Sri Sri
Ramesh Ravella
> I believe u must be aware of srisri's contribution to society apart
> from writing books, is a big ZERO.
Chowdary Jampala writes:
> Even if one doesn't
>agree with SriSri's politics, he was one of our most brilliant poets and the
>enjoyment his poetry gives (to me) is immeasurable.
We may have stumbled on to one of the greatest questions in 20th Century
Telugu literature and literary history: What was Sri Sri's contribution
to Telugu literature and heritage?
To attempt to answer this question, we really need to start around the
beginning of the 20th century.
Telugu poetry around that time was very traditional - in the mold of
Nannaya and Tikkana. The themes were religious or historical; the
poetry metering was suffocating structured (Utpalamala, champakamala,
etc) and the style was heavily Sanskritized. There was great beauty
and grace in that poetry, but in terms of imagery and style, it was
stuck in the old mode. The poets were well versed in all Sanskrit and
Telugu classics and they continued to write in that strain. Poets like
Tirupathi Venkatakavulu, Pingali-Katuri, Joshuva, Tummala Sitaramamurthy,
Yetukuri Venkatanarasaiah and Viswanatha Satyanarayana (and a host of
others) wrote in this "Prabandha Saili".
Then a group of young poets that were exposed to English literature
and influenced by the early 19th centurty romanntic poets - Shelley,
Keats, Byron and ST Colleridge - began writing poetry in light verse
(in Aataveladi and Tetageethi, for example) and on themes of
love, women,nature, self-analysis and self-discovery.
This style came to be known as "BhAva Kavitvam". Rayaprolu Subba Rao,
NAyani Subba Rao, Devulapalli Krishna Sastry, Nanduri etc started
writing in this style. The poems were usually short (1 or 2 pages of
poetry, instead of a book, for example), still metered but lightly and
they gave importance to impressions or BhAva. The light touch of their
poetry was comparable to the late 19th century French Impressionist
painters (Monet, Cezanne, Matisse, Van Gogh, Pissario, Seurat etc).
They no longer wrote about religion or Hindu Gods, but above their own
own love and lives of the ordinary people. This, I think, is the most
important difference between BhAva Kavitva and Prabandha Kavitva.
Another facet of Bhava Kavitva was it was so rhythmical that it could
be set to music. The lyrics and music of Telugu films had their origin
in Bhava Kavitvam, and many of the Bhavakavulu (Devulapalli, C.
Narayana Reddy and DAsarathi) wrote film songs. Narayana Reddy still
writes film songs I think. Prabandha kavitva went into Drama music
like PAndavodyoga Vijayam, Ramanjuneya Yuddham and so on. The music
is linear rather than rhythmical - much like operatic music, but I
digress.
After WW1, with the onset of soviet empire, communism and socialism
came into vogue and became attractive to Telugu intellectuals by the
30's and 40's. I think there were two parallel influences here - one was
the rise of the Communist movement in Andhra and the other was the
influence of Bengali intellectuals on the educated in AP. Marx, Lenin
and Trotsky had as much influence on Andhra writers as did Hiren Mukherji
and M.N. Roy.
And this influence gave rise to a new kind of poetry - Aadhunika Kavitva.
Sri Sri was the first and foremost proponent of this style. He wrote in
free verse and his themes were social justice, equality, exploitation of
workers and so on. (Before writing in this style, Sri Sri actually
wrote some poety in Prabandha style. Hard to believe!)
With the shackles of "Chandas" or structured metering rules gone, one
would think he had a free ride or licence to break the poetry rules and
that it was easy. But I think he showed more discipline in his
Vachna Kavitva than most poets did in the old style. The pace of the
poem would match with his tone and content and he would vary the pace
by using 'speed breaker' words, the length of the line and other
techniques.
Sri Sri wrote his best work during 1935-'45 (he was probably in his 30's
then) and his book of poetry, the famous 'MahA PrasthAnam', came
out a few years later. By the time this slim volume of poetry was
published, he was already a legend, because most or all of the poems in
that book had been published in literary magazines or the
major poets/critics had already heard them. (Poet Arudra, when he came
to the US a few years ago, told me of those days in Madras. All the
poets and writers would meet regularly - most of them lived in Madras
in those days - and Sri Sri would read his latest poem. The group
would then discuss it, give their reaction and suggest changes etc.
So his poems of that era went through peer review
before they were ever published. This, of course, was true of the
other poets in that group as well. Oh what I would give, to be in that
august group and witness their poetry readings and discussion! But
one had to be born first, I guess.)
