Madhava Kandali

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Madhava Kandali
LanguageAssamese (Early form)
Period1400s
Notable worksSaptakanda Ramayana

Kaviraja Madhava Kandali (Assamese: মাধৱ কন্দলি) (circa. 14th century) was an Indian poet from the state of Assam. He is one of the renowned poets pertaining to the Pre-Shankara era. His Saptakanda Ramayana is considered the earliest translation of the Ramayana into an Indo-Aryan language, Assamese.[4] This work was carried out by the poet as early as the 14th Century. Another significant work of his is the narrative poem Devajit, which is about superiority of Krishna over the other avatars of Vishnu.[5] Kandali's patron was the Barāha King Mahamanikya (mid 14th century)[6] whose kingdom was located in the Kapili valley.[7] Kabiraja Madhava Kandali was said to be inhabitant of Lanka of Undivided Nagaon.[8]

Literary Works[edit]

Saptakanda Ramayana[edit]

Madhava Kandali is credited with the task of translating ‘Valmiki’s Ramayana into the Assamese language as early as the 14th century.[9] The Assamese version of Ramayana conceptualized by Madhava Kandali is the first of its kind among all the regional languages of North and Northeast India. Although Madhava Kandali has written that “Saptakanda Ramayana podebandhi nibandhilo lambha parihari sarodhrite”, yet the “Adikanda” (first) and the “Uttarakanda” (last) cantos of his “Saptakanda” (seven cantos) Ramayana are not found. Therefore, in accordance with the advice of Mahapurush Srimanta Shankardeva, Mahapurush Madhavdev wrote “Adikanda” and Mahapurush Srimanta Shankardeva, wrote the “Uttarakanda” in order to compensate the lost cantos and thus completed the epic consisting of “Sapta Kanda” or seven cantos. Madhava Kandali has not translated the “Shlokas” (a couplet of Sanskrit verse) of valmiki Ramayana as it is. He instead abandoned some unnecessary verse narratives and long descriptive passages. He has written the Assamese Ramayana in a lucid and rhythmic pattern thus catering to the needs of the common Assamese people.He has also provided explanations for his inclusion of non-valmiki elements while composing the epic.

Srimanta Shankardeva designated him as “Purva Kobi Apramadi” or the “Peerless Bard of the Eastern Region”. Moreover, Madhab Kandali is often acclaimed to be the “Kalidas of Assam”.

Devajit[edit]

Madhava Kandali is also credited to be the composer of another poetical work ‘Devajit’ [10]where he portrays Lord Krishna as the greatest incarnation (avatar) of Lord Bishnu.

Musical instruments[edit]

He lists several instruments in his "Ramayana", such as mardala(a type of wooden Mridanga), khumuchi, bhemachi, dagar, gratal, ramtal, tabal, jhajhar, jinjiri, bheri mahari, tokari, dosari, kendara, dotara, vina, bīn, vipanchi, etc. (meaning that these instruments existed since his time in 14th century or earlier).[11][12]

References[edit]

  1. "639 Identifier Documentation: aho – ISO 639-3". SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics). SIL International. Retrieved 29 June 2019. Ahom [aho]
  2. "Population by Religious Communities". Census India – 2001. Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Retrieved 1 July 2019. Census Data Finder/C Series/Population by Religious Communities
  3. "Population by religion community – 2011". Census of India, 2011. The Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Archived from the original on 25 August 2015.
  4. Kandali, Aditya Bihar; Routray, Aurobinda; Basu, Tapan Kumar (November 2008). "Emotion recognition from Assamese speeches using MFCC features and GMM classifier". TENCON 2008 - 2008 IEEE Region 10 Conference. IEEE: 1–5. doi:10.1109/tencon.2008.4766487. ISBN 9781424424085.
  5. Sarma, Satyendranath. (1976). Assamese literature. Harrassowitz. ISBN 3447017368. OCLC 886671648.
  6. "Madhav Kandali" (PDF). Barāha King Mahamanikya.
  7. Stone inscription of Barāha king Mahamanik of the mid 14th century
  8. (Thakuria 2015:164) saka 1274 / 1352 A.D
  9. Bulke,Father Kamil:Ram-katha,Pg 230
  10. Sharma,Satendra Nath:Axomia Sahityar Samikhaytmak Etibritto,pg-63
  11. Suresh Kant Sharma and Usha Sharma, 2005, Discovery of North-East India, Page 288.
  12. Goswāmī, Māmaṇi Raẏachama, 1942-2011. (1996). Rāmāyaṇa from Gangā to Brahmaputra. Delhi: B.R. Pub. Corp. ISBN 817018858X. OCLC 47208217.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Sources[edit]

  • Goswami, Indira (1996). Ramayana from Ganga to Brahmaputra. B.R. Pub. Corp. ISBN 81-7018-858-X
  • Kandali, Madhava.Saptakanda Ramayana, (in Assamese). Banalata.
  • Sarma, Satyendranath. (1976). Assamese literature. Harrassowitz. ISBN 3447017368.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Thakuria, Gitanjali (2015). "SURVEY OF THE INSCRIPTIONS AND THEIR TECHNICAL ASPECTS". Studies in the inscriptions of medieval assam (PhD). Guwahati University. hdl:10603/50862.

External links[edit]

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