Madanna and Akkanna

Akkanna and Madanna brothers, ministers in Golconda Sultanate

Madanna and Akkanna were two Brahmin brothers who rose to prominence in the 17th-century in the final two decades of the Golkonda sultanate. They helped Abul Hasan Qutb Shah come to power, who appointed them as ministers in his court. He made them responsible for collecting jizya taxes from the Hindus – predominant part of the Sultanate's population. By the 1680s, according to the colonial era Dutch India archives, they controlled all the tax collection and the exchequer of the Golkonda Sultanate. According to Gijs Kruijtzer – a historian specializing in Deccan Sultanates, the Madanna and Akkanna brothers can be viewed as early "nationalists" seeking the welfare of their people and the general public. They can also be viewed as "communalists" who criticized the Muslim elites as exploitative who do not care about non-Muslims, who serve the interest of their holy land in Arabia, and seek personal gain. The two brothers spent the taxes they collected in Golconda on the "welfare of the public", states Kruijtzer, which included furthering trade with the colonial Dutch, building public sarai (resting place for travelers), as well as restoring and building temples.[1][2]

Their remarkable rise to power and public priorities in the Golconda Sultanate, whose elite predominantly were Muslims, became a folklore among the Hindus. Muslims reached out to Aurangzeb, who in 1683 sent his army to attack Golconda Sultanate. The brothers attempted for peace with a deal to pay a large annual tribute to the Mughal empire. In 1685, Aurangzeb sent a regiment led by his son to end Golconda Sultanate, absorb it into the Mughal empire. This time the Mughal army captured and beheaded Madanna and Akkanna. The two brothers remain popular among the Hindus in the modern era Telangana, with many monuments named after them.[1]

They were also the maternal uncles of the popular Bhakti saint Bhadrachala Ramadasu.[3][4]

  1. ^ a b Gijs Kruijtzer (2002), Madanna, Akkanna and the Brahmin Revolution: A Study of Mentality, Group Behaviour and Personality in Seventeenth-Century India, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 45, No. 2, pp. 231-267, JSTOR 3632842
  2. ^ Z. Jung (1936), Annual Report of the Archaeological Department of His Exalted Highness The Nizam's Dominions, Baptist Mission Press, p. 6
  3. ^ B Rajanikanta Rao (1991), Ramadasu, Sahitya Akademi, OCLC 20746068, pages 17–20
  4. ^ Doug Glener; Sarat Komaragiri (2002). "Chapter 23: The Might of the Mighty". Wisdom's Blossoms: Tales of the Saints of India. Shambhala Publications. ISBN 978-0-8348-2938-1.