Re : Re's - satIsh cander's vRttAntam - my opinions

Ramabhadra Dokka (sdokka@st6000.sct.edu)
Sat, 2 Nov 1996 00:37:39 -0500 (EST)


> > >      haindava padyaaniki atikina aidava paadanni=20
> >        ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^
> > >      nEnu.

bApA rAo gAru and jampAla gAru pointed out some thing like why not
the haindavam be read as "utprEksha" and why was it taken for its 
face value. Here is my answer....

1. People opined that we should not read between the lines when I went 
   on an analysis with the previous poem. That meaning for the association 
   of haindavam and padyam is what a lay man thinks when he sees the word 
   haindavam and I wanted to point that out. When someone writes POETRY of
   this nature, the first thing is that it should initially satisfy the
   layman's soul and then comes the so called connaisseur (sp?). I should
   have made myself clear by mentioning this point.

2. Some time back, I was commenting on some thing else and said that
   people should not use the more commonly used phrases like "pOgAlamu",
   "jIvita caramAmkam" etc.. to mean some thing else in POETRY for their 
   possible misunderstanding. This falls under the same category. It 
   wouldn't have bothered me much, had there been no discussion on 
   previous poem and had there been no suggestions to treat the poem for 
   its face value. I commented for what ever is its face value's worth 
   in this stanza. Not that I did not want to give credit for his 
   "utprEksha alankAram", I am answering that in the next paragraph.

3. Please look at the two lines carefully. I found the following and 
   even when I give the full credit for his utprEksha and these 
   observations brought me back to my old opinion --

   a. haindava padyAniki atikina ayidava pAdAnni...
      varNa vyavasthani padyam tO pOlcaDam and pOlcAnanaDam (just 
      because there is a vague association of number FOUR here) enta 
      varaku sababu ?? If that is the quality of utprEksha, I don't 
      think that it deserves this much elaboration on that.

      ayinA, tanaku tAnugA ayidava pAdamgA ceppukonTunnADu kavi ikkaDa 
      and he is also indicating that padyAlu with more than 4 lines do 
      not exist as he himself said "atikina". My fact meter reads a 
      ZERO here...:-)

      But in the next line he says again he is 'utta vacanam"lA etc...

      By this time, when the poet negated himself and thought himself
      to be vacanam, I felt that the poet is expressing his resentment 
      for the poetic structure as well as haindavam and that supported 
      the layman's definition I was talking of.
  
      Please don't think that I am stopping at what you may call an
      accusation, I have some suggestions to offer if one really cares. 
      If the poet has no resentment over POEM why didn't the poet compare 
      this cAturvarNa vyavastha with something like a "haindava mRgam" or 
      "haindava catushpadam" or some abstract thing like "haindava 
      caturasram" would have been a much better choice IMHO (caturasram 
      giri gIsukonnadE like the caste system and this goes well with the 
      vRttam and vRttAntam). Anyway, the problem started with that BAD 
      association of haindavam and padyam and with no reference to 
      varNa vyavastha.

     That's all. As I said, had there been no suggestions asking for
     taking the face value, may be the POET would have gotten a little 
     credit on this OR may be NOT for the reasons I said above.

     But I should have indicated the point clearly in my analysis.
     
     Now, let's not talk of metaphoric usage that this POET did in 
     this piece. I think he should think more before such usage and 
     also before trying any such symbolic representation as vRttAlanu 
     mingE vRttAlu etc..

     One thing which still bothers me is his second stanza in which he 
     said that maraNam eppuDU nAku punarAvRttamE. I still have to figure 
     out what he meant by that. maraNam maLLI maLLI rAvaDamEmiTi ?? CastU
     bratakaDam anE dAniki metaphor kAbOlu ani saripeTTEsukondAmA...:-) 

regards..

- Ram (Ramabhadra Dokka from sdokka@st6000.sct.edu)