1800-1950 Harikatha performing art Sanskrit texts -Adibhtla Narayana Das (1864-1945)

[nagarajpaturi]

The word Harikatha has now become popular through Gaudiya Vaishnava platforms globally.

 

 But the topic on hand is different from this. It is a performing art not limited to the narration of Vishnu stories.

 

Believed to have evolved in Maharashtra during the time of Tukaram and Namdev, it was brought to Tamil Nadu by the Maratha rulers of Tanjore, to Kerala by Swathi Thirunal  who wrote a few scripts for Harikathas himself. Independent to this development, it is believed to have reached different other parts of South India, leading to various regional language versions of the same. Today it is one of the most vibrant performing arts of South India performed even abroad for the Indian diaspora. It employs  Karnataka Sangita (classical Carnatic music).

 

What is interesting from the point of view of 1800-1950 Sanskrit literary creativity is that the colossal musician polyglot scholar Ajjada Adibhatla Narayana Dasu (1864-1945) who is called Harikathapitamaha for Telugu, composed and performed Harikathas in Sanskrit too.  His three Harikatha Sanskrit texts are made into a book called Harikathamritam.

 

(His other Sanskrit works include Sanskrit  translation of Omar Khayyam's Rubayiyat and Taarakam an original allegorical poem. His Rubayiyat translation published along with the English one by Edward Fitzgerald (1934) received wide acclaim.)

[Sivasenani Nori]

Another work of Adibhatta Narayana Dasu (అజ్జాడ ఆదభట్ట నారాయణ దాసు) deserves mention: Navarasatarangini (నవరసతరంగిణి) or "The Beauties of Shakespeare and Kalidasa". In this he compares kaavyas (stretches of text, to put it in English) from Shakespeare and Kalidasa covering the nine rasas. Ostensibly this was meant for the Telugu-speaking public to appreciate both these poets, and compare them if they wish to do so. So he translates these kaavyas into Telugu, mostly verse confirming to the rules of prosody. A further notable aspect is that he uses graamya-telugu or jaanu-tenugu rather than using tatsama-words (resorting to them only when absolutely necessary) and then since these pure Telugu words are not well understood by most Telugu speakers, he included a glossary of these difficult jaanu Telugu words explained in the spoken Telugu (full of tatsama words).

Unlike modern comparative studies which are long on analysis and short on examples, this book has hardly 75 pages of analysis (in some 600 pages or so, not counting short summaries of Shakespeare's works in Telugu and Telugu-Telugu glossary) and a huge number of examples, in the region of about 100 kaavyas for each rasa (594 examples in English, 231 in Sanskrit - per the preface). The English text is in Roman script, and the Sanskrit text is in Telugu script.

The politics behind the book is equally interesting. Three colleges in Vijayanagaram (Vizianagaram) were famous in early twentieth century - English, Sanskrit and Music colleges. Our author was the Principal of the last mentioned, and was piqued that he did not get the same respect as that of the Principals of the other two colleges, who were assumed to be more learned. This work, then, was a tour-de-force by the author to showcase his knowledge of Sanskrit, English and accha-telugu. The book was first published in 1922 and then re-issued in 1979 by Smt. Karra Syamala Devi, Guntur. (Please write to me off-line if you want a digital copy).

The interest on this list would be the existence of the comprehensive (covering all the works of the two poets) comparative study of Shakespeare and Kalidasa. This (comprehensive study of two masters, selection of texts, translation, glossary, proof-reading and publishing) was done in about 3 years, and without disrespect to the great man, sometime this shows. For instance, the advice of Polonius to his son set to go to France (the one with the famous line "neither a lender nor a borrower be") is cited under Karuna-rasa. 

Readers can themselves see the quality of his poetry. Here is a sample translation from English to Sanskrit (he gave a few examples of these as well)

Original (King John, Act 4, Scene 2, speech of Salisbury)

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.

Adibhatta Narayana Dasu's translation:

शा. स्वर्णे हेमविलेपनं समधिके रक्तोत्पले रञ्जनं

चाम्पेयप्रसवे सुगन्धलेपनं हैमोपले लेपनम्।

देवेन्द्रस्य शरासने समुदिते वर्णान्तरप्रापणं

दीपेनार्करुचिप्रदीपनमतिव्यर्थम्प्रहास्पदम् ॥

ద్వి. బంగరుపూఁత మే-ల్బంగారమునకుఁ,

జెంగలువకు రంగు-సేఁత నెత్తావి

సురపున్న కెరవుు తె-చ్చుట, మంచుగడ్డ

మఱి నున్పు సేయుట,- మరియెక రంగు

నగవైరి వింట నొ-నర్చుట, పట్ట

పగలు వెలింగెడు-భానుని కాంతి

హెచ్చింపఁ జేవత్తి-నెత్తిపట్టటయు

నచ్చవు నగుఁబాటు-నధికము వృథయు.

