ముప్పిరాల సుబ్బరాయకవి విరచిత ప్రద్యుమ్న చరిత్రము: Pradyumnacaritramu of Muppirala Subbaraya Kavi (An Old and Rare Book) Telugu

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I have great pleasure in introducing to the Telugu scholars in particular and to the lovers of literature in general Pradyumnacaritramu a terse poetical work in Telugu written by Muppirala Subbaraya Kavi who is supposed to have flourished in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Though small in volume when compared to the works of similar class in Telugu, it is in many respects superior to a majority of them in possessing rare literary qualities. This work is being issued as number two of our series.

This Research Institute was originally established at Tirupati in 1940 under the authority of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, Tirupati. About 60 works in Sanskrit, Telugu and Tamil have been published upto 1956 under different series of the Institute. 16 volumes of S. V. O. Journal a literary organ of the Institute- were also issued during that period.

Sri Venkateswara University was established at Tirupati in September, 1954 and the Institute with its two wings of Library, viz., Manuscripts and Printed Books and staff was transferred to the University on 1-11-1956 to achieve better results in research and teaching when post-graduate courses in Sanskrit and Telugu were to be instituted by the University which happened in July 1959. During this short period of three years S. V. University Oriental Journal, volume I of 1958 under new series was issued.

It is by sheer accident that I laid my hands on a Telugu palm- leaf manuscript No. D. 571 preserved in the Manuscripts Library attached to S.V. University Oriental Research Institute, Tirupati, during my search for a rare and hitherto unpublished Telugu manuscript for editing and publishing under S.V. University Oriental Series of this Institute. On close scrutiny and after reading through a few folios of the text I could proudly announce that I secured the manuscript of Pradyumnacaritramu an exceptionally worthy metrical work in Telugu written by Muppirala Subbaraya Kavi who is supposed to have flourished in the latter half of the eighteenth century. This work is a unique one for the fact that it is a very rare and at the same time an unpublished manuscript and surprisingly enough not given due publicity by later poets though its poetry possessed all the literary merits enumerated by the rhetoricians.

This Institute Library has acquired three manuscripts of this work-one written on palm-leaf the other two written on paper. Both the paper manuscripts are only transcripts of that palm-leaf manuscript. This palm-leaf manuscript No. D. 571-bundle number 332-originally belonged to Madras Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras. Along with a few thousands of Telugu manuscripts this work also was transferred in 1962 to S.V.U.O.R. Institute Library forming part of a share that fell to Andhra State when it was carved out of composite Madras State.

Information about the existence of some more manuscripts of Pradyumnacaritramu was gathered but they were not available to me due to some unavoidable circumstances. In Part II of Andhra Vangmaya Suchika of the unpublished Telugu works prepared and printed in 1929 by Andhra Patrika Karyalayamu, Madras, it is mentioned that a copy of this Manuscript was available in the Manuscripts Library attached to Sahitya Parishad Patrika' office at Kakinada.