viSishTAdvaitulu kunTimaddi sadAnandAcAryulavAru guruvukE panganAmAlu
peDutunnAru! ayyA, nEnu aDDaboTTu vADinE!
Discussing his use of mAtrAchandas in his early works, SrISrI refers to
Adi Sankara's mOha mudgara verse, whose refrain is,
bhaja gOvindam, bhaja gOvindam, gOvindam bhaja mUDhamatE!
samprAptE sannihitE kAlE, nahi-nahi rakshati DRkkun karaNE!
and sayss that the lines from his poem,
marO prapamcam, marO prapancam, marO prapancam pilicindee!
follow the same structure. And he adds that Sankara, when he reversed
the word "bhaja gOvindam" to "gOvindam bhaja" at the third instance of it,
showed a flair that the three repetitions of "marO prapancam" do
not have. (I am writing this from memory, so consider this a paraphrase)
This happens many times in poems, and even in alliterative speech. The
second repetition sounds good, but the third repetition makes it stale.
You need something different there to keep it interesting. Let me try an
example.
Dhillee pOdAm, Dhillee pOdAm, Dhillee pOdAm, rAranDOy!
versus Dhillee pOdAm, Dhillee pOdAm, pOdAm Dhillee, rAranDOy!
This is what sadAnanda avhieved in the poem, when he broke from the
repetitious structure in the first two lines and went on a tangent in the
third line. I wonder if he considered for a while some alternative for
ullipAya. If he did and failed to find one, that turned out to his advantage.
As for the fourth line, I would change it slightly to
* ranDi melligA padanDi, rAmakrishNA yinTikin
(not an official invitation!!!!)
an aside to VVR - the gait is preserved, even w/o word break at the
3x mAtra count, because the inherent UI sequence provides it naturally.
Where as in a "taraLa" (ee Saltee inkA ekkaDA nAku kanabaDa lEdu.) such
is not the case, and one has to make a strong effort to preserve the
gait.
* ranDi melligA padanDi, rAmabhadru veeTikin
(with rAmabhadra, there is no question about not finding fresh mirci,
ullipAya, allam, or any other ingredient. With several "International"
farmers markets in the area, you can find the most exotic vegetable,
freshly available.)
* pOdamA kolambasandu pAranandi yinTikin
(one problem here. pa'lana knows too much about what happens to oil
when you make it boil. His affection for folks with a weakness for
deep-fried foods runs shallow)
While all of these variations are possible, the names sadAnanda,
vElUri, jampAla don't lend themselves easily for a sugandhi vRttam!
veeLLantA "gurutara"-nAmadhEyulu. Unless,
kArulO hushArugAnu kunTimaddi yinTikin!
Ramakrishna
PS: That doesn't absolutely absolve vElUri from having to serve pakODees.
....
ullipAya lEka pOte cEyu nEdi lEka vE-
lUri gAri yinTi meeda danDa yAtra cEdamA! (ditto for jam-pAla)
PPS: astute readers would remember pa'lana's explanation as to why a
recipe that calls for pacci mirci wouldn't quite taste the same if
you substitute yenDu mirci. Something to do with the unpronouncible
flavonoids.