1. I was often told that "I don't know telugu", but always thought that its
because the way I spoke and wrote the Telugu language.
2. I don't want to elaborate what kind of "bhaashaasEva" (telugusEva) I have
been doing, on the net.
3. and at last, whether I understand Chinnaya's Telugu or not, let me
verbatim quote two sentences from a letter I received a year ago from
a respected figure back home:
"Your Telugu is very archaic, like Paravastu Chinnayasuri's!
Quaint, in these days!".
Now, back to the thread "chinnaya soori and taapii dharmaaraavu".
Madhava Kumar Turumella wrote:
> Why should anyone talk loud about *drawbacks* (!) in Chinnayya's version?
> tApee dharmArAvugAru cAlA mATlADAru.. "peddavALLayinaMtamAtrAna tAmu
> ceppinavannee itrulu pATiMcAlanO, nammAlanO, anukOvaDaM vAru cEsina
> poraBATu".
I did n't understnd the first sentence. Are you implying that there are no
faults? When and where did Tapi say that one 'd listen to (believe) him? He
raised some questions like giDugu, me and many. Well, his comments on one
particular occasion; i.e. in his _soori maraNam (lEka) banDi ra pallaki_,
were admittedly harsh.
To make my old posting clear, it was n't an attack on Chinnaya, but a
question wanting to know the importance of his books and style of lang., still
adored by some.
> bhAshaku dhAtuvu moolaM. A dhAtuvulEkuMDA sAgE E padamainA "vyAvahArikaM"
> ani pilavabaDutuMdi.
Could you please quote your source, where did you find the above definition!
> Sri Cinnaya suri's telugu is *real* and *original* telugu.
Then why is it no more used today? Certainly not a rhetorical question from
my side!
As already has been pointed out in this thread, it has n't been explained why
chinnaya's Telugu be revered. I mentioned in my first message that the
language was "vyaavahaarikam" to "saraLa graanthikam" until 1860, i.e. until
_baala vyaakaraNam_ was published. In the following lines I 'll try to
elaborate on that.
The news papers, play-writers, and even the grammar books were published in
"vyaavahaarikam" until 1860. Infact the _pedabaalaSiksha_, written by pudoori
seetaaraamaSaastri (BTW, he was the predecessor to Chinnayasoori!) in 1847
and his earlier _praSnOttaraandhra vyaakaraNam_ (published in 1834) were in
"vyaavahaarikam". Similarly raavipaaTi sooramoorti, and SEshayya's grammar
books were in similar language.
[Aside: Was n't it this SEshayya who initially claimed the authorship for
_baala vyaakaraNam_? And said that "para vastu chit + maya soori" (parula
vastuvalanu dongilinchuTalO panDituDu.)]
Apparently this "graamya", "graanthika" discussion started around 1870, with
kokkonDa vEnkaTaratnam as the main advocate for "graanthika vaadulu". He
started his journal _aandhrabhaashaa sanjeevini_ in 1872 using "Suddha
graanthikam". His plays (naaTakaalu) were also in such langauge, and he spoke
it both at home and on street.
kandukuri Viresalingam, who himself went under this influence once and
published his _sandhi_ and _vigraham_ (1871) in such language, declared
later in his _vivEka vardhini_ (1874) that he moved to "saraLam".
After all those days it was said:
gurajaaDaku salakshaNamaina bhaasha raayaDam raadu
Yates is an English
Iyengar is a Tamilian
Gidugu Ramamurtiki telugu raadu
and were called "dushTa chatushTayam". I mentioned earlier that Tapi a
staunch, vehemant supporter of "graanthikam" (already explained by Sri PALANA)
also made fun of all those bhaava kavulu, Gidugu & co.
