1839 J Essay on Telugu Literature. 



51 



ran, and the Skanda ; wherein the Kasikhand was loosely written in 

 Telugu by Sri Natha, and various other portions are the worjt of inferior 

 poets. — All these are written in the Sanscrit dialect. 



29. The remaining Puranas have not been translated : indeed it will 

 be seen that most of the poets have chosen themes in favour of the 

 Vishnu sect; thus the puranas that honour Siva have fallen into dis- 

 repute, and those which inculcate magic are looked upon with abhor- 

 rence. 



30. Some other books are denominated puranas, which are either 

 heretical, apocryphal, or fictitious. All these are very popular— one is 

 the Canyaca Puran, another the Visvacarma Paran, while the Basava 

 Puran and Mari Basava Puran are ancient, and have for many ages been 

 eagerly read among the Jangamas. In the same class (though they 

 would rather merit the name of poems) are usually placed the Raghava 

 Panda vyam, written by Suranna, and the Jaimini Bharata composed by 

 Chinna Viranna : this book is sometimes called " pancha dabbu" or 

 " mere fiction." It is greatly admired by the learned : the people how- 

 ever care little for poems, however beautiful, as the perusal is mere 

 self gratification, and does not convey that religious merit which is 

 throughout the puranas assigned to such as read their silly and dis- 

 gusting legends. 



31. The two books now named are, like the Puranas, braminical 

 works : but the Basava Puran and others named with it are strongly dis- 

 liked by the Bramins ; nor without reason : for one great end of the 

 pauranica legends is to exalt the Bramins into gods:* and these books 

 deny them that pre-eminence. Every portion indeed of Hindu literature 

 is thoroughly amalgamated with their religion, and the authors of even 

 the most lascivious poems always begin their works with expressions 

 extolling the particular creed to which the poet belongs. Thus we find 

 even a dictionary dedicated to Siva and using his name as the chorus 

 of every memorial stanza : an artifice met by a Vishnavite philologist ; 

 who stole the verses and appended the name of his patron idol. 



32. . We have thus completed an outline of the Legends : and before 

 proceeding to describe the popular Poems, which are very numerous, it 

 will be requisite to give an account of the Philologists : who are the 

 guides of poets, and are guided by the authors already described. This 

 unattractive theme may be rather tedious ; but it is essential to the com. 



* Philip Skelton, in his Deism Revealed, 1751 p. 207 observes " It was self-STlfflciency 

 made the devil aspire to independency : he thought himself too wise, too grea 

 glorious a being, to be any thing less than God. He said ' I will exalt my throne ubu< 9 

 the stars of God ; I will be like the most high.' " 



