amerikAlO praprathama SatAvadhAna yagjnam - 4 (varNana)
Ramabhadra Dokka (sdokka@st6000.sct.edu)
Thu, 12 Sep 1996 09:47:12 -0400 (EDT)
( This review of NY/NJ SatAvadhAnam is being posted in several parts. )
"praprathama sampUrNa SatAvadhAna yagjnam in U.S. - part 4"
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--- varNana ---
Like datta padi padyAlu, these varNana padyAlu were also done two pAdamulu at
a time and were completed as part of dhAraNa later. The first one which
attracted me was a description of 'Mysore dattapITham' where our avadhAni
gAru is currently an AsthAna kavi (resident poet) under his guru, SrI gaNapati
satcidAnanda swAmi. By now, you might have realized our avadhAni gAri
favorism towards SArdUlam, yes, he was mostly selecting a SArdUlam or a
kandam in the ASuvu category also. utpala, campakAlallaDam kannA, SArdUla,
mattEBAlani naDipincaDamlO konta pada gAmBIryata, camatkAram avasaram...
"SrI sAngatya vilAsamai mahitamai SrI saccidAnandamai
rAsulbOsina pUrvapuNamula saramBincu sankalpamai
hAsambai anunitya vEda paTanAByAsaika mUlambunai
maisUrpaTTANa datta pIThamamaren mAnyambu dhanyambugAn.."
All these days, I was thinking that this is a kind of dream-land and utopia
to kill the nostalgic thirst of our prabandha racayitalu, but it is nice to
know that such a kind of place still exists. Especially after hearing such
a beatiful varNana I am sure many-a-person want to visit that place.
And our avadhAni gAri samskRta varNana - AnATi avadhAna saBanu gUrci --
"sarvAtmanA prathamam adButam apramEyam,
SrImatkavi pravara panDita sannivishTA,
nyUyArku divya nagarI sthira puNya rASi:,
jIyAtca dIvya davadhAna kaLA sahasrai:"
Here, we see nyUyArk embedded in a beautiful Sanskrit SlOkam and avadhAni
gAru also embellished the other cities of U.S. in his padya paryaTana as --
"hyUsTannashTavadhAnamE modalugA unkinci kAlfOrniAn
AsTinDAnvilu nA chicAgO nagarI vyAptin kolambassthitin
dRshTinnilpiti nOklahOma yanagA dIptAnka lAsEnjilas
spashTambIyadi nEla nI yamerikA sarvam saham cUcitan.."
By the time, lAsEnjilas made it towards the end of the third pAdam, I was
already 'jealous' that our aTlAnTa did not make it into his padya paryaTana
of U.S..:-(, even though it was great show when the ashTAvadhAnam was
conducted here and our avadhAni gAru diverted our attention with his
slEshAlankAra vinyAsam again at 'sarvam saham cUcitin' saying 'have seen
almost half of U.S.' (in coloquial telugu..sagam-->saham..:-)), actually it
was 'sarvam saha' in Sanskrit meaning 'BUmi/earth', as he explained us the
inner meaning as 'amerikA sarvamsahan cUcitin'. What a word play, Sarma gAru
makes us think that padya racana is a child's play.
When it comes to the topic of 'alarimpu/entertainment' in avadhAnam, aDigE
vADiki ceppE vADu lOkuva kAkunDA unDAlanTe, the avadhAni HAS TO, at times
explain the things which he might not have seen before as per 'ravi kAncanicO
kavi kAncunu..' and also at times he may have to 'describe' the things
irrespective of his taste, belief, liking or choice. 'pRchchaka prEkshakALini
ranjimpa cEyaDam' avadhAnam lO atimukhyamaina amSam kAbaTTi, 'avadhAni'ki
iTuvanTi sAhasAlu tappavu. For that reason limiting the quality of avadhAna
prakriya to the standard of questions asked is ridiculous.
A point in the case, someone in the audience asked him to praise the Hudson
river. I wish he asked about gangA or gOdAvari though and the avadhAni HAD TO
relate the Hudson of NY to the AkASa ganga. As our Kumar said, there were too
many qustions on NY varNana and most of us wished that the questioners were a
bit less 'religious' about this issue..:-)
"paraga nyUyArk nagarAna paScimamuna,
haDsanannadi nadi youcu nanda molaya,
acaTa nAkASa gangayE yanina yaTlu,
kaLala alalanni talapulai taLuku mIre.."
