Molla (poetess)

This page is about a Telugu poet. See Molla for other meanings.

Atukuri Molla (1440–1530) was a famous Telugu poetess who authored the Telugu-language Ramayana. She was popularly known as Molla or Mollamamba.

Biography

She was born in a potters' family in Nellore.^[1][2] She is the second female Telugu poet of note, after Tallapaka Timmakka, wife of Annamacharya. She translated the Sanskrit Ramayana into Telugu.

Her father Kesana was a potter of Gopavaram, a village in Kovur Mandal, a few miles north of Nellore in Andhra Pradesh state. He was a Saivaite and devotee of Srikantha Malleswara (an incarnation of Shiva) in Srisailam. He gave her daughter the name Molla, meaning "Jasmine", a favourite flower to the god, and also nicknamed her Basavi in respect to Basaveswara (another incarnation of Shiva).

Molla claimed Lord Shiva as Guru. It is believed that she had inspiration from Potana, who wrote Bhagavata Purana in Telugu. Like him, she was Shivite, but wrote the story of Rama(an incarnation of Vishnu) and also refused to dedicate her Ramayan to any king according to general practice for poets.

According to Varadarajn's book, "Study of Vaishnav Literature", as her popularity spread, she was invited to Royal court and got an opportunity to recite Ramayana in front of Krishnadevaraya and his poets. She spent her old age at Srisailam in the presence of Lord Srikantha Malleswara.

Works and style

Her work is known as Molla Ramayana and is still one of the simplest of many Ramayans written in Telugu.

She primarily used simple Telugu and only used Sanskrit words very rarely. Poets that had written earlier than her like Tikkana and Potana used Sanskrit words freely in their works.

She was humble and paid tribute to the earlier scholars who had written the Ramayana in her book. The opening poem says - "Ramayana had been written many times. Does someone stop taking food because it has been taken every day? So is the story of Rama and one can write, read and love it as many number of times as possible."

She added fictional accounts to original stories and in some instances, removed some portions from the original story. Sanskrit-to-Telugu translation works from earlier poets like Tikkana followed the exact story sequences in the original work. She was contemporary to Srinatha and poets of the Vijayanagara Empire, who created Prabhandas which are known for adding fictions.

Awards and honors

• Andhra Pradesh government erected a statue of her on the tankbund in Hyderabad along with few other Great Telugu personalities.
• She was used as a symbol of women's advancement by women's associations. On one recent occasion a women's rights protest began at her statue in Hyderabad, in 2006.
• A movie Kathanayika Molla was made about her, with Vanisri playing the lead role.

See also

• Kathanayika Molla, a 1970 Telugu film produced and directed by B. Padmanabham.
• Potana, another poet and devotee who translated Bhagavata Purana.
• Tikkana, another ancient poet from Nellore.
• Timmakka, another ancient women poet in Telugu.

External links

• A news paper article about Molla background
• Vepachedu Telugu Women author list
• Kathanayika Molla at the Internet Movie Database
• Indian women authors
• Molla biography
• A news article about Women holding candles in front of Molla

References

1. ^ Molla from Nellore
2. ^ Molla at telugu women author list

• "Studies in sri vaishnava literature", Dr. M. Varadarajan, M.A., Ph.D.,Sri Ananth Publications, Tirupati.

molla

Persondata
Name	Molla
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1440
Place of birth
Date of death	1530
Place of death