Sri Ramayanamu
Sri Ramayanamu (Telugu శ్రీ రామాయణము) is the magnum opus work by Katta Varadaraju in Telugu based on the Hindu epic Ramayana. This Ramayana presented to the Telugu public for the first time is a unique production of Dwipada Kavya, which belongs to Desi or indigenous literary compositions. The author The author Katta Varadaraju is a 16th-century poet and also a ruler after the Vijayanagara period. He is already known to the literary world through the publication of his Prabandha Srirangamāhātmyam in 1921. He is a Kshatriya of the solar race and a descendant of the famous Karikala Chola, who constructed the anicut (Kattu in Telugu) on the river Kaveri, from which his house or family name Katta is derived. He is the son of Haridasaraju and his grandfather was Rangappa Raju, an ally of Ramadevarayulu of the Aravidu dynasty. The latter ruled at Chandragiri from 1614 to 1632 and is a cousin of our Varadaraju. An inscription states that Varadarāja's father was living in 1637 A.D. and hence it can be said that Varadaraju was living in about 1650 A.D. The last Telugu poet whom Varadaraju mentions is Allasani Peddana, the poet laureate in the time of Krishna Devaraya (1509—30).