The Pingalis
The Pingali family spreads across various regions in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and ‘Pingali’ is among the better-known surnames in the Telugu states. Some notable Pingalis are Pingali Suranna, Pingali Akkana and Maddanna, Pingali Venkayya, Pingali Lakshmi Kantham, Pingali Nagendra Rao, and so on. Not all of them are related to one another. The Pingalis belong to the Brahmin community, but there are non-Brahmins as well, more especially, Reddys. Among the Brahmins, there are different gotras, these being Gowthama, Bharadwaja, Haritha and Koushika.
Pingali Lakshmi Kantham belonged to Gowthama gotram, which means that ancestry is placed with Rishi Gowthama. Pingali Lakshmi Kantham’s family belongs to the Brahmin sub-sect of 6000 Niyogis (a non-priestly class, but ministers, advisors to kings, karanas (administrative leaders)); they are advaitins (believers in non-duality) and smarthas (believers of both Siva and Vishnu), suryopasakas (worshippers of the Sun God), followers of apasthambha sutras (a specific set of rituals for prayer) and Krishna Yajur veda. Their kula daivam (family deity) is Lord Venkateswara. In his work Prabhavati Pradyumnamu, Pingali Suranna, a 16th Century poet, gives a detailed ancestry of his family tracing it to Gowthama Maharshi, mentioning that they follow the apasthambhasutras and the Yajur veda. By these indications, it is not unreasonable to claim that Pingali Lakshmi Kantham was descended of Pingali Suranna. Pingali Venkayya was a cousin of Pingali Lakshmi Kantham.
One line of thought is that the Pingalis moved from what is now Maharashtra to present-day Andhra Pradesh. This belief stems from two facts: there are Pingles in Maharashtra and there is a village called Pingali in Maharashtra on the railway route to Manmad from Hyderabad. A Siva temple of Lord Pingaleshwar is still in use in this village. The Pingali town is mentioned in Prabhavati Pradyumnamu by Pingali Suranna. He states in fact that when several generations live in the same village, their original name is lost and that they get to be known by the name of that village. He claims that that had happened to his family and that different branches of the family settled in different regions.
There are many folk tales and spots identified as being associated with the Pingalis in present-day Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Sources
- Nageswara Rao, Pingali. Pingali Vamsha Charitra. [Pingali family history].
- Narayana Rao, V & Shulman, D. (2002) The Sound of the Kiss, or the Story that must never be Told. New York: Columbia University Press. [Translation of Suranna, Pingali. (16th Century). Kalapurnodayamu. ]
- Narayana Rao, V & Shulman, D. (2006). The Demon’s Daughter: A Love-story from South India. Albany: State University of New York Press. [Translation of Suranna, Pingali. (16th Century). Prabhavati Pradyumnamu.]
- Surya Sundaram, Pingali. (2010). Pingali Lakskmi Kantham. Hyderabad: C.P. Brown Academy.