The eight celebrated Telugu poets (literally the eight elephants of the directions) who adorned the court of the Vijayanagara emperor Krishnadevaraya (reigned 1509 to 1529), during a golden age of Telugu literature.
- Krishnadevaraya, himself a scholar-poet, patronised Telugu and Sanskrit; his own Telugu work is the Amuktamalyada and a Sanskrit play, the Jambavati Kalyanam.
- The best known of the eight was Allasani Peddana, regarded as the foremost (the Andhra Kavita Pitamaha, grandfather of Telugu poetry), author of the Manucharitram.
- Other poets included Nandi Thimmana, Tenali Ramakrishna (also famous in folklore as a witty courtier), Dhurjati, Madayagari Mallana, Ayyalaraju Ramabhadra, Pingali Surana, and Ramaraja Bhushana (Bhattumurti).
- The phrase reflects the high status of Telugu literature at Vijayanagara, whose capital was Hampi on the Tungabhadra.
- This literary flowering is part of why Krishnadevaraya's reign is seen as the cultural peak of the empire.
The link to Krishnadevaraya, Allasani Peddana as the foremost, Tenali Ramakrishna's fame, and Krishnadevaraya's own Amuktamalyada are recurring Vijayanagara facts.
The Ashtadiggajas (eight Telugu poets at Vijayanagara) are unrelated to the Navaratnas (nine gems) traditionally said to be at the courts of Vikramaditya or Akbar.
The eight Telugu poets at Krishnadevaraya's Vijayanagara court, led by Allasani Peddana; the emperor himself wrote the Amuktamalyada.