It is good that we are celebrating the Indian genius a week or so after the Sanskrtotsavasaptaaha.

Regards

Senani

--
निराशीर्निर्ममो भूत्वा युध्यस्व विगतज्वरः।। (भ.गी.)
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[Nityanand Misra]

On Monday, August 25, 2014 12:14:54 PM UTC+5:30, Sivasenani Nori wrote:

Adibhatta Narayana Dasu's translation:

शा. स्वर्णे हेमविलेपनं समधिके रक्तोत्पले रञ्जनं

चाम्पेयप्रसवे सुगन्धलेपनं हैमोपले लेपनम्।

देवेन्द्रस्य शरासने समुदिते वर्णान्तरप्रापणं

दीपेनार्करुचिप्रदीपनमतिव्यर्थम्प्रहास्पदम् ॥

Please check the reading

चाम्पेयप्रसवे सुगन्धलेपनं seems incorrect, as the tenth syllable is long (short is expected)

दीपेनार्करुचिप्रदीपनमतिव्यर्थम्प्रहास्पदम् has only eighteen syllables - one syllable too few.

[Sivasenani Nori]

You are right on both counts. Thank you for pointing them out.

The first word is सुगन्धकलनम् and in the last paada, the last word is प्रहासास्पदम्. The complete and correct verse is:

शा. स्वर्णे हेमविलेपनं समधिके रक्तोत्पले रञ्जनं

चाम्पेयप्रसवे सुगन्धकलनं हैमोपले लेपनम्।

देवेन्द्रस्य शरासने समुदिते वर्णान्तरप्रापणं

दीपेनार्करुचिप्रदीपनमतिव्यर्थम्प्रहासास्पदम् ॥

Regards

N. Siva Senani

[Phani Kumar]

Namaste. Another work of Srimadajjada Adibhatla Narayana Dasu garu deserving a special mention is his own superbly and candidly written autobiography "Na Eruka". It holds up a sharply reflective mirror to the times. Thanks.

Dr. Phani Kumar

G-5, 5th Floor,

Block-A,

Shagri La Apartments,

Road No 2,

Banjara Hills,

Hyderabad 500 028

Telangana,India

कालोह्ययं निरवधिः विपुला च पृथ्वी ।

[Nagaraj Paturi]

Another Harikatha performer who continued the tradition of writing Harikatha texts in Sanskrit was Paturi Madhusudana Shastry. He wrote and performed Parvati Kalyanam in Sanskrit.

 

These are the words about him in a book  "History and Culture of Andhras"  by M N Sarma and M V Shastry:

 

In the late 40fs came a new generation of hariddsas, who rendered the musical narration
adhering to the general format of the art. Among them two Bhagavatars stand out. The first
one was Paturi Madhusudana Sastry, a scholar in Sanskrit and Telugu and also in Puranas
and Upanlshads* Known as 'Panditha Haridasa Hamsa', his hari-katha rendering was a literary
debate, with dramatization as its major innovation. His "Parvathi Parinayam", written by himself
both in Sanskrit and Telugu was justly famous.

Prof.Nagaraj Paturi

Hyderabad-500044

[Venkata Sriram]

Namaste Phani Ji,

 

Some of the great scholars have got personal weaknesses.  One of the wonderful harikatha which became the hallmark in the history of harikatha literature is "girijA kalyanam" which was composed by Shri.Narayana Dasu Garu.  The background for coming up of this masterpiece is very strange. Narayana Dasu Garu has the habit of taking intoxicant (surA).  One day, Vizianagaram Maharaja summoned Sri.Dasu Garu and asked him to to compose a "hari katha". Sri.Dasu Garu, under the influence of surA-pAna, sarcastically remarked in telugu as "Emi katha cheppali - hari katha na giri katha na...?" (what should i tell whether "hari katha" or "giri katha"?) (this is a sarcastic pun intended which has two rythemic telugu words "hari" & "giri").

 

The Vizianagaram Maharaja, sensing the sarcastic joke from Narayana Dasu Garu didn't mind as he knew that Dasu Garu was under the influence of alcohol. So, the maharaja, too, sarcastically replied that "sarE lE ....giri kathE cheppa voyi.." (So be it ! Then compose "giri katha").  So, the sarcastic remark "giri-katha" took the form "girija-katha" ie., parvati parinayam.

 

The moment this was uttered, Sri.Narayana Dasu Garu, became alert and prostrated before the Maharaja.  This typical incident became the nAndi for "girija-kalyanam".

 

regs,

sriram