| There is one
important inscription in Srikurmam which has led to a controversy over the authenticity or
the authorship of the Telugu Bharata, which is attributed to the great Telugu poet Nannaya
who was the court poet of the great Eastern Chalukyan king Rajarajanarendra. A prince of
the same Chalukya dynasty by name Vijayaditya has left an enigmatic inscription in
Srikurmam in the year 1273 A.D. which reads as follows: The inscription as it stands would appear to mean that the king mentioned
there translated the great Mahabharata into Andhri or Telugu, though it might also mean
that the king got it translated into Andhri. It is however clear that Rajarajanarendra was
a great patron of arts and Nannaya Bhatta, the famous Telugu poet, was his court poet.
Whether the relationship between Rajarajanarendra and Nannayabhatta was like the
relationship between Harsha and Bana is not known, but it is a fact that Telugu literature
reached one of its peaks during their time. |
