From Grievance to Hāsyarasa: The Poetics of Comic Transformation in Kūcimañci Jaggakavi's Candrarekhā-vilāpamu

Abstract

The eighteenth-century Telugu poem Candrarekhā-vilāpamu has long been interpreted as a literary retaliation. The paper reexamines it and argues that biographical injury alone cannot account for the poem's expansive comic universe. It also demonstrates how the poet systematically deploys anaucitya as the primary catalyst for rasa-sṛṣṭi. While traditional groupings position Jaggakavi alongside "obscene poets," the paper demonstrates the resemblance to be superficial. Finally, the study offers a novel reading of the poem's revenge narrative itself, arguing that Jaggakavi exploits the sanction of kavi-samaya to authorize comic impropriety while remaining fully within the bounds of classical convention.