Andhra - 50 Years of India' Independence - Kavikondala Venkata Rao
PALANA (nparinand@cas.org)
Thu, 17 Apr 1997 12:20:29 -0400
Yes! This forgotten and unforgettable poet is really a mountain of poetry and
at the top of all the poets - he is not only the "kavikonDala" but the
"kavitvakonDala". Dr. Jadaprolu Vijayalakshmi, dug out his songs and poems and
brought those to the lime light in this age. Other wise, like many of those
unsung poets of Telugu Desa, kavikonDala would be buried under his own
mountain of poetry. That is tha pity and on the other hand it is an enchanting
experience to sing his songs. Kavikondala was born on the 7/20/1892 at
Srirangapattanam of the Rajahmandry taluk and he described his birth in his
"viprasamdESam" drama:
SrmgAravamtamau SrIramgapaTTaNa
janapada raajambu janmabhUmi
............................
pEru venkaTraavu viKyaata raaNmahEm
dravara nagaramamdu danarunataDu
prathama yatnamidiya padyagadyayutampu
rUpakamu racimce jUpamanamu.
In 1915, before he obtained his law degree, he was a teacher of history at the
Taylor High School of Narasapuram, West Godavari. From 1916-1922, he was a
legal practitioner at Rajahmundry and from 1922 to 1933, he continued the same
profession at Narasapur and afterwards came back to Rajahmundry and settled
there for the rest of his life. By profession he was a lawyer but well known
as a Telugu poet and writer.
Poet-painter, Mr. Oswald J. Couldrey, was the principal of Govt. College,
Rajahmundry was a very good friend and well-wisher of Kavikondala. The trio,
Adivi Bapiraju, Damerla Ramarao, and Kavikondal Venkatarao were in close
association of Mr. Couldrey and these three were the well-polished dazzling
gems of Andhra Desa in the zenith of literature, poetry, and arts.
Kavikondala started writing English poetry while he was just 16 years old
(9/7/11910) but Mr. Couldrey did not encourage him to do so and as a result
Kavikondala started writing songs in Telugu. Mr. Couldrey was so impressed
that he called Kavikondala "The Andhra Wordsworth" and "Kavi Kondala". As
token for love towards Kavikondala, Mr. Couldrey wrote the following poem:
A spring of graceful fancy
Breaking sweetly in the desert of
College exercise
First made us friends
Kavikondala translated the above English poem into Telugu:
kaLASAlA kAryakramamunu neDArilO
tiyyanAnaMdAna vellivirisina
okAnoka yoyyOrapu TUhAsravamti
mA yiruvuri neyyamunaku naadi kaaraNamu.
Mr. Couldrey dedicated his book, "South Indian Hours" to his students - To his
scholars and teachers Kavikondala Venkata Rao, Adivi Bapiraju, Damerla
Venkata Rao. This book is inscribed by their teacher and scholar - that is
what Mr. Couldrey said.
Kavikondala was a great patriot. In 1920 he was influenced by the freedom
movement. After the World War I, he began to write songs on freedom struggle
and patriotism. He was also a strong proponent for the formation of Andhra
state and to show his love towards Andhra, he wrote several songs on the
greatness of Andhra.
Kavikondala wrote several well-known and widely received poems, prose,
stories, dramas, one-act plays, radio programs, and essays. Most of his plays
were on the AIR (Vijayawada and Madras). He wrote upto about 100 essays and
most of them were published in Bharati, Vinodini, Kinnera, Krushna Patrika,
and Dhanka. He also translated some of his songs into English. Some of his
books were prescribed text books both at the high school and college levels.
Kavikondala was an excellent lecturer and delivered lectures in various cities
across Andhra.
Above all his specializations, in my mind, Kavikondala was a writer/poet with
progressive touch. Kavikondala was a sympathizer of the hardworking labor such
as the worker on the road, the struggling untouchable, the coolie in the
forest, and the fisherman who leads the down-trodden life. Sri Devulapalli
compliented Kavikondala saying "Kavikondala is very close to the hard-working
labor in the ship docks and the mail bag carriers and there is no such poet
known in this era."
Sri Sri had the greatest respects towards Kavikondala and stated "Kavikondala
is one among those who inspired me and influenced the making of my
mahAprasthAnam." In fact, the famous "SivarAtri prabha" of Kavikondala
influenced Sri Sri for the poetic creation of his famous "mahaaprasthaanam" as
both SivarAtri praBa and mahaaprasthaanam have too many similarities (that is
what the experts say).
Sri Kottapalli Virabhadra Rao said "Kavikondala followed the path paved by Sri
Gurajada alongwith Sri Nanduri and Basavaraju. Kavikondala wrote poetry that
is amalgamated to the real life. That is the greatest property and a salient
feature of his poetry."
Kavikondala was a chronic asthma patient. He died in the year 1969 (7/4/1969).
I would like to cover some examples of his patriotic songs/poems here.
naa puurvajanma suvaasana koladi
naa punnemula pamTa naaNembu koladi
BArata dESaana praBavimcinavADa
(He was very proud of his mother land and he used to feel that there was no
land that was a match for his mother land.)
Kavikondala felt that his Mother Land was superior to his Mother who gave him
birth:
maTTilOna baDina maayamma nanugoTTu
paDina daani kamTe vaDiga dagula
ammakamTe maatRdESamunake daya (My Motherland shows more compassion than
ledduDamcu dalatu nikkuvamuga my biological Mother.)
His song entitled "maatRdESamu" occupies the first place among his patriotic
songs:
navO navO jaya!
bharata mahaaSaya!
saPalOdayamamjulahaasI........