'alalu talalu ettaDam' anEdi I avadhAni gAri BAvanA lOkamlO ati sAmAnyamgA
jarigE viSEsham. There are some other quite commonly used expressions in
Sarma gAri database like 'pisALincaDam, sannutincaDam, samBAram, rasa-
kandharam' etc..
Someone asked him to describe 'satya sAi' of puTTaparti in a matta kOkila and
this gave a beautiful pUraNA as --
"cEyi cEyini cErci Baktula cittamanduna nilpucun,
hAyi hAyini pErci yadButa madButambagu naTlugAn,
rAyi rAyini rAga candrika rAsi bOsina raktitO,
sAyi nAthuni satya sAyini sAgi mrokkeda sannutin.."
He was explaining one of his other matta kOkilas --
"ATalADaga lEmu nIkorakA mayUramu pOlikan,
pATa pADaga lEmu kOkila pATagA SRti pakvatan,
(nI)bATa vembaDi sAgi vacceda pannagAcala mandirA,
mATa nilpumu, kOrke dIrpumu, mAramA rasa bandhurA.."
Does it ring the tune of 'cenna paTnam pOdamanTE dAri teliyadu annayA..,
sUTigA cukkAni paTTi nAva naDapave cellelA...', one of the sweet old
telugu cine songs, yes, that is also a matta kOkila.
avadhAni gAru explained the meaning of 'linga nishidhdha vIcikal' padyam
which tenAli rAmakRshNa delivered in Buvana vijayam explaining whitest
whiteness of his kIrti in a SabdAlankAra mAlika and Sarma gAru later moved
onto a beautiful mAnini explaining the taste of amerikAlO AndhrA BOjanam --
"andaka andaka appaTi kappuDu Andhrula kandina adButamai,
pondaka pondaka BUrijanAvaLi polpuga pondina BOjanamai,
candamulanduna sadRcimandira cAru rasapriya cArumatI,
yenduna jErina, yE diSa nunDina nIyadi yE tenugiTlu sadA.."
That taste of the poem still lingers in me and the food served by our
volunteer 'annapUrNalu' was equally good. padyAla vindu lO munigi tElutunna
vAriki marinta madhuramaina vindunamarcina vAru dhanyulu, avadhAna yangjnam
lO vArU BAgaswAmulE..
avadhAni gAru gave a couple of other poems and Slokams, on SankarAcArya
advaitam, penugonDa lOni vAsavI kanyakA paramESwarI varNana, and a funny
poem portraying the importance of paper in the regular life style of people
in U.S. which was --
"aDuguna lOna paina bahirangamu nanduna ranga mandunan,
aDugaDugandu kAgitamu yantaTa jIvamu noucu nilceDin,
vaDi vaDi nonTi kinTinTikini vanTala yinTini krammi krammi tAn,
kreDiTula kArDugA tudaku krIDa nonarce namerikA sthitin.."
and finally a tETa gIti for our piTTsburgh venkanna --
"amerikA lOni tirumala yanina yaTlu,
piTsu barguna SrI swAmi pErmi decce,
mahima gala vADu nAmAla mahituDitaDu,
yIyanidi lEdu, yIyaka dAya lEdu..!!"
alA SlEshAlankAra BUyishTamai, adButa ramaNIya lAvaNyamai sAgindi, Sarma gAri
padya vinyAsam..
sUnRtam rasa kamanIyam, samasyA ssaBA BUshaNam,
ASU naamantassundaram, varNanam alankArikam,
pada dattam padya sEsham, sarvAddhAraNa SrEshThitam,
gAtrA madhurAt suSOBitam, avadhAnam Atma ranjanam..
(That was just a modest and fledgling attempt of juxtaposing the
words of my choice with no chandas followed. May be mOhan rAo
gAru or some other learned person in Skt can correct the grammar
and the structure in my above attempt...)
ASuvu, mIpraSnaku nApATa amSAlatO maLLi kaluddAm..
regards..
- Ram (Ramabhadra Dokka from sdokka@st6000.sct.edu)