Re: What happened to Bhagamati?
Ramakrishna S. Pillalamarri (pkrishna@ARL.MIL)
Fri, 20 Jun 1997 10:29:34 -0600
>As I noted earlier, the colorful legend of bhaagamathi is that Prince Kuli
>>loved bhaagamathi, defying his father ibraheem (aka malkibharam), and
>even >crossing the raging moosi in floods that too at night to reach his
>estranged >love. He eventually married her and built a city bearing her
>name.
Well, that's the kind of stuff legends, and popular box-office movies are
made. The moosee crossing in raging floods - what a setup! Reminds me of a
scene from Barsaat, with the roles reversed, Nargis crossing the river in
raging floods, Raj Kapoor playing a melancholy tune on his violin, ...
>Unfortunately, the history books that I consulted do not give much
>credence to >this legend. To begin with, prince muhammad kuli became King
>(sultan) kuli at >the young age of 14 following his father's death. This
>kind of shortens the >timeframe for this love story and makes it a little
>improbable.
This whole history is not that old; I wonder how so much confusion could
creep in so quickly. On the other hand, in this country, where they are a
little bit more careful with recording history, there is so much "legend"
floating around George Washington, it is not that much of a surprise. The
Reverend Mason Locke Weems will forever be remembered as the man who
invented the now-famous story of George Washington cutting down the cherry
tree. In an introduction to a 1962 reprinting of the 1809 version of the
Life of Washington, Marcus Cunliffe says "He had the desire to please ...
There is a touch of the confidence man in him."
History, shmistory, who cares! To paraphrase the saying "history is written
by the winners", let's say legends are written by hit screen-play writers.
After all, we have two versions of SAkuntalam, sArangadhara, ...Some movies
are known to be made with two endings, one finally surviving the
editor's/diretor's cut.
So neither Dr. B.S.L. Hanumanta Rao in aandhrula charitra nor kambhampaaTi
satyanaaraayaNa in aandhrula sanskRUti -charitra agree with the popular
legend. But, whoever heard of these two gentlemen? That's what happens if
you don't have an eye for the mass-appeal! Your story would never be given
the proper "treatment" for a screen-play. But as kathASiva brahmam might
say, I like the idea of the bhageerathi connection. That could be made into
a separate movie. There can be malkibharAm praying on the slopes of
himAlayas, imploring bhAgeerathi to descend upon his kingdom, cut to a folk
dance "gourammA nee moguDevarammA", at he end of which ganga gets angry
with jamuna, and decides to descend, (can use the stock footage from the
recent Dakota floods)...
>Now, raamakRushNa gaaru, you can write your own version.
Let's not consider these as "different" versions, only "upgrades", with the
previous "bugs" fixed, and the whole application made more "user friendly"
Ramakrishna " Know any good 'additional dialog writers'? " Pillalamarri