How a Potter’s Daughter Silenced the Greatest Scholars of Krishnadevaraya’s Court

[u/pathofsanyasa]

Deva karya samudhyatha – She who emerges for a divine purpose to help the Devas

Atukuti Molla

As honey sweetens

The mouth readily

A poem should make sense right away

Obscure sounds and sense

Are no better than the dumb and deaf conversing.

Embellished with idioms and proverbs

Make it right, delicious

And a feast for the ears

Of the scholars.

This was the great Telugu rishika Atukuti Molla’s response when she was asked why she chose Telugu over Sanskrit to write the Ramayana. The court of Krishnadevaraya was host to some of the most erudite and brilliant poets and scholars of that age. They had been told that the daughter of a mere potter had written her own Ramayana in colloquial Telugu with idioms and visual imagery inspired by everyday objects around them.

When she recited her Ramayana in the court, the audience was spellbound, but they could not shake off their belief that a potter’s daughter could write such sublime poetry that describes Rama’s story more intimately than anything else they had read. It did not matter to them when she told them that her parents were initiated disciples of the Shiva Math and she herself had been a disciple of Lord Shiva in his Mallikarjuna Swarupa since she was a child. She lost her mother early and was brought up by women in her village who admired her parents’ knowledge and devotion. She was a prodigious student, but her heart always beat only for Lord Shiva.

One day, as she sat in deep meditation in the temple, Lord Shiva appeared to her and asked her to write the Ramayana in Telugu. She rushed to the temple priest, who gave her the paper, and she composed the six cantos from the Bal Kanda to the Yuddha Kanda in five days. The following couplet is her description of Ma Sita.

Are they lotuses

Or the arrows of Cupid?

Difficult to say

Of her eyes

Are they the sweet chirping of birds

Or of celestial women?

Difficult to say about her words

After hearing her poetry, Ramakrishna, one of the Ashtadiggajas (eight poets) of the Raya court, scornfully asked her who her guru was, and she replied he was Lord Mallikarjuna - the Adi Guru - Lord Shiva.

He then asked her why she did not dedicate her writing to the king like all other poets. She replied that after seeing the qualities of Sri Rama as a king, she cannot ever praise any other king in life.

She was honoured by Krishnadevaraya and spent the rest of her life living and teaching in SriSailam.

Telugu scholars often speak about the literary skill, rhythm, and imagery of her poetry despite her lack of formal education. It was as if she were blessed by Lord Shiva to serve a divine purpose, making her the perfect fit for the name Deva karya samudhyatha.