yet another sarwa-laghu ....

Ramakrishna S. Pillalamrri (pkrishna@ARL.MIL)
Tue, 27 May 1997 21:24:15 -0600 

with apologies to the chando-challenged.

Sadananda mentioned in this forum about the presence of Sri veeragandham
venkaTa subbArAvu bhAgavatAr. Yesterday I attended a harikathA kAlakshEpam
at Sadananda's house, sans the said Sadananda. I am told he was off to
Boston, on the kingly business.

There were about twenty five people in the audience. vinjamUri subhAsh and
Daniel Prabhakar provided violin and percussion accompaniment. The story
was gajEndra mOksham. A good time was had by all present. VVSR is from the
old school, with a good command of song, poem, humour (topical sometimes,
with a nice zing to them, re: LP); good voice, singing style, ... I am told
that he is running a school for budding artists in the field, that there
are some other schools doing the same (surprising and gratifying). Last
year he organized a harikathA-saptAham, with state-level competitions (in
Guntur, in the last week of July, 1996). From the brochure I see
competitions in the morning, discussions in the afternoon, competitions
again, narration by an invited artist, some lectures/speeches, then two
more harikathas by invited artists, and then some cultural items (such as
burra katha, drama).

I am sure Kotapati would appreciate knowing the names of some of the drama
actors - A Venkateswara Rao & A Koteswara Rao (gayOpAkhyAnam); A Dasaradha
Ramayya & K Jaya Nirmala (cintAmaNi); uppalapATi saidulu & A Jagan Kumar
(rAmAnjanEya yuddham); KV Sreenivasa Rao, KV Reddy, K Ramalingeswara Rao
(stya hariScandra)...Wonder if anybody writes this kind of stuff any more,
whether on classical or modern topics!

What's that crack about irrelevancy? Tata Prasad post kanTE teesipOyindA!

The all-laghu kandam in this context, from bhAgavatam (distinctly different
from the many-laghu, or the mostly-laghu - which was the case with some
other kandas that were posted), "aDigedanani kaDu vaDi janu ..." was posted
in this forum recently. Of course that padyam fared in the narration. And
the other, "kari makariki, makariki kari ..." too. But what caught my ear
was a song/keertana by AdibhaTla nArAyaNa dAsu, that starts with the
pallavi "konDa veDalerA ", describing the journey by The Elephant, with the
entourage, towards the pond.

One of the lines in the song is

        tarimi tarimi gavayamulanu
        baraci naluga sala-ravamula
        meraya kuriya mogili gamula karaNi
        mudamu loluka rahini
                konDa veDalerA...

I am told that all the poems/songs in the story, other than the ones from
bhAgavatam, are by SreemadajjADAdibhaTla nArAyaNa dAsu. (Now, I know the
last name is often referred to that way, but why? What is the word between
Sree and AdibhaTla? You know, inquiring minds ...). BTW, I wonder if there
is a book of all the harikathas he wrote!

A word about this illustrious man. mA telugu talliki malle pU daNda says:

       "harikathA pitAmahuDugA pErondina Sree madajjADa AdibhaTla
        nArAyaNa dAsu vijayanagaram Ananda gajapati AsthAna vidwAmsuDu.
        Ayanaku rAni vidya lEdEmO! kavi, gAyakuDu, nartakuDu. ennO
        harikathalu vrASAru. omar khayyAm rubAyat-lanu acca telugulOki
        anuvadincAru. samskRta-Andhra-Angla-pAraseekAdi bhAshalalO
        panDituDu; asAdhAraNa vyakti."

I heard that he performed "nATyAvadhAnam". MTTMPD doesn't mention it though.

Couple of years ago I was watching the video tape of
appAjOsyula-vishNubhoTla foundation's award ceremonies (their second year,
I believe) where they honored the veteran stage actor Sree peesapATi
narasimha mUrti. (The first award went to Sree dhArA rAmanAtha SAstri,
kavi, gAyakuDu, nartakuDu, ... - he also performs nATyAvadhAnam).

In his acceptance speech, peesapATi recounted several things. It seems that
Andhra University at one time approached ceLLapiLLa venkaTa SAstri, about
giving him the title "kaLA prapoorNa". Seems he said that to truly deserve
such a title, one is supposed tyo be well-versed in the catush-shashTi (or
chappannAru - now what is the etymology of this word?) kaLalu (which
include poetry, singing, ..., even 'stealing'!), and that while there is no
one of that caliber, if you pare the required number down to say, four,
then surely the award should go to AdibhaTla nArAyaNa dasu!

Ramakrishna "AdibhaTlA, ceLLapiLLA, viSwanAthA, Eri nEDU!" Pillalamarri

PS: (to Lucky-V) Please fwd to RV, I lost his address. Thanks.

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