious to know the follow-up of this
episode. At Viswamitra's instance, Sunassepha invoked Indra and got
relieved of the surrogate sacrifice, as Indra was content with the
function sans the sacrifice of life.
Though Andhras have existed
even from Vedic times, nothing is known about their contribution to
Sanskrit literature till recently. Apastamba was the first known
person who contributed considerably to Grihya Sutras, a work in
Sanskrit known as Apastamba Sutra and this work is the oldest
literary contribution of Andhradesa.
Apastamba's assertion
'Atmalabhanna
param vidyate kinchit '
which means that there is no higher knowledge than knowledge of one's
own self, is said to be the cornerstone of Advaita Vedanta.
The Andhra region of India is a
treasure house of rich culture and heritage. This land, though united
geographically, is divided into three regions for administrative
convenience : Coastal area, Telangana and Rayalaseema. The Coastal
region is divinely identified with Saraswati, Rayalaseema, with
Parvati, and Telangana, with Lakshmi. The ancient name of the State
of Andhra Pradesh is Thrilingadesa as it is in the midst of three
Sivakshetras, Draksharama, Kaleswara and Srisaila. This idea is
expressed by Vidyanatha, a great rhetorician and a Poet Laureate in
the court of King Prataparudra.
यैर्देशस्त्रिभिरेष
याति महतीं ख्यातिं त्रिलिंगाख्यया
येषां
काकतिराजकीर्तिविभवै:
कैलासशैल:
कृत:
|
तं
देवा:
प्रसरत्प्रसादमधुरा:
श्रीशैलकाळॆश्वर
द्राक्षारामनिवासिन:
प्रतिदिनं
त्वच्छ्रेयसे जाग्रतु ||
(Prataparudriyam of
Vidyanadha, page-151)
The ancient Andhradesa is said
to be somewhat different from and wider than the present Andhra
Pradesh. According to Vidyanatha the Andhradesa bordered on
Maharashtra in the West, Kalinga in the East, Pandya in the South and
Kanyakubja in the North.
पश्चात्पुरस्तादपि
यस्य देशौ ख्यातौ
महाराष्ट्रकळिंगदेशौ |
अवागुदक्पाण्ड्यककन्यकुब्जौ देशस्स
तत्रास्ति त्रिलिंगनामा ||
The geographical situations and
other ambiance of Andhradesa are congenial for the development of
education in all branches of knowledge. This region, which has earned
the well-deserved title "the granary of South India"
because of the lush green fields encompassing the area producing very
rich harvest, is congenial for the spread also of mundane and
transcendental knowledge.
The greatness of Andhradesa is
also reflected in the writings of the Greek historian Megasthanes and
the records of the Venitian traveller, Marco Polo, who visited this
country during the reign of Rudramadevi of the Kakatiya race. Great
personalities of the East and West have paid rich tributes to
Andhradesa in respect of language, culture and heritage.
For example, while describing
the greatness of Krishnadevaraya [A.D.1509-29], Barbosa, a famous
historian of the West, says : "The king allows such freedom that
every man may come and go and live according to his own creed without
suffering any annoyance and without enquiring whether he is a
Christian , Jew, Moor or Heathen. Great equity and justice is
observed to all ,not only by the ruler but by the people to one
another". [The Wonder That Was India; vol-2,by saa rizvee p-87.]
In literature, Andhras have
made rich contributions in almost all branches of knowledge. In the
words of Dr.V.Raghavan, an eminent critic and Indologist of the
South, the Andhra output has been remarkable in quantity as well as
quality. In Kavya, Andhra evolved a large variety of panegyrical
poems, Prasasti Kavyas or Kshudra Prabandhas. Historical Kavya and
Kavya by women writers are two other noteworthy features of the
productions of Andhra. In some branches, the works of Andhra
Sanskritists gained pan-Indian vogue. In Alamkara Sastra, the
Prataparudriyam
of Vidyanatha under the Kakatiyas initiated a form which was imitated
in other areas. In several branches, the works produced in Andhra
gained places of honour in the curriculum of studies in the
respective branches all over India. There is no study of Veda without
Sayana's commentary; no Advaita without Panchadasi and
Jivanmuktiviveka; Annambhatta's Tarkasangraha
and Dipika form the beginning of all study of Tarka; Jagannatha's
Rasagangadhara
occupies a similar position in Alamkara Sastra. Above all, one name
is enough to highlight Andhra contribution to Sanskrit - Mallinatha,
the prince of commentators, a name synonymous with the study of
Sanskrit and the Panchamahakavyas with which that study begins.
