MANUSCRIPTS of Madhuravijayam (MV) are found at Trivandrum along with the collection of Siddharthacarita or Padyacudamani and a portion of another drama of unknown name. This manuscript starts from the 109th leaf and ends at 169th leaf. This primarily forms only five cantos but there are other fragmentary portions by which it makes to nine cantos and is evident that much of the portions of this manuscript have been lost. This manuscript belonged to a pandit named Ramaswami Sastri, the curator of publication of Sanskrit works of Trivandrum. This was discovered in the year 1914 and later was edited by G. Harihara Sastri, and V. Srinivasa Sastri, dated 10 October 1916. Since then there are several editions of Madhuravijayam in Sanskrit as well as other south Indian languages such as Kannada, Telugu and Tamil and this was first translated to English by Tiruvenkatachari on 6 November 1956 from Karaikudi, in Kerala. In 1969 this poem was published by Potukuchi Subrahmanya Sastri with an elaborate and scholarly commentary in Sanskrit. Subrahmanya Sastri also attempted to fill the gaps metrically of the incomplete stanzas. About the Author: Gangadevi A typical interest of this biographical poem (carita-kavya) is that its author, Gangadevi is known to be the wife of King Kampana whom it eulogizes and that in all probability she accompanied her husband in his sojourns to the south. She was the chief queen of Kampana, and though nothing is known about her lineage, she was from a royal family as the suffix devi would imply and she was a Andhra princess belonging to Kakatiya lineage. She is described as being very highly accomplished and endowed with all charms and grace as such. Kampana has lavished all his love and attention on her though he had other wives. The text records her name in the seventh canto of the work: Then the devoted king Kampana duly performed the worship of sandhya and afterwards addressed his queen who was near and whom the world was overjoyed to call her as Ganga. MV 7.39 Generally, there is not much known about the Sanskrit poets. In fact, they talk very less or nothing about their personal life in kavyas. In Sanskrit religion and philosophy, it is considered as their work is due to the grace of God and it is not appropriate to praise themselves above the divine power or God's supremacy. But Gangadevi is an exception to this general rule. Unlike several other Sanskrit authors, she has indeed given us considerable information about her ancestors, her original home, education and the date of her work Madhuravijayam. As we have seen earlier, Gangadevi was an Andhra princess belonging to Kakatiya lineage born in a place near Orugallu, present-day Warangal and she was a Telugu-speaking lady, in all probability, she knew Kannada also since the court language of the Sangama dynasty was Kannada. In or about 1340 CE, she had the privilege of being the queen of Vira-Kampana, king of Karnataka-Andhra. As has been said before, Gangadevi has been accepted as a contemporary of Visvanatha who lived during the period 1294-1325 CE. He was the court poet of King Pratapa Rudradeva who lived during 1296-1325 CE. On the basis of this, we can say that Gangadevi must have lived in a period, 1301-1400 CE. Gangadevi mentions the name of Gangadahara who flourished during 1250-1350 CE. She mentions the name, of Agastya who lived during the period 1275-1325 CE. She also mentions the name of Tikkayya who lived during 1290-1350 CE. It shows that Gangadevi lived in the same period and she was influenced by all them as she praises them in the first canto of this work. Structure of the Text Structure of the text is very simple, written in Dvipada style, meaning verse of two lines. Each chapter is written in a particular metre along with various sabda and arthalaṁkaras, such as Rūpaka, Upama and Drstanta. The metres used in the nine cantos of the text are Anustubh, Upajati, Vaṁsastha, Drutavilambita, Puspitagra, Viyogini, Aupachandasika and Indravarja, respectively from cantos one to nine. Gangadevi also introduces many poets and their contributions. She inculcates characters of these poets' works in her work: she follows Visvanatha in characterizing poetic embellishments such as rasa and also follows Kalidasa. Thus, it stands as a good example of the mahakavya genre in Sanskrit. It engages the attention of the readers with its noble theme of description of various items and delineation of the different rasas with Vira as the predominant rasa. The poetical genius of these and the moral fervour and zeal usually associated with religious teachers, produced a host of literary works of great merit, thus making an abiding contribution to the literary heritage, secular as well as sectarian, of the early Vijayanagara period. However, The text after fifth canto is not consistent; there are a number of breaks and textual verses are missing from various places and also at times incomplete. Hence the text loses its original sheen in narrations and descriptions at many places. Here, it should be noted that the text should have been larger than the now available edition. Date of the Text Madhuravijayam can be conveniently dated to 1373-75 CE because as per the text, the conquest of Madurai took place about 1365-71 CE, and also it is evident from the description of the war in the text that Gangadevi herself might have accompanied King Kampana to the war field. (For more discussion, refer to Textual Analysis.)
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