One other thing about 'MahA PrasthAnam' is the remarkable Introduction/
Foreword written by Chalam. Writer Chalam is, and forever will be,
remembered as much for his 'Myna' and 'MydAnam' as for his introduction
to Sri Sri's book, a classic piece of literary criticism.
After MahA PrasthAnam, Sri Sri wrote some more poetry, surrealistic
plays, essays and so on. One reads those writings to understand Sri Sri,
whereas one reads MahA PrasthAnam to understand oneself and one's
culture. (He wrote story, dialog and lyrics for movies for 30 years, but
that doesn't count for this discussion.)
With that single book of poems, Sri Sri changed the literary landscape
and a whole generation of poets, novelists, short story writers,
academicians, and literary critics (and readers) followed him.
I don't know who first called Sri Sri "MahA Kavi', but that title
appropriately stuck. While he was treated like God in Telugu literary
circles, he did not get the national recognition that he deserved, as
his works were not translated into other Indian languages in time.
Some literary critics actually wondered if Sri Sri would have won Nobel
prize had he been translated into English and other European languages
and had he been 'discovered' in the West, as, for example, Tagore was by
W.B. Yeates. Would he have? Probably not, but I think if Sri Sri had been
discovered in the West early on, he perhaps would have been encouraged
to write more poetry, with the passion of his early works. But this kind of
conjecture is unfair to Sri Sri and his legacy. We should be thankful for what
he gave us!
Ramesh P. Ravella
Ramesh Ravella
> I believe u must be aware of srisri's contribution to society apart
> from writing books, is a big ZERO.
Chowdary Jampala writes:
> Even if one doesn't
>agree with SriSri's politics, he was one of our most brilliant poets and the
>enjoyment his poetry gives (to me) is immeasurable.
We may have stumbled on to one of the greatest questions in 20th Century
Telugu literature and literary history: What was Sri Sri's contribution
to Telugu literature and heritage?
To attempt to answer this question, we really need to start around the
beginning of the 20th century.
Telugu poetry around that time was very traditional - in the mold of
Nannaya and Tikkana. The themes were religious or historical; the
poetry metering was suffocating structured (Utpalamala, champakamala,
etc) and the style was heavily Sanskritized. There was great beauty
and grace in that poetry, but in terms of imagery and style, it was
stuck in the old mode. The poets were well versed in all Sanskrit and
Telugu classics and they continued to write in that strain. Poets like
Tirupathi Venkatakavulu, Pingali-Katuri, Joshuva, Tummala Sitaramamurthy,
Yetukuri Venkatanarasaiah and Viswanatha Satyanarayana (and a host of
others) wrote in this "Prabandha Saili".
Then a group of young poets that were exposed to English literature
and influenced by the early 19th century romantic poets - Shelley,
Chandrasekhar Rathnakaram
telugu poetry. His poetry contributes a lot for the well being of society.
It is easy to understand and helps in changing the normal
beliefs(bad trends) of people. Thus he is a revolutionist in every
aspect of life and we should not forget when writing about the changes made to
telugu literature. Your article is interesting and informative.
article
<940218194...@andy.bgsu.edu> you wrote: : Sreedhar Dutt writes:
: > I believe u must be aware of srisri's contribution to society apart
: > from writing books, is a big ZERO.
: Chowdary Jampala writes:
: > Even if one doesn't
: >agree with SriSri's politics, he was one of our most brilliant poets and the
: >enjoyment his poetry gives (to me) is immeasurable.
: We may have stumbled on to one of the greatest questions in 20th Century
: Telugu literature and literary history: What was Sri Sri's contribution
: to Telugu literature and heritage?
: To attempt to answer this question, we really need to start around the
: beginning of the 20th century.
: Telugu poetry around that time was very traditional - in the mold of
: Nannaya and Tikkana. The themes were religious or historical; the
: poetry metering was suffocating structured (Utpalamala, champakamala,
: etc) and the style was heavily Sanskritized. There was great beauty
: and grace in that poetry, but in terms of imagery and style, it was
: stuck in the old mode. The poets were well versed in all Sanskrit and
: Telugu classics and they continued to write in that strain. Poets like
: Tirupathi Venkatakavulu, Pingali-Katuri, Joshuva, Tummala Sitaramamurthy,
: Yetukuri Venkatanarasaiah and Viswanatha Satyanarayana (and a host of
: others) wrote in this "Prabandha Saili".
: Then a group of young poets that were exposed to English literature
: and influenced by the early 19th centurty romanntic poets - Shelley,
Aravind Anumala
which touch all the cuurrent things in the society.
I appriciate the article.
Aravind.