Project that i have written - COMPARITIVE STUDY OF KUCHIPUDI YAKSHAGANAS ON LORDS SHIVA AND KESAVA DEPICTED IN THE WRITINGS OF SRI TARIGONDA VENGAMAMBA IN LIGHT OF THEIR SHRINGARA RASA (MOOD)

Another project that was submitted for SRF to Ministry of Culture in year September 2010 - not awarded - but is being executed

 - Never claimed knowingly!!

COMPARITIVE STUDY OF KUCHIPUDI YAKSHAGANAS ON LORDS SHIVA AND KESAVA DEPICTED IN THE WRITINGS OF SRI TARIGONDA VENGAMAMBA IN LIGHT OF THEIR SHRINGARA RASA (MOOD)

Submitted by: Dr. G. SWARNABALA

NATURE OF STUDY: ACADEMIC RESEARCH ORIENTED AND FOCUSES/HIGHLIGHTS THE SUITABILITY TO DANCE EXPRESSED, ESPECIALLY IN KUCHIPUDI TECHNIQUE

I           INTRODUCTION

“EXPRESSION” or “Abhinaya” in any form of dance brings out the inner essence of conscious and sub conscious feelings in the form of “bhava” and “rasa” enlightening the performer’s soul. This enchants the audience watching the performer, they are influenced and so their soul also experiences the thought process watching the performance in a “great silence”, in an absolute vacuum created between the two during the presentation of the art form, be it dance, music or any other form of art. A bond or a bridge is created between the soul of the artist and the soul of the audience watching them.  It is the writer of the script who forms a platform on which the artist and the audience connect and experience several emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, agitation, turbulence, uncertainty, sensuality, philosophical thought process, etc.

In this light, the present project chosen to depict the essence of the writings and the literary works of 18^th century poetess, Sri Tarigonda Vengamamba.  In her writings, she has portrayed the shringara rasa of Lords Shiva and Kesava in a very subtle manner, which is different from what has been portrayed by some others. Generally the mood is sober when it is Lord Shiva and gay when it is Lord Kesava.  The works of Sri Siddhendra Yogi’s ‘Bhamakalapam”, in which the rasa in its entirety revolves around Satyabhama, the mood is gay with Lord Kesava participating in it.  Several other compositions such as King Shahaji’s Shankara Pallaki Seva Prabandham, the mood is again more sober with Parvati and Lord Shiva enlightening the world with their celestial dance together.  However, it is interesting to note the “gay” form of shringara mood between the celestial pair, Lord Shiva and Parvati, portrayed by Sri Tarigonda Vengamamba in her writings and the mood variations of Satyabhama being more sober when she is waiting to meet Lord Kesava.  The aspect of “Hari-Hara”, Lord Shiva and Kesava, being not different from each other or are one and the same is very evident in this point of view.  It appears that they are two sides of the same coin.

II         SCOPE OF THE PRESENT PROJECT

Vengamamba penned several of the above listed literary works, which have different forms of Telugu literary grammar including yakshaganas, poetry, kritis, daruvus, tatvas, satakas, dvipadas, philosophical writings including good mixture of shruti and laya.  Her love for Lord in the form of madhura bhakti involved a lot of shringara rasa, imagining Him as her husband.  They are comparable to the grammatical, theoretical forms of traditional Kuchipudi dance written by Sri Siddhendra Yogi and others.  Since all nine rasas, especially the Shringara rasa, can be separated and presented in the form of beautiful Expression or Abhinaya of Kuchipudi dance, this form of dance is chosen as a best mode of presentation.

III        METHODOLOGY

The essence of about 12-15 keertanas - depicting Lord Shiva and Kesava being not different from each other or are one and the same - their ‘bhava’, ‘rasa’ shall be considered for deeper study and presentation.  The interludes of the “charanam’s” of the keertana verses will be interspersed with “jatis” – simple and complicated.  They shall involve “sapta talas”, choreographed in the style of Kuchipudi.  The bhavas and nava rasas shall be made to use involving some ‘sanchari – bhavas’ too for the elaboration of some stories which are hidden in the verses.  Several times, the author’s suggest and leave it for the imagination of the reader a number of known short stories in their works.  Such works leave scope to the researcher or the performer to take over and depict that in the ‘sanchari’ to explain and make the work more meaningful in its presentation.  It shall be a philosophic approach of natya-nritya combination for the aesthetic pleasure of the performer and the audience.

IV        TARIGONDA VENGAMAMBA’S LIFE AND WORKS

In Telugu literature, Tarigonda Vengamamba earned her own special place and is known as “Telugu Meera”. She rebelled the existing orthodox society refusing to follow the norms that existed for a ‘widow’, which demanded her to shave her head, wear a white saree etc. She believed that Lord Sri Venkateswara was her husband. She, as an ardent devotee, has special love and dedicated her life and works to Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala or Lord Narasimha at Tarigonda. Her literary works are in the praise of Lord of Tirumala or Tarigonda. She performed rituals all day long and in the night, she performed special prayer, in the form of ‘Mutyala Harati” which was specially designed by her and is being adopted till date.

