YAKSHAGANA UNDER TANJORE RULERS.
In my visit to Tanjore in my return from Pondicherry i have a chance to visit the Famous Library there.SOME
SNIPPETS OF THAT VISIT FOR MY
BLOG
VISITORS
Royal patrons of art, their court pundits and other scholars domicile
in the Tanjore country.
In
The Nayak Kings of Tanjore (1535 A. D. to 1670.
A. D.) as well as their successors, the Maratha rulers of Tanjore 1673 A. D
to 1832 A.D. were all patrons of learning besides some of them being
distinguished scholars themselves. It may be said that this collector
represents the Southern School of Telugu Literature. The special distinction
of this school is its originality in the production of song and drama known as
Yakshagana. The crude Telugu drama the street play was given a literary
status and brought on to the royal stage in the reign of Raghunatha Nayak
and his son Vijayaraghava. A perusal of these will at once convince the
reader that they are more original in composition and more artistic in
representation than the present-day stage dramas which are more often
imitations of the Sanskrit or the English Drama. Besides these Yakshagana
there are also copies of standard Telugu works as the Mahabharata,
Ramayanamu, Bhagavatamu and other Puranas and Kavyas. Of the Kavya
literature some are of the Dvipada type and are not available elsewhere.