In 1911 he wrote:
"lOkambuna braakaTa daSam bondi virraveeguchunna bhaashaa samiti
choochi mana yaandhrambunandu gaanami namita vishaadamunu bondi
pondikagaa namarchu Sakti lEkunDuTam jEsi chEyunadi lEka SOkambu
dwiguNitambu gaa nenta vanta vanduru vaaralanEkulunTa mee
rerunganidiyaa?".
As PALANAgaaru said Tapi realized the real world. Is n't it beyond any doubts
that Tapi and Gidugu were well versed in literary matters? Both had command
over grammar and prosody.
Today when I see some followups on this thread I remember Tapi's words from
his early days:
"graamyapada bhooyishThambulagu gaaraDi pottambu lenni yallinan sarE
naa yaahakambuna jooDa vyaakaraNayuktamE mETi yani tOcheDini.".
I think his scientific essays way back in 1920s, on the origin of Telugu
letters, on Temples, the marriage system, etc. etc. are of very high calibre.
If the word multi talented genius were to be ever used in A.P, he would be
certainly one of the first recipients.
Enough in defense of Tapi. Gidugu's case is much stronger, and I need not say
much on him and only advice to refer to innumerable books/monographs
available.
[A long bibliography 'll be posted later.]
Let me quote the (IMO) gist of Gidugu's message (from _vyaasaavaLi_):
konni kaaraNamula valla telugu vaari vyaavahaarika bhaasha yokka
hakkulanu pOgoTTi daanini tolaginchi kRtakabhaasha daani sthaanamu
naakraminchuchunnadi. SiSubOdha modalugaa baDi pustakamulanni ee
bhaashalO rachitamavuTavalla ee renDu taramula vaaru tama
vyaavahaarika bhaasha yeDala gauravamu lEkunDa ee kRtaka bhaasha
yeDala vyaamOhamu galavaarayi periginaaru. ayitE ee kRtakabhaasha
vaaDukalO lEni samskRtaandhra bhaashaa SabdamulatO panDitulu prayatna
poorvakamugaa nirminchinadavuTavalla panDitulakE saadhyamu kaani
saamaanyulaku kaadu. panDitulalOnaina nirdushTamugaa aa bhaashalO
granthamulu rachinchagalavaaru arudu.
Sree PALANA wrote:
> In 1936 Tapi became the chief editor of the "janava'Ni"
> Telugu magazine. For the first time he adopted vya'vaha'rika
> telugu as the language of that magazine.
I 'd put it like he "re"introduced vyaavahaarikam. "samadarSini", a
news paper owned by Justice party of those days; i.e. owned by Raja-s of
Pithapuram, Venkatagiri, Bobbili and Challapalli, used to publish in
graanthikam, where Tapi worked along with Gudavalli Ramabrahmam. Two years
later; i.e. in 1932 Gudavalli established "prajaamitra" with the help of
Challapalli Raja and set a new trend in Telugu journalism, in which Tapi
used to publish often. _samadarSini_ had to be stopped due to differences
between Bobbili and Pithapuram Raja-s, which lead to the formation of
_janavaaNi_ in '36 by Pithapuram Raja.
Even much before prajaamitra and janavaaNi the Telugu papers (Sorry, I can't
name them now, as they are a part of my on-going quiz :-)!) followed
"vyaavahaarikam". For a detailed account of these news papers read those
books by Narla, on Narla, Tirumala Ramachandra, K. R. Seshagirirao(Ed.),....
Let me end with a quote from Tapi's _soori maraNam_ :
goppa goppa kaaryaalu chEsinavaariki punarjanma lEkunDaa chEstaavaTa!
intakanna goppa kaaryam chEsina vaaLLunDaTam kashTam. kaabaTTi
O dayaamayaa! maa yandu karuNinchi ee soori gaariki, ee
vyaakaraNaaniki , ee banDiraalaki, ee arasunnaalaki tirigi maa
lOkamlO eppuDoo janma lEkunDaa unDETaTTu tappakunDaa chEyaali.
idokkaTE maa praarthana."
Regards,
Sreenivas