FIRST PERSON

In the quest for V.A.K. Ranga Rao

alladi Ramakrishna Sastri Kamban (Tamil), Molla (Telugu), and pointed out the path and Pampa (Kannada) being those I have MArudra whipped me along, heard of. with corrections, suggestions, and yes, admonitions. Many other men There are many minor and a few too, authorities in their fields, led major deviations from Valmiki’s, in me up to a higher storey. If women the later ones and I hold only his as of such stature took me to be an the ‘documentary’ truth. A man whom intellectual dwarf and were kind, I admire (I think his translations from Kannada, Tamil and Telugu that was vatsalyam (fondness), devotional poetry, are the final word; the men were impressed by my and afterwords in those volumes, are curiosity and honest admission master keys to unravel the Eternal of ignorance, that was karunyam Truth) A.K. Ramanujan, holds a (compassion). different view. In Many , All I knew about the essays edited by Paula Richman, when young was through stories in he states categorically that all school texts and the films I saw in Seetarama Sarma Ramayanas are equally valid and Telugu and two in Hindi—Prakash cites his reasons. explained the slokas. Out of the Pictures’ engaging Ram Rajya Most films show incidents which (Bharatanatyam Kamala is seen as a twenty or so I imbibed from him, I found Na ham janami kundale most are not from Valmiki’s Ramayana. child dancing in this) and enthralling According to Valmiki, Ahalya is not memorable and poignant. While Bharat Milap. Incidentally the turned into a stone and she does not being abducted by Ravana, Seeta ties former was the first film to be dubbed regain her human form when touched up some of her jewellery in a bundle into Tamil from Hindi (by AVM). by Rama’s foot. Gautama’s curse says (not all, as her tiara—choodamani—is Tulsidas’s Sriramachandra kripalu she will be invisible (adrisyaroopa) with her to be given to in bhajamana as a chorus is the title and become normal when Rama Asokavana) and drops it while over music in Ram Rajya and in Tamil it enters the precincts of the hermitage. Rishyamuka. Sugreeva shows them is Arunachala Kavi’s Enakkunniru­ Similarly, Seeta Swayamvaram is padam from the Ramanatakam (sung to Rama and asks whether he can not a choice by the bride as the name by D.K. Pattammal). identify them. Rama tells , implies, one at which dozens of “My eyes are blurred with tears. suitors, including Ravana, are present A serious interest was ignited by the Can you say if they are Seeta’s?” on a particular advertised date. It is a series of ballets (nritya natakam) His reply: “I know not her earrings conditional marriage (as is Draupadi’s staged under the aegis of Kalakshetra or armbands but I do recognise her and Lakshana’s where the suitors— by Rukmini Devi. I reviewed some of anklets, made familiar by my daily Arjuna, Krishna—are to bring down them for the Indian Express. In this, namaskaram to her feet”. the image of a fish revolving above); the help of Bhagavatula Seetarama only Rukmini’s, Damayanti’s and Sarma was considerable. On the Valmiki is known as a contemporary historical Samyukta’s are true self- Kalakshetra staff, he was a treasure of Rama, the first to author the chosen pairings), ‘Whoever strings trove of music, dance and Sanskrit Ramayana, tune and teach it to the bow of Siva, given to Janaka, shall and was my Golden Fleece. The Kusa and Lava, making him the wed Seeta’. extent of my Sanskrit knowledge was first vaggeyakara and also a teacher limited to Meghairmeduramambaram, of music. After that there have As per the licence suggested by the first sloka in Geeta Govindam. been innumerable versions in all Ramanujan, dancers too have taken Despite this, Sarma patiently Indian languages—Tulsi (Avadhi), the liberty to interpolate their own

50 l SRUTI March 2019 thoughts. Sathyanarayana Raju of One such instance. In Art Connect Asokavanamuna Seeta, Sokinche Bengaluru, while interpreting a (Jan-June 2012, a special issue viyogamu cheta, meaning ‘In the Dasarpadam Hanumantadeva namo about the Ramayana) published Asokavana (garden) Seeta wept at during the season at Chennai, showed by IFA, Bengaluru, veteran writer her separation (from Rama)’. While that even at the first meeting with C.S. Lakshmi says: “When asked to commenting on it, I wrote that she was Hanuman, Rama knew that she was prove her chastity, she (Kamban’s under the Asoka (Saraca asoca) tree. abducted by Ravana. If this was the Seeta) ....” According to Tamil scholar He spewed fire and brimstone. “Ranga case, why would Sugreeva have to S. Raghuraman, she is not asked to Rao is wrong. He doesn’t know send men in different directions to do so by anybody in Kamba anything about Ramayana. She was locate her? A further liberty Raju took Ramayanam. In Valmiki too. Rama under a Simshupa (Dalbergia sissoo) pertained to Siva. His lady devotee tells Seeta: “As a kshatriya should, tree, not Asoka!” he thundered. asks him to shed his elephant skin I released you from captivity. Now you I turned to scholar Mudumbai clothing so that she could come closer can choose to live with whomever you Narasimhachary, once the head of to him! It is possible that he did not wish,” and names some men around. the Department of Vaishnavism, understand the implication. Aghast at his heartless implication, University of Madras, as I did earlier Seeta asks Lakshmana to light a fire Parshwanath Upadhye, also from when I needed guidance about so that she can immolate herself. Bengaluru, presented vignettes from Valmiki’s work. He was my master When she jumps into the pyre, the Ramayana, along with wife Shruti key to open Valmikian chambers. Off Agni emerges carrying her, saying and another male dancer Aditya. It the cuff he told me many things and that he cannot bear the heat of was beautiful in a pointillistic fashion asked me to go through a reliable, her purity; only then does Rama but for one visual incongruity. While sloka to sloka Telugu translation. accept her. abandoning Seeta on the order of her I did and it was clear that there were many interpolations, saying the same husband and his brother Rama, who An episode from Valmiki which is more worried about what people I have not seen on stage or screen M. Narasimhachary would say than about a proven fact, or heard from a public platform is Lakshmana is shown ferrying her this. When Lakshmana swoons hit by across in a boat. This immediately Indrajit’s weapon, Rama thinks he is brought to mind an image of what dead and laments, “Wives are dime a happened fourteen years earlier, dozen but where can I get a brother Guhan rowing the three across the like him? Why did I have to wage a river Sarayu. war to free my wife and lose such a brother?” A dance performance is a fleeting event, seen by a few hundred Doctorates in Telugu literature are people and forgotten in time. What sore with me for not being cowed about essays in books/magazines down by their degrees. One such, Dr. published by respected institutions, Paidipala, poked fun at my ignorance, written by distinguished personages? when I quoted a film song of Arudra,

