Telangana wants to usurp Kannada's Adikavi Pampa

In its quest to construct a separate Telugu cultural history, distinct from Andhra Pradesh, the Telangana government is reportedly contemplating announcing Kannada Adikavi (first poet) Pampa as the first poet of Telangana as well. 

Pampa Mahakavi lived in the Telangana area when it was under the control of Western Chalukyas. So, the state government wants to recognise Pampa as a Telugu poet and bestow on him the title 'Adikavi'. 

This will take the literary legacy of Telangana further back into history than Andhra Pradesh by a hundred or two hundred years and make Telugu eligible for classical language status.  

This might also divest Andhra’s Nannaya of his tag as Telugu's earliest poet. Pampa had written a Kannada version of the Mahabharata before Nannaya took up a translation of the epic into Telugu.

Since the creation of Telangana in 2014, the Telangana government has been meticulously reshaping its cultural heritage to remove all Andhra elements. The goal to claim that Telangana has followed a different cultural trajectory. 

In that vein attempts to elevate Pampa goes against the convention of tracing the origins of Telugu literary tradition to the Telugu ‘Adikavi’  - Nannaya, a poet from Coastal Andhra Pradesh. 

Nannaya, who lived in 11 AD, was universally seen as the earliest Telugu poet. In those days Telugu pundits from Coastal Andhra treated Telugu literature as the common heritage of the Telugu people. 

Now, Telangana is reopening the controversy that surrounds Nannaya stature as Adikavi.  Telangana experts claimed Nannaya was accorded this status amid confusion, and many external forces influenced the decision.  

“Pundits from coastal Andhra were responsible for anointing Nannaya as the ‘Adikavi’ despite the existence literature earlier to Nannaya. The pre-Nannaya period was given short shrift because of many reasons. Telangana government has decided to gather evidence both from history and literature to prove that it was not Nannaya, but Pampa who was the first Telugu poet. Pampa lived between 902 AD and 975 AD in what is now Telangana. A lot of evidence is available in the form of inscriptions and literature. Pampa was born here in this region and attained Moksha near the present-day town of Bodhan. We would like to place all evidence before the literary community before announcing the decision on Pampa as the ‘Adikavi’ of Telugu,” Burra Venkatesham, commissioner and principal secretary, culture, Telangana said.

According to Venkatesham, proving Pampa was the first poet would resolve the dispute about the classical status of Telugu. 

“If Nannaya is taken as the point of origin, the literary history of Telugu would not go beyond 950 years. If Pampa is considered the first poet, Telugu literature becomes more than 1000 year old. This would silence the critics of Telugu’s classical status,” the principal secretary said. 

Tamil Nadu has contested the centre’s decision to accord classical status to Telugu. The Telangana government, which is on the mission to 'rediscover' the richness of the region’s cultural history, wants to prove that Telugu is about 2000-years-old. 

Telangana is said to have submitted this to a court in an affidavit.

The Current state of Pampa in Telangana

Pampa’s samadhi (grave) was discovered in 1970 in the town of Bodhan, Nizamabad district. It is now lying in a neglected condition in the town’s Basavataraka Nagar. 

After the unearthing of the samadhi, local poets formed a Pampa Mahakavi Peetham and started observing the poet's birth anniversary. 

Telugu Brahmin pundits didn’t evince much interest in Pampa even though he was a Brahmin, as he converted to Jainism later. He died as a Jain monk.

Politics of Literature

To justify the Telangana movement, protagonists sought to portray Telangana was not only a separate geographical unit but also a distinct cultural community. 

They declared the Andhra presence a colonization of Telangana. Throughout the Telangana movement, intellectuals like Professor Kodandaram always used to refer to the Andhra Pradesh government as a colonial government and chief ministers as colonial rulers. 

Attempts to divest Andhra Adikavi Nannaya and inventing an Adikavi in Pampa is being seen as the height of the cultural war between the two Telugu states. 

We have to wait and watch for the Andhra’s reaction.