Kavitrayam (

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode ...

: కవిత్రయం) is a

expression for trinity of poets. Kavitrayam popularly refers to the poets who translated the great epic

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the '' Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the K ...

into Telugu. The group/trinity consists of

Nannayya Nannaya ''Bhattaraka'' (sometimes spelled Nannayya or Nannaiah; ca. 11th century) was a Telugu poet and the author of the first '' Andhra Mahabharatam'', a Telugu retelling of the Sanskrit-language ''Mahabharata''. This work, which is rendered ...

Tikkana Tikkana (or Tikkana Somayaji) (1205–1288) was a 13th century Telugu poet. Born into a Telugu-speaking Niyogi Brahmin family during the golden age of the Kakatiya dynasty, he was the second poet of the "Trinity of Poets (Kavi Trayam)" that tra ...

and

Yerrapragada Yarrapragada or Erranna was a Telugu poet in the court of King Prolaya Vema Reddy (1325–1353). The surname of Erranna was Yerrapragada or Yerrana, which are epithets of the fair-skinned Lord Skanda in the Telugu language, but became a ...

Nannaya Telugu Poet (Stamp of India - 2017 - Colnect 741696 - Adikavi Nannaya Telugu Poet (cropped)

Nannayya

Nannayya was popularly hailed as the ''Adi Kavi'' or the first poet, and he belonged to

Rajamahendravaram Rajahmundry, officially known as Rajamahendravaram, is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and District headquarters of East Godavari district. It is the sixth most populated city in the state. During British rule, the District of Rajah ...

, an ancient city in

East Godavari East Godavari is a district in the Coastal Andhra region of Andhra Pradesh, India. Its district headquarters is at Rajahmundry. As of census 2011, it became the most populous district of the state with a population of 5,151,549. In the Madras Pre ...

District of

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

. He was said to have lived during the years 1000 - 1100. Nannayya initiated the gigantic task of translation of the great epic Mahabharata into the Telugu language. But before he could translate everything, he had to revise Telugu by building new grammar rules and increase its vocabulary. Nannayya used many of the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

words directly in Telugu too. Thus Nannayya made Telugu more Sanskrit related. Thus a lot of Nannayya's years were gone in the process of building a scaffold for the great task to translate the Mahabharata. However, he was still able to translate the first 2½ ''parva''s (chapters) into Telugu.

Thikkana

Thikkana belonged to Paturu, or Kovur taluk of present day Nellore district, a territory in 13th century's

Kakatiya The Kakatiya dynasty (IAST: Kākatīya) was an Indian dynasty that ruled most of eastern Deccan region comprising present day Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and parts of eastern Karnataka and southern Odisha between 12th and 14th centuries. Th ...

kingdom. Thikkana took over the task from Nannayya. He translated from the 4th to 18th chapters of the Mahabharata, almost completing the last. He could start the task of translation right from day one, because Telugu was considerably an improved language by the time. However, he never attempted the 3rd chapter due to his life span, thus stil leaving the task incomplete.

Yerrapragada

{{Main, Yerrana Errana was a great Telugu poet in the court of Prolaya Vemareddy (1325–1353), the founder of Reddy dynasty (1325–1424) of Kondaveedu, who ruled Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore, and Kurnool districts with capital of

Addanki Addanki is a Municipal city in Bapatla district of the Indian State, Andhra Pradesh. Addanki North is the mandal headquarters of Addanki mandal in chirala revenue division. Geography Addanki located at . It has an average elevation of 24&nbs ...

. Errana was also known as Yellapregada or Errapregada. He was honored with the title Prabandha Parameswara (the supreme lord of Prabandha) and Sambudasusu. One of his greatest accomplishments were that he complete the full translation of the third chapter ending the task of getting the Mahabharatam to Telugu.

Nannayya

Thikkana

Yerrapragada

See also