LITERARY CONFERENCE OF CULTURAL VALUE
Dr. V. V. Ramanadham
The two-day conference conducted by Vemuri
Chandravati Ramanadham Charitable Trust on 7-8 February, 1998, in the P.S.
Telugu University, Hyderabad, was an event of cultural value. It was the second
annual programme devoted to the subject of Telugu Poetry in four sessions,
respectively on Verse (Padya), Lyric (Geya), Folk (Janapada) and Prose
(Vachana). There was a paper on each topic by a scholar of eminence. A chief
discussant, who had access to the paper in advance, made prepared comments: and
a general discussion ensued in which the scholarly audience participated.
The conclusion was that the form of the
written was a subordinate consideration, while the essential element to look
for was the poetic quality of the words used. The choice of words, word
combinations (e.g. ‘samasas’), figures of speech (‘alankaras’), which have a
unique quality of beauty in the Indian languages - especially in Sanskrit and Telugu - have an important place, no doubt: but for superior and covetable is
the poetic quality, ‘kavitatma’. Subject and the meter does not matter much.
However, some topics have greater relevance to a given time and region and tend
to be relatively popular, e.g., the ‘geya’ and ‘vachana’ forms.
The intrinsic beauty of the ‘verse’ form in
Telugu was brought out in the course of the discussions. There were even
attempts made at imputing a ‘metre’ to ‘vachana’ or prose poetry, though what
made it glorious was its poetic appeal a point that was consistently emphasised
by the conference.
The ‘geya’ stood midway between the verse and
prose, and has a rhythm, a major characteristic of the old ‘metres’, observed
with far greater freedom on the part of the author. As this weakens, we get
into prose poetry. This is what applies to Telugu. The ‘folk’ compositions are
almost invariably a special version of the ‘geya’, with far greater freedom in
the use of diction as well. One major characteristic of this lies in the spoken
style, rather than the style of the books, ‘grandhika’ which, incidentally, has
been given up by authors, except in verse and some ‘geyas’. The direct appeal
of the ‘geya’, the folk compositions and some prose poems in certain contexts
was emphasised. There was a passing reference to the very diverse quality of
‘vachana’ (prose) poems usually found today.
An interesting finding, which came out of the
discussions, was that the ‘geya’ was hiding within certain traditional metres
like the ‘seesa’. This could be, and was, demonstrated. A suggestion was made
that the many ‘geyas we already had, could usefully be analysed to establish
their amenability to ‘new’ metres, i.e., metres other than the traditional
ones.
The conference was, chaired by Mrs. Nayani Krishnakumari, Vice-Chancellor of the Potti Sriramulu Telugu University, and co-chaired by Professor V.V.
Ramanadham, Chainnan of the Trust with long UN connection, both poets in their
own right. The well-known Professors N. V. Ramakrishnanacharylu, Kalaprapurna
B. Rajnikanta Rao, Kasireddi Venkatareddi and Chekuri Rama Rao were those that
presented the scholarly papers.