THE
TRIPLE STREAM IN MODERN
POLAPRAGADA
SATYANARAYANA MURTY
Lecturer,
St. Theresa College, Eluru
After
the glorious age of the Tanjore Nayaks, despite a shriek here and a yell there,
the voice of the Telugu poet was virtually silent for more than half a century.
The reason for the inability of the poet to sing an independent song with
full-throated ease and individuality lay in the adverse political and social
conditions that were prevailing at that time. Along with his people, the poet was
also groaning helplessly under the subjugation of foreign rule, and suffering
from the dogmatic social beliefs and hard-pressed literary values, with the
result, the literature of that period, i.e., the later nineteenth century, was
marked with extreme devotion to form, adherence to a stereotyped diction, love
of superficial polish and word-jugglery, lacking novelty, imaginative fervour
and a distinct philosophy of its own.
When
conditions were thus morbid and gloomy, the Swarajya movement was started in
the country and whipped the people into activity. It led to a spiritual
reawakening and the reawakening, in turn, led to the reformation of the
society, establishment of new values of life and the exploration of new
horizons in the literary world. This revival threw up an untiring social
reformer in Kandukuri Veeresalingam and literary revolutionists in Gidugu
Ramamurty and Gurazada Apparao.
Gidugu
favoured the spoken tongue as against the inflexible and artificial language
which was hitherto used in the books. Experimenting with this renovated
language in the first decade of the 20th century, Gurazada inaugurated the
modern age in Telugu literature. His social drama Kanyasulkam, written
in the spoken tongue, became a source of inspiration for the later writers.
Gurazada revolutionised not only the language but the poetic form and the
spirit too. ‘Mutyalasaramu’ was a new verse pattern adopted, which became a
favourite vehicle of expression for many poets afterwards. At the height of his
voice, Gurazada shouted: “A ncw era is started, new song is sung, and new
vistas are opened.” He became a spiritual teacher for many progressive writers,
the striking features of whose poetry are: realism, optimism and socialism.
The
other chief contributors to the dawn of the modern age are: Tirupathi Venkata
Kavulu and Rayaprolu Subbarao. Tirupathi Sastry and Venkata Sastry collaborated
themselves into Tirupathi Venkata Kavulu. With their ‘Sathavadhanams’, literary
disputes, and with other popular, yet uncommon, compositions they sowed the
seeds of literary interest in the Andhra public and thus became chiefly
responsible for the renaissance in Andhra. Tirupathi Venkata Kavulu dominated
the Telugu literary field for over half a century and, with their magnetic
influence, they drew many young men to poetry. Their method is mainly
traditional, slightly altering the past in view of the present and directing
the present in the light of the past.
Realism
and traditionalism being thus two distinct streams of modern Telugu poetry,
romanticism is a third one, which had its origin in Rayaprolu Subbarao, a
student at Tagore’s Shanti Niketan. The urge towards self-expression,
untrammelled by text-books and dogmas, led him to try his hand in romantic
poetry, which is mainly subjective with a melancholic tone. His books Truna
kankanam, Lalita and Snehalata introduce platonic love, which
afterwards became the subject-matter for many poets. Rayaprolu, who is also a
poet of the national and the Andhra movements, chisels his poems with feminine
grace and sweetness of expression.
Since
a critical examination of the poetry of the chief spoksmen of these three main
currents–realistic, traditionalistic and romantic–will give a fair estimate of
modern Telugu poetry, an attempt is made in this essay to examine the
contribution made only by such poets.
Among
the realists, who afterwards called themselves ‘Progressive Writers’, Srirangam
Srinivasarao–Sri Sri–is a very important poet. Inspired by the realism of
Gurazada and the philosophy of Marx, Sri Sri wrote his book Maha Prastanam. Sri
Sri is a celebrated rebel. His name became a by-word for revolt against
conventional poetry, pious frauds, sanctimonious humbugs, social injustice and
political hypocrisy. The word, the idea, the emotion
and the music–all blend together into a poem or song in his
poetry. With keenness of sympathy and boldness of imagination, he prophesied a
new world, a world of equality and justice. He announced; “From a sleeping dog
to a wakeful soul, anything on this earth is fit to be the theme of poetry.”
With
a novel diction of orientalised English, peculiar expression and typical
syntax, Arudra occupies a conspicuous place in the galaxy of progressive
writers. He strikes the keynote of his philosophy in Twamevaham, in
which he says: “The train you want to get into is always late by one life time.