So far we have had a broad idea
of the contribution of Andhras to literature in general. We now take
up their specific role with regard to Advaita Vedanta,
the central topic of this paper.
The Vedanta philosophy -- the
philosophy based on the concluding portion of the Vedas, i.e.,
Upanishads -- occupied a prominent place among the orthodox systems
of Indian philosophy. The edifice of the entire Vedanta system is built mainly upon the literary
tripod of the
Upanishads, the
Brahmasutras
and the Bhagavad-Gita
which are known as Prasthanatraya. On the basis of the above
works, Sankara, Ramanuja and Madhwa established their own theories -
Advaita, Visistadvaita, and Dwaita respectively. Quite a number of
people, scholars as well as laity, are aware of the unique nature of
Advaita Vedanta. The essence of Advaita is summarized in the
following line :
'Brahma satyam jaganmithya
jivo brahmaiva naparah'
which means Brahman is the only
reality and the world is not real and jiva is not other than Brahman
Itself.
It may not be out of place here
to mention that South India bags the credit of producing the
principal Acharyas of Vedanta Darsana - Sankara, Ramanuja, Madhva,
Srikantha and Vallabha. All these celebrated exponents are from the
South. Historically, Sankara was born
in Kerala, Ramanuja in Tamilnadu, and Madhva in Karnataka. While on
this nativity issue, Sri Kota Venkatachalam, a famous historian of
Andhradesa, states that the surnames 'Asuri' and 'Nadiminti' of
Ramanuja and Madhva respectively prove the Andhra nativity of their
ancestors.
Ramanujacharya was the son of
Asuri Kesavayajwan and Kantimathi, the sister of Mahapurna, a
disciple of Yamunacharya. Ramanuja was born in 1017 A.D. Madhvacharya was the son of
Madhyagehabhatta, who lived in the city of Rajatapitha, near Udipi
which is about forty miles west of Sringeri, where there was a famous
Mutt of Sankara. Vallabhacharya, the propounder
of Suddhadvaita philosophy, [A.D. 1481-1533] also hailed from
Andhradesa. He was born in the linege of Yajnanarayana Bhatta.
Nimbarka alias Nimbaditya alias
Niyamananda is also said to be an Andhra who probably lived in Nimba
or Nimbapura in the present Bellary district. His commentary on the
Brahmasutras
is called Vedantaparijathasourabha.
The early reference of Advaita
in Andhradesa is found in the reign of Kakatiyas. There is an
inscription on the thousand-pillared temple at Hanumakonda dated
A.D.1163. The author of this inscription was Achintendradeva, son of
Rameswarapandita. He flourished in the court of Kakatiyas from his
very early life. He belonged to Bharadvajasagotra and was a disciple
of Advayamritayathi [corpus-3;verse-4]. The name Advayamritayathi
indicates that in the period of Kakatiyas the Advaita was in
prominence. Similarly the very name 'Advayacharyatirumala' [A title
of Annambhatta's father, Meligirimallinatha] and 'Advaitanandatritha'
[a name adopted by Kurumganti Subrahmanyasastry in his later life
after Asramasweekara] prove the prominence of Advaita in those days.
In this context, it is
necessary to state that there were many scholars in Andhra who toiled
for the development and preservation of Advaita Vedanta. Their
monumental contribution can be divided into three categories:
1.Independent works 2.Commentaries and 3.Minor works.
Some scholars like Vidyaranya,
Chitsukha and Bellamkonda Ramarayakavi wrote independent works while
others like Gundayyabhatta wrote commentaries. For example, Chitsukha
wrote Tattvapradipika,
also known as Chitsukhi
after his name, on Advaita Vedanta. Gundayyabhatta wrote a succulent
commentary on the most difficult Advaita classic of Sri Harsha, The
Khandanakhandakhadya. In
addition to the above, many works were authored by scholars of the
19th century and beyond. Similarly, the contribution made by Mutts,
Gurukulas and other educational institutions of higher learning
deserves a scrutiny. Also, there were Mutts, Gurukulas,
Principalities, besides individual pundits, all having made immense
contribution to Advaita Vedanta.
In other words, the
contribution made by Andhras to Advaita Vedanta is luminous and
voluminous. An attempt is made in this paper to present the literary
acumen of some of the scholars.
***
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