Which one of the following works was composed by Krishnadevaraya on statecraft in Telugu?
- (a)Amuktamalyada
- (b)Jambavati Kalyanam
- (c)Rayavachakamu
- (d)Satyavadu Parinaya
Correct — A, Amuktamalyada. Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara, who reigned from 26 July 1509 to 17 October 1529, wrote the Amuktamalyada in Telugu. It tells the story of the Tamil poet-saint Andal and her marriage to Vishnu, but it is remembered as much for the long passages in which the king sets out his views on how a kingdom should be governed — the treatment of subjects and forest peoples, the handling of forts, the use of Brahmanas in administration, the management of a treasury. That is the statecraft the question is pointing to, and it makes the work the standard reference for Vijayanagara political thought in the king's own voice.
- (b)Jambavati Kalyanam — Jambavati Kalyanam is also attributed to Krishnadevaraya, but it is a Sanskrit drama on the marriage of Krishna and Jambavati. The question specifies Telugu and statecraft, and this work answers to neither.
- (c)Rayavachakamu — Rayavachakamu is a Telugu prose work about Krishnadevaraya's reign, and that is exactly why it is the sharpest distractor — it is not by him. It was written later, and it is a courtly account of the king rather than a composition of his.
- (d)Satyavadu Parinaya — Satyavadu Parinaya is among the works attributed to Krishnadevaraya, but it belongs to his Sanskrit output and is not a treatise on governance. Once again the stem's two conditions, Telugu and statecraft, exclude it.
Krishnadevaraya was the greatest ruler of the Tuluva line at Vijayanagara and presided over a court that made Telugu literature flourish; the age is often called the Telugu literary golden age. Eight poets known as the Ashtadiggajas are associated with him — Allasani Peddana, Nandi Thimmana, Madayyagari Mallana, Dhurjati, Ayyalaraju Ramabhadrudu, Pingali Surana, Ramarajabhushanudu and Tenali Ramakrishna. He was himself a poet in Telugu and in Sanskrit, and Portuguese visitors including Domingo Paes and Fernao Nuniz have left descriptions of his capital and his court.
Three of the four titles are genuinely tied to Krishnadevaraya's name, so the question is not asking whether a candidate can recognise his works but whether they can apply two filters at once — language and subject. Telugu knocks out the Sanskrit compositions; statecraft knocks out the ones that are purely literary. Rayavachakamu survives the language filter and fails the authorship test, which is a common shape for a distractor: a work about the king rather than by him. A related item that comes up often is whether Amuktamalyada was written in Sanskrit, and the answer is no, which is worth fixing firmly, since the king's Sanskrit works exist and make the confusion easy.
- Krishnadevaraya reigned from 26 July 1509 to 17 October 1529.
- He composed the Amuktamalyada in Telugu; it narrates the story of Andal and carries his views on governance.
- Jambavati Kalyanam is his Sanskrit drama on the marriage of Krishna and Jambavati.
- The Ashtadiggajas of his court were Allasani Peddana, Nandi Thimmana, Madayyagari Mallana, Dhurjati, Ayyalaraju Ramabhadrudu, Pingali Surana, Ramarajabhushanudu and Tenali Ramakrishna.
- Allasani Peddana held the title Andhra Kavita Pitamaha.
- Assigning Amuktamalyada to Sanskrit — it is a Telugu work, and the king's Sanskrit output is separate.
- Taking Rayavachakamu as his composition; it is a later account written about his reign.
- Reading the work as purely devotional and missing the passages on governance the question is built on.
As a work-to-author or work-to-language pairing, as a which-is-not-correct item on Krishnadevaraya, or through the Ashtadiggajas.
Which one of the following statements regarding King Krishnadevaraya is NOT correct ?
- (a) He was a great scholar of Telugu and Sanskrit
- (b) Foreign travellers Paes and Nuniz visited his court
- (c) Barbosa praised him for the great justice and equity prevailing in his empire
- (d) He wrote his magnum opus Amuktamalyada in Sanskrit
Answer(d) He wrote his magnum opus Amuktamalyada in Sanskrit
The same fact from the other direction. That paper made the false option the claim that Amuktamalyada is a Sanskrit work — the exact confusion this CDS item guards against by specifying Telugu in the stem.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Amuktamalyada of Krishnadevaraya was composed in which language?
- (a)Sanskrit
- (b)Kannada
- (c)Telugu
- (d)Tamil
Answer(c) Telugu — his Jambavati Kalyanam, by contrast, is a Sanskrit drama.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Who among the following was not one of the Ashtadiggajas at the court of Krishnadevaraya?
- (a)Allasani Peddana
- (b)Tenali Ramakrishna
- (c)Pingali Surana
- (d)Siddheshvara
Answer(d) Siddheshvara — the eight were Allasani Peddana, Nandi Thimmana, Madayyagari Mallana, Dhurjati, Ayyalaraju Ramabhadrudu, Pingali Surana, Ramarajabhushanudu and Tenali Ramakrishna.