The T. T. C., does not allow the luggage of your ideals on the plea
that it is excess. So, cursing your fate, remain where you are.”
Unlike
Arudra, Avantsa Somasundar is optimistic. He opened his magnum opus:
Vajrayutham with the optimistic lines: “On the tomb
of the old generation, a new plant of equality lifts its head.”
Bairagi
is neither optimistic nor pessimistic. He is not even neutral. His “Nootilo
Gontukalu” is a poem of doubts with an eternal question: Which is the right
path? While the exhausted well stands as a symbol for lifelessness, fall
and death, its three protagonists–Hamlet, Arjuna and Roskalnikov–represent the
restless man, whose defects are retreat, worship of false powers and
self-destruction.
If
Anisetti craves for peace and justice in Agniveena, Patabhi warns the
modern man in his ‘Fidel Ragaal Dozen’ not to proceed towards the sea of death
in the darkness of ignorance.
Unlike
the other progressive writers, ‘Rentala’ does not want to shear himself
completely from the traditional heritage of the Vedic and the Puranic lore.
That is why he introduces sacrifice in his Sarpayaga after the Vedic and
Puranic fashion. But it is modern sacrifice. At the altar of Truth,
Poverty is sacrificed under the auspices of Daya, Dharma and Santi.
Distinct
and different from the progressive writers, Bala Gangadhara Tilak presents an
unbroken thread of imagery, spun by a number of single-lined anecdotes. In the
annals of Telugu literature his name goes down as an unrivalled
master of verse libre.
The
most conspicuous literary giant among the traditionalists is undoubtedly
Viswanatha Satyanarayana. In his early days, he was the romantic poet of Kinnerasani
patalu but as his mind grew more mature, and scholarship more confirmed, he
emerged into the epic poet of Ramayana Kalpavriksham. He leaves scarcely
any kind of writing untouched and touches nothing that he does not adorn. In
all these works, he criticises contemporary life to the extent it is
deteriorating and straying from Dana and Dharma.
Pingali
Lakshmikantam and Katuri Venkateswararao occupy an important place in the list
of traditional poets. They translated Aswaghosha’s Soundaranandam with
the stamp of individuality and poetic afflatus. In a typical traditionalistic
way, they respect the old verse form, poetic conventions and ways of
expression, while the tone and the outlook are modern. Soundaranandam, which
preaches universal love, is a book of poetry of the highest order.
Gadiyaram
Sesha Sastry’s Sivabharatam, the heroic story of Shivaji, the
Maharashtra leader, is modelled after the Mahabharata. The dignity of the tone
and the seriousness of the treatment have earned a unique place for Sivabharatam
in the history of modern Telugu literature.
The
happy union of the varied beauty of the traditional style and the dynamic
spirit of the modern expression can be noticed in Samavedam’s Varudhini, Indraganti
Hanumacchastry’s Daksharamam and Cherukupalli Jamadagni Sarma’s Mahodayam.
Of these three, the second poet started his career as a romantist, like
Viswanatha and Pingali, to become a traditionalist afterwards.
Madhunapantula
Satyanarayana Sastry, in his Andhra Puranam, sang the song of ancient
Andhras, who were mighty builders of vast kingdoms and great cities and who
contributed in abundance to the architectural, musical and literary wealth of
the country.
Jashua,
Jandhyala Papayya Sastry and Nanduri Krishnamacharya are often termed as the
neo-classists of the traditional school. They usually select themes, incidents
and characters from the puranas and mythologies and treat them with a novel
tone, a modern spirit and a new fashion, akin to the romantists. They are
extremely popular, with their lucidity, ease and chiselled beauty.
All
these traditional poets have respect for the establish order
both of substance and of form. Their respect for the old is not
to re-establish it, nor to confuse the vital and the unessenntial, the real and
the sentimental.
Amidst
the din and clamour of realists and traditionalists, the voice of the
romantists is not feeble; on the other hand, powerful at times. The romantic
stream is widened with Pingali-Katuri’s Tolakari, in which the
conventional expressions, monotonous rhythmic usage and stereotyped
descriptions are gently ridiculed.