51 l SRUTI March 2019 thing in a slightly different way. of the Krishna Leela Tarangini by I deduced this: Seeta was under an Sivanarayana Teertha. Asoka (Saraca asoca) tree. Hanuman alighted on a Simshupa (Dalbergia Using the soft corner he had for sissoo) tree opposite, from where he me, I asked Madurai N. Krishnan to compose a jatiswaram in Manavati. could have a good look at her. Once As nothing happened for months, she gets under a Simshupa for a while. I reminded him and he said there This is what I could glean from the was little in the raga to be the capital translation. of a jatiswaram. Then I recalled that Some scholars opine that Valmiki B. Rajanikantha Rao had tuned a was not the author of the Bala film song in Manavathi (Telugu, and Uttara kandas, where Rama is Tamil, 1952), Tana panthame sung by treated as a god. In Valmiki’s view as Ko Lanka Rani R. Balasaraswathi Devi. This was in Rasali. The only illustrated by the in-between kandas, known song in this raga at that they say, he was only a purushottama, time was Tyagaraja’s solitaire, a superior human being. Aparadhamula. I knew this kriti N. Krishna Iyengar The Sahitya Akademi, in their through the 78 rpm record from the Makers of Indian Literature series, for dance, he could easily judge film St. Thyagaraja (Tamil, 1937) brought out a monograph on Valmiki, that my interest in dance songs sung by Natesa Iyer in the lead by Ilapravuluri Panduranga Rao was immense and knowledge role. I suggested this raga and presto! (translations were published in many of music, infinitesimal. the jatiswaram emerged like Excalibur Indian languages; in Telugu by in no time. His first blessing: I published a R. Ananta Padmanabharao). In this I was insatiable. Why not beg for book of Kandukuri Rudra Kavi’s book of 94 pages, less than two are another favour when Krishna was Janardhanashtakam at the behest of about Valmiki and the rest is about so giving! It let my imagination my guru Malladi Ramakrishna Sastry, the Ramayana. Understandable soar. I wanted a tillana in Saraswati with a dozen paintings by Bapu because so little is really known Manohari in which only Enta about him. Some scholars dismiss and Arudra’s detailed introduction. vedukondu O Raghava of Tyagaraja as legends the tales of his being a What’s more, I had the book released is well-known. For the sahitya, I waylayer, robbing travellers and the in Kandukuru, and danced to them went to Arudra, another kalpataru. ‘Manishada’ episode (his cursing in the local Janardhana temple that I gave him the gist: Vishnu has kept a hunter who killed the male of a evening. Seeing the book and learning his consort on his chest. Siva gave pair of birds, in sloka form), though of what happened, Krishnan took Parvati half his body. But Brahma Adhyatma Ramayanam, Padma and three verses and turned them into a lodged Saraswati on his tongue so that Skanda Puranas mention it. There is sabdam. Sudharani Raghupathy, dance could flourish. He took 24 hours no consensus about his period too, in whose parents and mother-in-law to do my bidding. This is the song I spite of his appearance as a character were my friends, had the good fortune turned over to Krishnan and that in Uttara Kanda! of staging it for the first time. From tillana is a thrill to hear, thrall to see. then I have been a beneficiary of Maguva nuramupai dalchina hari, Madurai N. Krishna Iyengar was his support. Once his disciple had tana the spiritual advisor of the Ratnam the tarangam sung as Govardhana Sisters (Anita, Pritha) and Sudharani giridhaara. I told her it should be Sagamu menu sathikeeya sivudu, Raghupathy. Through these dancers ‘giridhara’ to be grammatical Sanskrit. Magadu naalukapai niluputache I came to know him well. That is She wouldn’t listen. Krishnan told her natya how I am obliged to these dancers. “Rao is right. Change it”. This was Jagathi saraswathimanoharamougada He was a special kind of benefactor before the publication of the two- who responded to my musical volume Srikrishna Leela Tarangini Blessed are those who lead the yearning. A singer, musician exposed by scholar B. Natarajan, with lyrics in ignorant into light. to Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Devanagari, explanations in English. (The author is a dance critic, film historian and a composer of musical pieces It is the Kamadhenu now for seekers and collector of gramophone records)

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