Another national song of his "jaatIya gItika" was a popularly sung one in the
schools those days and the congress party included this song in their song
called "maatRdESastavamu":
himagiri SiKaramu vimdhyavImdramu
kanyaakumaarI pada DimDIramu
sPuritamu Baritamu calitOllalitamu
svaatamtramucE svaatamtramucE
svaagatamanavOyi kani pani vinavOyi
manavOyi anavOyi jay jay jay.
The above song flew frequently on the AIR.
Kavikondala was thirsty for India's freedom and expressed his thirst for
freedom in his patriotic songs. The following one was very similar to those
dampuDu folk (jAnapada) songs:
samdrampudaragapaini jaabilli nuragapaini
svaatamtrya mUgucumDe uyyaala dUgucumDe
aakasapu jukkalOna avanigala mokkalOna
svaatamtrya mosagucumDe misa misalu kosarucumDe.
What does the National Flag signify? Our National Flag signify the lives of
those patriots sacrificed selfishlessly and Kavikondala, in a state of
excitation, wrote:
kavulu kaRavulu dIra ninu gana
kaRavulellanu dIrinaTu
vina vaccucunnadi raaTapumruti
viccucunnadi sEvakABRti
naDumu kaTTuka ninnu jEkona
BEdaBAvamu baasinaTu mana
mUgucunnadi jaatitatvamu
maanucunnadi baanisatvamu
supratishTha vahimpumammaa!
BArata kshEtraana nilumaa!
caraka citrita varapataakamaa!
SAmti ramgapu jUDkisaikama!
Kavikondala said that our National Flag declares our Liberty and Freedom.
He further added:
kOTi sUrya praBala kAmti
kOTi komDala yettukettu
okka jemDA yurvi kaMtaku
amTu nikkapu svEcCa!
He also described the greatness of the Asoka Cakra in one of his patriotic
songs:
aSOka cakram
parAkramamtO
purAkramamgA
svaraajya dIdhiti velisimdi!
Kavikondala was greatly influenced and inspired by the Gandhian Thought and
Gandhian Philosophy and he wrote several songs on the rATnam:
O cinni raaTamaa! oyyaari raaTamaa!
oppaina raaTamaa! vaDivaDi vaDuku
mammu gannaa maa talli maa talli dESampu
maryaada niluvamga vaDi vaDi vaDuku
nI baTTa gaTTEru vaDi vaDi vaDuku
jaabilli kiraNampu jamdAna saageDu
nii daara memturu vaDi vaDi vaDuku
Kavikondala promoted and sang Tilak's slogan "svaraajyamu naa janma hakku!" in
his song:
aajanmaamtapu hakku svatamtramu
UhapOhala ukku svatamtramu
aatmOddharaNaku dikku svatamtramu
maatRdESamuna kadi yEnaaDO.
The above song reflects the sayings of those writers during French revolution.
It also seems that Kavikondala was influenced by the Western Literature and
poetry to a great extent.
Kavikondala was a great social reformer through his songs and poetry. Getting
all the communities together was the essential element to become independent
and Kavikondala not only recognized that but also put that philosophy in
action. He declared that all men are equal and one:
nEnu BAratIyuDanu sanAtanumDanu
ayinaa aspRSya dOshamu naadarimpanu
maanavulamdaru okkaTE maalalu braahmalu okaTE
taakina maatraana taRugune bhaagyamu!
sOkina maatraana surugune yOgyata?
Dr. Jadaprolu Vijayalakshmi says that Kavikondala clearly projects his image
here that he was influenced by Gandhian philosophy.
Finally, I conclude this essay with one of his patriotic songs that I like the
most - BAratIyuni sthita prati~na:
(The Immovable Oath of an Indian)
nEnu BAratIyuDanu sanaatanumDanu
ayinaa aspRSya dOshamu naadarimpanu
maanavulamdaru okaTE
maalalu braahmalu okaTE
taakina maatraana taRugune BAgyamu
sOkina maatraana surugune yOgyata
nEla naDucuTaku nIru draavuTaku
kUDu kuDucuTaku kshONitalambuna
ella janambulu EkOdarulE
nE BAratIyuDanu karma tamtruDanu
ayinaa evari karmamu vaaride yananu
araka tODugaa carakacakram
cuRukuga naDapite cuTTimDla nnI
praasaadaalau! ramgaramga vaiBOga parampara!
nE BaaratIyuDanu kaaryaSUruDanu
ayinaa edaravaanipai niigavaalanIn
eTTi krauryamunu gaTTipaTTudala
sahana BAvamuna jayimci tIReda
satyaagrahamE paramasaadhana
ahimsayE nakaadhaarambu
nE BAratIyuDanu mOkshaparumDanu
ayinaa mUla gUrucuni muktimmananu
talli dESamunaku daasyamu baapi
ella sOdarula ullaasamutO
svaraajya saKulai samtasimcuneDa
callaga vIDeda nI SarIramu
WoW! That is Kavikondala's love towards mankind. That is Kavikondala's
immovable oath to keep up his thought of oneness. That is Kavikondala's
reflection of untarnished character. That is Kavikondala's tight grip in which
truth lived happily. That song is the embodiment of his undiminishing and
ever-propagating healthy element of his love towards his fellow beings,
ideology, patriotism, and India's Freedom.
samtusTilEdu madikin
samtasamElEdu tudikin
muttesadi kerugu varaku
cukka jigi kenayu varaku
With those above lines, Kavikondala always wanted satisfaction and happiness,
in spite of tons of happiness and satisfaction that he showered on his
readers, well-wishers, friends and Telugu Literary Lovers.
---pAlana
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Further Reading:
1) Adhunikaandhra Kavitvamu - Dr. C. Narayana Reddi
2) Kavikondala Venkatarrau KRtulu samIksha - Dr. Jadaprolu Vijayalakshmi
3) kavikonDala gItAlu
4) kavikonDala gEyAlu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: Opinions above are mine only.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------