A legion of composers and poets with a present of chic imaginative and prescient and enduring devotion to a selected deity have breathed aesthetic flavour into compositions which have remained within the fashionable creativeness of pious Indians by means of the ages. A unifying precept of bhakti ignited their inventive spark — certainly, this was distinctive to Indian poets of yore. That stated, a couple of poets have been capable of stay related the best way Kshetrayya has. Even fewer have captured the waxing and waning shades of romantic love between a person and a lady, fairly within the forthright, open method he had.
A bard struck with wanderlust; a maverick author of affection songs; a buddy and a confidante to courtesans and devadasis; a life-long devotee of Muvva Gopala — the charming, flute-playing cowherd deity of Movva — these are just a few recognized sides of the seventeenth century Telugu poet-adventurer Kshetrayya.
His life was ostensibly full and wealthy, evidenced by the 4,000-odd sringara padams he’s recognized to have penned, forming a significant bulk of his oeuvre. Steeped in madhura bhakti, traversing an entire gamut of sringara bhavas that includes a variety of nayakas and nayikas, and layered with various shades of human feelings — nearly all his padams invariably culminated within the toes of Muvva’s Gopala.
The e book Kshetrayya Padams by Kanakam Devaguptapu covers 35 padams offering detailed translation and transliteration for every, whereas additionally offering a key for troublesome and archaic phrases.
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Musicologist, scholar and creator Kanakam Devaguptapu lately launched a e book Kshetrayya Padams, is an admirable effort to not solely translate the unique ‘Kshetrajnulu’ by Prof. Veturi Anandamurthy into English, but additionally complement it with data that serves to make it a priceless useful resource for dancers. Kanakam’s work covers 35 padams, offering detailed translation and transliteration for every, whereas additionally offering a key for troublesome and archaic phrases. All these padams have been notated making it simpler for dancers to adapt them to efficiency. As well as, the e book additionally offers a fast rundown of nayaka, nayika and sakhi bhedas, nayika avasthas and related ideas {that a} novice dancer could discover helpful.
Greater than only a handbook
There’s a critical dearth of dance-related materials that’s each complete and understandable. Dancers are sometimes hard-pressed to seek out appropriate compositions with dependable translations or commentary to assist them navigate by means of the intricacies of poetic items. That is notably true of padams, which take care of a spectrum of nuanced emotions within the intractable territory of man-woman relationships. Kanakam Devaguptapu’s e book fills this lacuna. A number of partaking sections on this e book elevate it from being a mere handbook. It opens with a brief biographical essay on Kshetrayya’s life shedding gentle on the charismatic nature of his title, for instance.
Theories abound on why Varadayya finally turned Kshetrayya. Just a few students advised that his prolific travels to varied temples throughout the nation are a cause he earned this catchy epithet. Right here’s a extra profound and fewer prosaic spin. ‘One who is aware of this physique as a car for having fun with pleasures is Kshetrajna’. Having as soon as loved the corporate of devadasis, and having as soon as been a cosmopolitan man, he reworked into an individual solely pushed by his love of Muvva Gopala. Thus, he turned Kshetrayya, ‘the one who realises that this physique, the kshetra, is perishable.’
From Varadayya to Kshetrayya
Students advised that Kshetrayya travelled extensively visiting numerous temples or kshetras throughout the nation, which earned him the epithet Kshetrayya.
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The e book additionally makes a point out of Mohanangi, the devadasi with whom he shared a life-long bond. An aimless village bumpkin in his early years, it was Mohanangi, an ardent devotee of Muvva Gopala herself, who tutored him in music and dance. Because the story goes, Kshetrayya obtained a life-transforming ‘Gopala mantra’ from none aside from Muvva Gopala. And it’s stated that in a single day Varadayya reworked into song-writer Kshetrayya.
Dancer-choreographer Divya Devaguptapu performing a Kshetrayya padam.
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Be that as it might, there’s a new breed of students who declare that Kshetrayya could also be a figment of creativeness in spite of everything. Kanakam Devaguptagu’s e book dismisses these claims remarking that there are extra information and figures pointing to the existence of Kshetrayya.
As for the padams, Veturi Anandamurthy had initially featured 33 poems in his unique work in Telugu. Kanakam has included two extra poems in her translation: ‘chinna dana’ and ‘nenu manchidana’. A few of the padams had already been notated up to now by legends equivalent to Ranga Ramanuja Iyengar, Sripada Pinakapani, Subbarama Dikshitar, and Manchala Jagannatha Rao. The remaining 16 padams have been composed particularly for the aim of this e book by musicians Malladi Suribabu, Neela Ramgopal, and Pantula Rama amongst others. One more particular characteristic of this e book is the inclusion of a biographical musical play ‘Varadayya’ written by Sri Anandamurthy in 1959.
Myriad themes
On the launch of Kanakam Devaguptapu’s e book Kshetrayya Padams. With the creator are S. Sowmya, Malladi Suribabu and Ritha Rajan.
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There’s a lot to select from within the array of padams included on this assortment: a wide range of themes, feelings, nayika and nayaka bhedas, sancharis, ragas and talas discover their place right here. The primary padam ‘Inni vidhamula’, as an example, is male-oriented, the place the hero will not be Muvvagopala however Kshetrayya himself. This can be a male viraha composition — a uncommon theme on this planet of shringara padams. One more distinctive padam, ‘Aligi yela’ depicts the hero’s nervousness over a sullen nayika. The e book additionally options ‘Vadaraka popove’, a padam that Kshetrayya had left incomplete earlier than his travels solely to return to complete it since nobody in his absence had been ready to take action.
“The richness of raga bhava that his music provides and the rasanubhava that may be skilled within the presentation of his padams makes Kshetrayya timeless and matchless”, writes Kanakam Devaguptapu.
Certainly, a dancer who’s in search of evocative abhinaya items to adapt to efficiency, needn’t look any additional.