In
Devulapalli Krishna Sastry, we find a powerful champion of romanticism. A new
movement, namely, ‘Bhava Kavitwam’ started with him. In his Krishnapaksham, Krishna
Sastry presents a typical mood of romanticism, which is often melancholic. In Krishnapaksham,
a morbid lover is painted, who loses not merely his love but even
his-capacity for love. The poet exclaims: “Do you know who I am? I am the lord
of melancholy and darkness. At the midnight hour of death, I hold my court
wearing a crown of thorns and singing a song of woe, which tunes with the
shriek of the owl.” As Sastry has a dual personality, he often liberates
himself from the typical melancholy state of the romantist. In such a spirit,
he longs in his heart to mingle with ‘Beauty’, devoid of ‘Form’. As a true
romantist, he identifies himself with every object in nature, the leaf, the
twig, the tide, the bee and the rivulet. The vowel harmony and the innate music
of the Telugu language reach a high water-mark in his hands.
Viswanatha
Satyanarayana, the great traditionalistic poet, was also a great romantic poet
in his early days. His poem Kinnerasani composed at that period is a
striking example of highly imaginative poetry of the first
order. The hero of the poem being a mountain and the heroine a mountain
stream, inanimate nature in the poem, takes on life and the story moves in
dramatic sequences with a tempo rare in any literature.
The
works of most of the poets mentioned, irrespective of the school to which they
belong, are Khanda Kavyas, collections of small poetic pieces, each piece being
an emotional picture of the poet’s single thought, experience, imagination or
loose sally of the mind. The form may be an accepted and conventional
verse, or a new verse invented for the purpose, or lines
governed by no rule of prosody otherwise called verse libre. Verse libre is mostly
used by progressive writers, whose poetry exhibits certain distinct features.
Their main concern is for the future, their poetic material being socialism and
the problems around them, while the medium is realism. The traditionalists
often turn to the past for their material of eternal values to be presented in
the medium of classicism. The Romantists’ main concern is for the present, love
being their common theme, which is presented in a highly lyrical manner. Almost
all the poets in these three classes are keenly alive to the conditions around
them and hence we find patriotic poets in all these three schools.
In
Vedula Satyanarayana Sastry’s Deepavali, which is an important milestone
in the history of romantic poetry, we find the song of patriotism. A flower in
his Deepavali announces: “I have no desire to adorn the heads of either
idols or ladies, nor do I enjoy the company of the bee and the lulling caress
of the west-wind. My ardent desire is only to spread my fragrance around the
tombs, where the heroes of the freedom struggle are taking perpetual rest.”
Nanduri
Subbarao described the love of Yenki and Nayudu Bava, a folk heroine and her
lover, in his book Yenkipatalu. It is at once romantic and mystic.
Duvvuri Ramireddy’s Parnasala and Nayani Subbarao’s Soubhadruni
Pranaya Yatra are filled with exquisite lyrical beauties. Ordinary
incidents in life gain poetic colour in the hands of Basavaraju Apparao. Hence,
his lyrics are filled with simple and unadorned poetry exhibiting wonderful
sincerity and freshness.
Boyi
Bheemanna, in his Pairupata, made a fresh departure. He immortalised the
rural beauties of Andhra. Narayana Reddy belongs both to the realistic and the
romantic schools, as he started his career as a progressive writer supporting
the Telangana movement and gradually emerged into a romantic poet. Divvelu
Muvvalu, Nagarjunasagar and ‘Collection of Songs’ are some of his works
which throb with poetic imagery and novel expressions.
Dividing
even broadly the poetry of the modern age into three phases thus is, of course,
not justifiable as the present age is full of complexities, each representing a
different movement, a separate school and a distinct voice. That is why the
attempted classification is simply tentative and not final, because we find at
times the same poet belonging to two different schools.
For
instance, Dasarathi, each line of whose works, either pulsates with poetry of
high order or burns with the flame of emotion, is not only progressive but also
romantic and traditional.
In
his famous poems Agnidhara, Rudraveena and Mahandhrodyamu, he
handles the burning political problems after the fashion of a progressive
writer who cherished an ardent hope of a better future. His Punarnavam and
Navamanjari present him as a romantic poet, a writer of love themes with
a concern for the present alone. But, throughout his works, we notice the hand
of a traditionalist respecting everything that is great in the past. He himself
said: “I deny neither the past nor the future, when I embrace the present. With
a dimple in my cheek and a smile on my lips, I cheerfully wear the garland of
time.” Dasarathi’s progressive tone and
lyrical exuberance are wedded in these lines:
“Let
war be arrested and hanged
While
peace spreads its petals
And
treads here slowly and silently
Like
a dumb Jasmine bud.”
Thus,
with these three bright facets, the diamond of Telugu modern poetry shines
brightly in the dazzling necklace of Bharata Saraswati, respecting everything
that is good in the old and great in the new, reflecting in it the spirit of
the society around it and imbibing the conflicting influences of the present
age to form a happy synthesis.