CDS (II) 2023 General Knowledge · Question 15 of 120

Correct — D, Telugu. The Amuktamalyada is a long poem written by Krishnadevaraya, the greatest of the Vijayanagara rulers, who reigned from 1509 to 1529 — and he wrote it in Telugu. Its narrative frame is the story of the Tamil Alvar saint Andal, the garland-maiden of Srivilliputtur, but woven through the poem is a body of practical advice on kingship: how a ruler should treat cultivators and forest peoples, why he must keep his ports busy and his roads safe, how he should handle the officers who hold his territories. That combination of devotional narrative and statecraft is why the paper describes it as a political treatise. Krishnadevaraya was himself a scholar of Telugu and Sanskrit and presided over a court whose eight celebrated poets, the Ashtadiggajas, made his reign the golden age of Telugu literature.

• (a)Sanskrit — The likeliest wrong answer, since Krishnadevaraya did compose in Sanskrit — the drama Jambavati Kalyanam is his — and Sanskrit is where most Indian statecraft literature sits. But the Amuktamalyada is not Sanskrit, and an earlier NDA paper set that exact confusion as its answer.
• (b)Tamil — Tempting because the poem retells the story of Andal, a Tamil Alvar saint of Srivilliputtur. The subject is Tamil; the language of composition is not.
• (c)Kannada — Vijayanagara's heartland lay in what is now Karnataka, and its capital Hampi stands on the Tungabhadra there, so Kannada is a reasonable guess about the empire. It is the wrong guess about this poem, and about this king's own literary language.

Vijayanagara rose in the fourteenth century in the Deccan and reached its height under Krishnadevaraya of the Tuluva dynasty. His reign combined military expansion — against the Deccan Sultanates, Odisha's Gajapatis and the Portuguese-touched coast — with a deliberate cultural programme in Telugu and Sanskrit. Foreign visitors described his capital in detail: Domingo Paes and Fernao Nuniz from Portugal, and Duarte Barbosa, who praised the justice of his rule. Administration ran through the amara-nayaka system, under which military commanders held territories, collected revenue and maintained troops for the king.

The item is a single-fact recall and its distractors are built from things that are all true of something nearby — Sanskrit was one of the king's languages, the poem's heroine is Tamil, and the empire's core is Kannada country. Fixing one anchor solves it: Krishnadevaraya wrote his masterwork in Telugu, and his court poets are remembered as the Ashtadiggajas of Telugu literature. Two notes on the printed text. The paper spells the title 'Amuktmalyada', dropping a vowel from the usual Amuktamalyada; that is the booklet's own slip and nothing turns on it. And calling the poem a political treatise is a simplification — it is a devotional narrative that contains a celebrated section of political advice, rather than a treatise in the manner of the Arthashastra.

• The Amuktamalyada is a Telugu poem composed by Krishnadevaraya, who ruled Vijayanagara from 1509 to 1529.
• Its story is that of Andal, the Tamil Alvar saint of Srivilliputtur, and it carries a well-known passage of advice on kingship.
• Krishnadevaraya also composed in Sanskrit; the drama Jambavati Kalyanam is attributed to him.
• His court is remembered for the Ashtadiggajas, the eight Telugu poets led by Allasani Peddana, who held the title Andhra Kavita Pitamaha.
• The Portuguese travellers Domingo Paes and Fernao Nuniz visited Vijayanagara in his time, and Duarte Barbosa praised the justice prevailing in his empire.

• Assuming a work described as a political treatise must be in Sanskrit.
• Being led to Tamil by the poem's Tamil heroine, or to Kannada by the empire's Kannada heartland.
• Attributing all of Krishnadevaraya's writing to one language; he worked in Telugu and Sanskrit both.

As a work-to-language or work-to-author match, as a 'which statement about Krishnadevaraya is not correct' item, or through his court poets.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Ashtadiggajas were associated with the court of which one of the following rulers?

  • (a)Rajaraja Chola
  • (b)Krishnadevaraya
  • (c)Harihara I
  • (d)Pulakeshin II

  Answer(b) Krishnadevaraya — the eight Telugu poets of his court, headed by Allasani Peddana, whose period is regarded as the golden age of Telugu literature.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Amuktamalyada narrates the story of which one of the following figures?

  • (a)Andal, the Alvar saint
  • (b)Basavanna, the Lingayat reformer
  • (c)Mirabai
  • (d)Akka Mahadevi

  Answer(a) Andal, the Alvar saint — the garland-maiden of Srivilliputtur, around whose story Krishnadevaraya built his poem and its passages on kingship.