Vengamamba was born into a family of ‘Nandavareeka sect’ of Brahmins in 1730 A.D. Her father was Krishnayamatya and mother was Mangamamba. Since childhood, she was an ardent devotee of Lord Venkateswara and her devotion made the villagers believe that she was insane. Married at a very early age (which was a common practice in those days), she lost her husband Venkatachalapathi and became a child-widow. However, she refused to accept anyone but the Lord as her husband and continued to dress as a married woman.  The priest and descendants of Annamayya, all of those who had heard of her devotion to Lord Venkateswara, welcomed her.

Matrushri Tarigonda Vengamamba inspired the society and whole humanity with her life style, poetry and writings, which came into lime light recently.  The simple and lucid form of Telugu language used by her in yakshagana forms (dance dramas), finds the essence of pure love for Lords Shiva and Kesava.  Moved by her devotion, it is told that Lord Venkateswara allowed her to enter the temple, after temple hours, to hear her poems and songs.  She attained Moksha or Salvation through her unconditional love expressed in her philosophic approach to day-to-day common expressions of affection and feelings.  She has depicted the most complex issues of spiritual liberation in terms of madhura bhakti.  The only other example of such a similar situation is the character of Meera Bai who expressed her love for Lord Krishna and dedicated her life and works to him.

Vengamamba’s writings:

In Tarikonda	In Tirumala
Tarigonda Nrusimha Satakam Nrusimha Vilasa Katha Siva Natakam Balakrishna Natakam as Yakshaganam Rajayogamrutha Saram, a Dwipada Kavyam	Vishnu Parijatham Chenchu Natakam Rukmini Natakam Jala Krida Vilasam Mukthi Kanthi Vilasam (all Yaksha Ganams) Gopi Natakam (Golla Kalapam-Yakshaganam) Rama Parinayam Sri Bhagavatham Sri Krishna Manjari Tatva Keerthanalu Vashista Ramayanam (Dwipada) Sri Venkataachala Mahatyam (Padya Prabhandam) Ashtanga Yoga Saram (Padyakruthi)

V         Performance by Researcher relating to Vengamamba’s works:

In 2006, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam has revived the works of Tarigonda Vengamamba in the SVETA project and has published several of her works and released them in the form of CD’s.  Dr. K. Uma Rama Rao, Director, Lasya Priya, and GURU of researcher, has conducted several Ballets using this material given to her by the Project Director.  Researcher also participated in several of these ballets in Lasya Priya and has come across this as a good topic for further research in it.  As the Researcher has been an ardent lover of dance and participated in almost all the Lasya Priya productions since her return to dance in year 2001, she has chosen to take up a major project as a subject of dance to work along with her Guru, Dr. K. Uma Rama Rao and broaden her knowledge, learning from her Guru for future development in this field.  She wishes to do projects of Kuchipudi dance independently in the near future and develop the art form involving the younger generation of dancers and be of help to her Guru.  Other productions are given in the CV of the Researcher. Only Vengamamba’s productions are given below:

1. Researcher has performed in the Vengamamba’s jayanti celebrations participated by Lasya Priya academy, in which she played the role of YASHODA, the songs taken are from Bala Krishna Natakam at Sri Tyagaraja Gana Sabha, Hyderabad in May 2009, conducted by her Guru, Dr. K. Uma Rama Rao.
2. The above was presented at Annamayya Hall at Tirupathi in July 2009.  Again the researcher has performed the role of YASHODA in it.  Guru, Dr. K. Uma Rama Rao, also conducted it.
3. She has enacted the role of VENGAMAMBA, fitting very aptly, in Lasya priya’s Shiva Natakam presented at Ravindra Bharathi in November 2009 by her Guru, Dr. K. Uma Rama Rao.

VI        CONCLUSION

The project analyses the subtle relationship between the two, Hari and Hara - the Lords Shiva and Kesava, in the form of madhura bhakti which will make it as a comparative study and highlights the grace or Lasya aspect that is suitable for Kuchipudi style of dance.  It shall be an offering to Sri Tarigonda Vengamamba as well a rightful submission to the Almighty exploring the literary lyrical expression in Tarigonda Vengamamba’s writings.

VII      REFERENCES:

1                    :”Matrushri Tarigonda Vengamamba” Julakanti Balasubrahmanyam, Publisher Tarigonda Vengamamba Vangmaya Project, Sri Venkateswara Udyogula Shikshana samastha (SVETA), Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanamulu, Tirupati

2                    “Vidushimani Vengamamba”, Sri Aandra Sheshagiri rao, Publisher Tarigonda Vengamamba Vangmaya Project, Sri Venkateswara Udyogula Shikshana samastha (SVETA), Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanamulu, Tirupati

3                    Prof. K. L. Krishna Murthy, book on Tarigonda Vengamamba, 2009.