When I was in India a couple of weeks back, I happened to listen to a recorded
interview of SrI mADugula nAgaPaNi Sarma, more popularly known as "avadhAnula
DEAN" in Andhra. Yes, he is the one who conducted that literary feat of
"dwiSatAvadhAnamu" (with 225 pRchchakulu) in ravIndra bhArati in Hyderabad
last year(mAdhav gArU ! the 'saBikulu' question came up here too..:)).
I felt happy that AIR, Hyderabad is also producing such interviews/programs.
Like his contemporaries SrI mOhan mEDasAni and SrI narAla rAmireDDi gArlu,
SrI mADugula NP Sarma is one of the very few who has a devotion and dedication
to the art of avadhAnam. iIn this article, I'll try to sketch a little bit of
his poetic creativity and practical thinking in padya pUraNa rather than
discussing episodes of his intellect in candO badhdha racana.
He introduced two new areas like "mI praSnaku nA pATa and anuvAdam" in the
avadhAna prakriya, extending the boundaries of an avadhAni's creativity to
"gEya racana" as well. Yes, "mI praSnaku nA pATa" deals with the avadhAni
presenting and singing a gEyam (could be a BAva gItam, sandESAtmaka gItam or
some other type) spontaneously as per the pRchchaka's request. In this
interview, he was asked to create and recite a gEyam on "an ill-fated artist
who draws carricatures of gods in black and white on roads with 'masiboggu'".
A tough one but the avadhAni responded very sensibly with an elegant pUraNa
on this sensitive question. It goes like this..
" masi boggutO dEmuni manTi paiki lAkkostav
masaka masaka cIkaTlO batukantA lAkkostav
naDi rODDuna vIDikI, guDi kaTTina vADikI,
tEDA lEdOy, tammuDu tEDA lEdOy.."
I am sure that, this relatively new/not so far explored area of avadhAnam
tests the avadhAni's understanding in music as well. A better way of putting
it would be "BAshA kouSalamU, sangIta parij~AnamU renDU avadhAniki ABaraNAlE".
In the anuvAda prakriya, he gave examples of annamAcArya kRitIs that he
translated from telugu to SanskRtam. His translations reminded of the
great ashTapadulu and for a split second, I felt that these kRtulu were
first written in Sanskrit and later got translated into telugu by
annamAcArya. His choice of "saraLa padAlu" from Sanskrit for translating
the wonderful lAli pATa -
"lAlanucunu pADe lalana lirugaDala,
bAla ganDavara gOpAla ninu cAla... lAlI, lAlI"
clearly enhanced the meaning and conveyed the mood also. The original
'musical' sense of the song was amazingly preserved in the translation
by the usage of proper 'samskRta samAsamulu'.
Those kind of translations are only possible for people gifted with sheer
poetic excellence and all of it can be outpoured from this avadhAni's brain
spontaneously at the hint of a pRchchaka's request. He SURE makes you believe
that he is a super-computer of telugu creativity with zillions and zillions
of intellectual computaions. I wonder how many juxtapositions go in his mind
before the words come out in a poetic(chandO badhdhamgA if required) form.
Aptly named as "avadhAnula DEAN", he hails from the Telugu University in
BOMMUR (near Rajahmundry/DhawaLESwaram) and is a disciple SrI bEtavOlu
rAmabrahmam (one of my favourite writers/poets).
And he also answered to some enthusiastic readers who sent the samasyalu
by mail. One of the mail-bombs goes like this - "BaratuDedirinci rAmuni
BAgamaDigE..." but the avadhAni himself exploded on it with his skill at
the art by a wonderful pUraNa which goes something similar to :
" akaTa kashTAla kaDali nIkokaDikEnA ??
sukha samudramunIda sakhule antA,
tagadu nIkidi rAmanna tagadu yanucu
BaratuDedirinci rAmuni BAgamaDige.. "
What an excellent blend of philosophical and poetic creativity. This avadhAni
has mastered the art by adding more sense of practical thinking to his
presence of mind in his creations, and what more can you ask for, from an
avadhAni of his stature ??.
SrI mADugula Sarma said that he is working on a curriculum to introduce
"avadhAnam" as a specialization in Post Graduate courses in Telugu Univ.
He also announced that he is going to perform the sahasrAvadhAnam feat
(with 1008 pRchchakulu) during Feb-March '96, and with the ongoing
sahasrAvadhAnamu of SrI mEDasAni mOhan in tirumala, telugu people and
telugu BAsha are gifted with these two literary extravaganzas in a short
span reviving the telugu taste buds all over..
Hope this growing interest in Andhra towards traditional telugu sAhityam
starts a new trend.. I can only say that our people back in Andhra at this
hour are extremely lucky enough to feast on the rarest of these treats.
intaTi sRjanAtmakata, sAmAjika spRha lanu avadhAna prakriya vanTi prAcIna
kAvya padhdhati lO pravESa beTTE Iyana prayatnAnni aBinandistU, "avadhAna
brahma-SrI nAgaPaNi Sarma" anaDam samanjasam gA unTundEmO.. A saraswatI
upAsakuni, kouSalyABinandinalO manaku manam "vennu taTTukondAm"ilA..
telugu vADanancu garvimpagA valayu
telugu tanamu velugu nincu manamu
telugu talli nIdi, telugu tEjamu nIdi
telugu maruvabOku telugu biDDa..
telugu nAdi yanucu yelugetti cATarA
telugu jenDA nAlgu diSala negura
telugu nADi nIdi, telugu vEdi nIdi
telugu maruvabOku telugu biDDa..
telugu paluku priyamu tEne sumamu
telugu BAvana tIpi yanavaratamu
telugu sAhiti dhanamu yApAta madhuramu
telugu maruvabOku telugu biDDa..
telugu samskRti Ganamu, divya varamu
telugu jIvanammu swarga samamu
telugu sampradAya mabhimAna sandramu
telugu maruvabOku telugu biDDa..
telugu mATalADu telugu vinumu
telugu carita kanumu, telisi konummu
telugu janma munupu sukRtammu
telugu maruvabOku telugu biDDa..
telugu prajalu kalisi cEyetti jai koTTa
telugu rathamu sAgu pragati pathamu
telugu nElanunna, yE nElanunnanU
telugu maruvabOku telugu biDDa..
I'll stop here before my appreciation of SRI MADugula NP Sarma's avadhAna
prakriya goes into "NP Complete" mode, lest you brand me a telugu
FAN_ATIC..:)
regards..
- Ram (Ramabhadra Dokka from sdokka@st6000.sct.edu)