Madhura Vijayam Explained

Madhurā Vijayam (Sanskrit: मधुराविजयम्), meaning "The Victory of Madurai", is a 14th-century C.E Sanskrit poem written by the poet Gangadevi. It is also named Vira Kamparaya Charitham by the poet. It chronicles the life of Kumara Kampana, a prince of the Vijayanagara Empire and the second son of Bukka Raya I. The poem describes in detail, the invasion and conquest of the Madurai Sultanate by the Vijayanagara empire.[1] [2] [3]

The poem along with Ibn Battuta's memoirs and epigraphical and numismatic records, has been used as a historical source for determining the history of the Madurai Sultanate and the Vijayanagar empire's conquest of the Sultanate.[4] [5]

Content

Madhura Vijayam (lit. The conquest of Madhura (Madurai)) or Vira Kamparaya Charitham (lit. The history of the brave king Kampa) is a mahākāvya (epic poem) in nine cantos (chapters), though possibly there was an extra canto (now lost) between the eighth and final canto. The available text contains 500-odd verses.

The text from the Madhura Vijayam as translated by Henry Heras describe thus:

M. Krishnamachariar in his History of Classical Sanskrit Literature describes the narrative as consisting of "melodious verses" and summarizes it thus:[6]

In the early chapters, Gangadevi, the wife of Kumara Kampanna II, describes the historical background of the Vijayanagar empire, the benevolent rule of Bukka I, the birth and early life of Kumara Kampanna. The middle chapters detail the adulthood actions of Kampanna, his south bound invasion and conquest of Kanchipuram. After conquering Kanchipuram and subduing Sambuvaraya chieftain, Kampanna enjoys a brief interlude while consolidating his southern conquests. He is visited by a strange woman (described as the Goddess Meenakshi in disguise) who pleads with him to liberate South India from the rule of the Madurai Sultanate.

Heeding her exhortation, Kampanna resumes his invasion of the South. The final chapters chronicle his invasion of Madurai, where he destroys the Muslim armies, slays the last sultan in single combat and restores the temple of Srirangam to its old glory.[2]

In relation to other works

The fact that the Madhura Vijayam refers to the Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta of Līlāśuka,[7] praising him (in verse 1.12) immediately after Daṇḍin and Bhavabhūti,[8] has been used to fix a bound on the date of its author.[9] S. K. De, in History of Sanskrit Literature co-written with S. N. Dasgupta, mentions this poem in the section on poems with historical themes alongside the later Raghunāthābhyudaya of Rāmabhadrāmbā (which is on Raghunatha Nayaka).[10] Again, in the section on the anthologies and women poets, along with the later Tirumalāmbā who wrote the Varadāmbikā-Pariṇaya, he calls Gaṅgādevī a "more gifted" poetess, and the poem as "written in a simple style, comparatively free from the pedantry of grammar and rhetoric".[11] Similarly, Dasgupta, in the section on historical kāvyas, mentions it alongside the Hammīra-kāvya.[12]

Discovery and publication

Madhura Vijayam was discovered in 1916[13] in a private traditional library at Thiruvananthapuram by Pandit N Ramasvami Sastriar. It was found in the form of a single manuscript of sixty-one palm leaves, bound between two other unrelated works. The available poem is made up of nine cantos (chapters) containing 500-odd verses,[13] with some verses incomplete and others missing and presumed lost, including possibly an entire canto between the eighth and final canto.[14] [15] [13]

Though the printed editions have been based on this single manuscript discovered in Trivandrum, the New Catalogus Catalogorum lists three other manuscripts discovered later: two of them are also in Trivandrum, and the third, in Lahore, has even less text (contains only seven cantos).[13] [16]

Influence on other works

Salman Rushdie's Victory City is seen as a fictional retelling of Madhura Vijayam, and the life of the poetess Pampa Kampana (Gangadevi). This fictional work falls under Magical Realism genre. Gangadevi lives for 247 years in this new retelling by Rushdie.[17]

Editions

Further reading

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Ernst, Carl W.. Eternal garden: mysticism, history, and politics at a South Asian Sufi center. SUNY Press. 1992. Illustrated. 297. 978-0-7914-0884-1.
  2. Book: Jackson, William Joseph . Vijayanagara voices: exploring South Indian history and Hindu literature. Ashgate Publishing. 2005. Illustrated. 61–70. 978-0-7546-3950-3.
  3. Book: Chattopadhyaya, Brajadulal . Studying Early India: Archaeology, Texts and Historical Issues. Anthem Press. 2006. 141–143. 978-1-84331-132-4.
  4. Book: Aiyangar , Sakkottai Krishnaswami . S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar. South India and her Muhammadan Invaders. Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press. 1921. Madras, British India. 184.
  5. Book: Sastri , Kallidaikurichi Aiyah Aiyar Nilakanta . K. A. Nilakanta Sastri. A History of South India: From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar. Oxford University Press, Amen House, London. Paperback. 1955. 1958. Madras. 241.
  6. M. Krishnamachariar (1937), History of Classical Sanskrit Literature, Tirumalai-Tirupati Devasthanams Press, Madras, p. 215
  7. Harihara Shastri and Srinivasa Shastri, Some Later poets mentioned in the Madhurāvijaya, Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society, X, p. 381 f.
  8. S. N. Dasgupta (1947), A History Of Sanskrit Literature Classical Period Vol 1, p. 663
  9. K. Kunjunni Raja (1980), Contribution of Kerala to Sanskrit Literature, p. 43
  10. Dasgupta, p. 361
  11. Dasgupta, p. 418
  12. Dasgupta, p. 679
  13. Shankar Rajaraman and Venetia Kotamraju, 2013, page iv
  14. Web site: A portion from madhurAvijaya. 30 October 2008. bharatendu.com. 3 February 2010.
  15. Book: Devi. Ganga. Madhura Vijaya (or Virakamparaya Charita): An Historical Kavya. 1924. Sridhara Power Press. Trivandrum, British India. Sastri. G Harihara. Sastri. V Srinivasa. 21 June 2016.
  16. Entry मधुराविजय in New Catalogus Catalogorum Volume XVIII, page 141.
  17. Web site: Goodreads . 2023-03-22 . Goodreads . en.

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