Palkuriki Somanatha

కులజుండు నతడే యకులజుండు నతడె
కులము లేకయు నన్ని కులములు నతడే

kulajuMDu nataDE yakulajuMDu nataDe
kulamu lEkayu nanni kulamulu nataDE

pAlkurki-- basava purANamu-mAcayya caritra-caturDhASvAsamu-237 va puTa

The First PuraNa Kavya in Telugu Literature is Basava pUrAnam .with 12000 dwipada

ఉరుతరగద్య పద్యోక్తుల కంటె - సరసమై పరగిన జాను దెనుంగు
చర్చింపగా సర్వసామాన్య మగుట -గూర్చెద ద్విపదలు గోర్కిదైవాఱ(
దెలుగు మాట లనంగ వలదు,వేదముల - కొలదియ కాజూడు దిల నెట్టు లనిన(
బాటి తూమునకును బాటి యౌనేని - బాటింప సోలయు బాడియకాదె?"


---------------------------బసవ పురాణము-ప్రథమాశ్వాసము

urutaragadya padyOktula kaMTe - sarasamai paragina jAnu denuMgu
carciMpagA sarvasAmAnya maguTa -gUrceda dvipadalu gOrkidaivArxa(
delugu mATa lanaMga valadu,vEdamula - koladiya kAjUDu dila neTTu lanina(
bATi tUmunakunu bATi yaunEni - bATiMpa sOlayu bADiyakAde?"

Since beautiful, idiomatic Telugu is more commonly understood than heavy compositions of mixed prose and verse, I have chosen to compose this [work] entirely in the dvipada meter. Let it not be said that these words are nothing but Telugu. Rather look at them as equal to the Vedas. If you wonder how that can be, remember, "If a tŪmu is a [large] standard for measure, so is a sôla."


The outstanding representative of the dvipada style, and as such the dominant voice in the counter-tradition competing with the campŪ style of Nannaya and his successors is Palkurki


Dvipada, in the hands of palkurki Somanātha, offered tremendous promise, given its enormous range of syntactic variation and the hypnotic power of the chanted string of couplets.


The credit of bringing poetry to the doorsteps of common people and transforming it to suit the singing styles of women-folk goes to Palkurki Somanatha.
                                                                                         --- Sri Velcheru Narayana Rao

The period between Nannaya and Tikkana is generally called the age of Shaiva Poets, and Palkuriki somanatha is the foremost among them. He utilised his life and works solely for the propogation of the shaiva religion founded by basaveshwara.


There is difference of opinion about his caste,parentage,time and place of birth.


Many are of the opinion that he was a brahmin well versed in the vedas and the vedangas and became a jangama after adopting the shaiva religion,while Sri BandAru tammayya tried to establish that he was a born jangama.


In his first work basavapurana, somanatha mentioned the names of his parents as visnuramideva  and sriyadevi.Generally shaivaites are prohibited from writing the names of their mother and father since they consider shiva and parvathi as their parents.


Regarding his time also scholars are at variance.


palkuriki somanatha was a great scholar of sansktir,telugu and kannada and wrote works in all three languages.


He was acquainted with tamil,Marathi and some other languages also , as well as with music