About the Book: Story Of Manu
The story of Manu, by the early sixteenth-century-poet Allasani Peddana, is the
definitive literary monument of Telugu civilization and a powerful embodiment of
the imperial culture of Vijayanagara, the last of the great premodern south
Indian states. It is the story of Svarochisha Manu, who ruled over the previous
cosmic age and who serves here as prototype for the first human being. Peddana
explores the dramatic displacements, imaginative projections and intricate
workings of desire necessary for Manus birth and formation.