Avadhanam
Encyclopedia
Avadhana is a literary performance popular from the very ancient days in India
, cultivated by the Telugu
speaking community. It involves the partial improvisation
of poems using specific themes, metres, forms, or words.
It requires immense memory power and tests a person's capability of performing multiple tasks simultaneously. All the tasks are memory intensive and demand an in-depth knowledge of literature, and prosody. The tasks vary from making up a poem spontaneously to keeping a count of a bell ringing at random. No external memory aids are allowed while performing these tasks except the person's mind. Avadhanam can be considered as the Divided attention (clinical model of attention
) as it is the highest level of attention and it refers to the ability to respond simultaneously to multiple tasks or multiple task demands.
Avadhani refers to the individual who performs the Avadhanam; the group who queries the performer are the prucchaka(One who asks questions, Telugu: పృఛ్ఛకులు). The first person to ask the question is called "Pradhana prucchaka;" he is the same as any other prucchaka except that, he asks the first question. The Prucchakas put forth questions to the avadhani which are primarily literary in nature. The Prucchakas can optionally place additional constraints. Though it is not stated explicitly, conformation to Chandassu (Poetic Meter) is mandatory. Avadhani should answer them in the form of a poem. The literary questions generally consist of a description given in prose and the avadhani has to express it as a poem. The additional restrictions placed by the Prucchakas can be anything like asking the avadhani not to use a given set of alphabetical characters in the entire poem or to construct only a particular type of poem etc.
It is a general practice for one of the Prucchakas to keep ringing a bell randomly and avadhani has to keep track of number of bell rings. The multitutde of all these constraints make Avadhanam one of the greatest arts to master.
Of the remaining Prucchakas, one person is in charge of "aprasthuta prasangam" (Telugu: అప్రస్తుత పృఛ్ఛకురు). His responsibility is to distract the avadhani with questions and topics unrelated to the avadhanam and the avadhani has to reply to his questions and riddles. The Prucchaka who manages this should also be equally intelligent and witty to entertain the audience with his questions. An additional challenge for Avadhani here is not to get distracted by 'aprastutha prasangam' but also should give witty answers spontaneously to the silly questions.
Because of the memory intensive nature of Avadhana, the number of Prucchakas plays a major role. The more the number of Prucchakas, the higher the challenge. Besides conducting Avadhanas, which in itself is a great feat, many Avadhanis also left a longer and lasting legacy by penning works and mentoring students who often grew up to contribute to Telugu literature in their own uniquely rich ways.
The other lesser known forms of Avadhana are Chitravadhanam (painting), Nrutyavadhana (Dancing) and Ganitavadhan (Mathematics).Netraavadhaana (using the eyes) is another important form of avadhana.
The trend of Avadhana was later popularized by Divakarla Tirupati sastry (1871–1919) and Chellapilla Venkata sastry (1870–1950) who were popular as "Tirupati Venkata Kavulu
". Contemporaries of Tirupati Venkata Kavulu that are famous for enriching the heritage of Avadhana include Kopparapu Sodara Kavulu
and Venkata Raamakrishna Kavulu. Kopparapu Sodara kavulu are well known for their speed in composing poems.
Students of Tirupati Venkata Kavulu include famous Gnanapith award winner Viswanatha Satyanarayana and well known Subbanna Satavadhani. Sri Paada Subrahmanya Sastri, a well-known short story and novel writer is a student of Venkata Rama Krishna Kavulu.
For more details www.avadhaniamudala.blogspot.com
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, cultivated by the Telugu
Telugu language
Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...
speaking community. It involves the partial improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
of poems using specific themes, metres, forms, or words.
It requires immense memory power and tests a person's capability of performing multiple tasks simultaneously. All the tasks are memory intensive and demand an in-depth knowledge of literature, and prosody. The tasks vary from making up a poem spontaneously to keeping a count of a bell ringing at random. No external memory aids are allowed while performing these tasks except the person's mind. Avadhanam can be considered as the Divided attention (clinical model of attention
Attention
Attention is the cognitive process of paying attention to one aspect of the environment while ignoring others. Attention is one of the most intensely studied topics within psychology and cognitive neuroscience....
) as it is the highest level of attention and it refers to the ability to respond simultaneously to multiple tasks or multiple task demands.
Avadhani refers to the individual who performs the Avadhanam; the group who queries the performer are the prucchaka(One who asks questions, Telugu: పృఛ్ఛకులు). The first person to ask the question is called "Pradhana prucchaka;" he is the same as any other prucchaka except that, he asks the first question. The Prucchakas put forth questions to the avadhani which are primarily literary in nature. The Prucchakas can optionally place additional constraints. Though it is not stated explicitly, conformation to Chandassu (Poetic Meter) is mandatory. Avadhani should answer them in the form of a poem. The literary questions generally consist of a description given in prose and the avadhani has to express it as a poem. The additional restrictions placed by the Prucchakas can be anything like asking the avadhani not to use a given set of alphabetical characters in the entire poem or to construct only a particular type of poem etc.
Characteristics of Avadhanas
The beauty of Avadhanam is, the avadhani is not allowed to recite the entire poem in a single go. After listening to the Prucchaka's question, the avadhani constructs the first line of the poem, recites it and moves to the next Prucchaka. After listening to all the Prucchakas, and reciting one line of poem each, the avadhani shall return to the Pradhana prucchaka (in Round-Robin fashion) and continues with the second line of the poem. The beauty and challenge here is that, the avadhani has to remember the question, the line of poem said before and all the additional constraints placed. They shall not be repeated and any mistake shall disqualify the person from being entitled to "Avadhani". Every poem has 4 lines, so every Prucchakas turn comes 4 times. Avadhaani has to recite the full poem once he finishes constructing all the lines of the poems. This is called "dhaarana" and forms the culmination of the Avadhanam. Avadhani should use only his memory for all this. Some times, Avadhanam goes for days at an end!!!It is a general practice for one of the Prucchakas to keep ringing a bell randomly and avadhani has to keep track of number of bell rings. The multitutde of all these constraints make Avadhanam one of the greatest arts to master.
Of the remaining Prucchakas, one person is in charge of "aprasthuta prasangam" (Telugu: అప్రస్తుత పృఛ్ఛకురు). His responsibility is to distract the avadhani with questions and topics unrelated to the avadhanam and the avadhani has to reply to his questions and riddles. The Prucchaka who manages this should also be equally intelligent and witty to entertain the audience with his questions. An additional challenge for Avadhani here is not to get distracted by 'aprastutha prasangam' but also should give witty answers spontaneously to the silly questions.
Because of the memory intensive nature of Avadhana, the number of Prucchakas plays a major role. The more the number of Prucchakas, the higher the challenge. Besides conducting Avadhanas, which in itself is a great feat, many Avadhanis also left a longer and lasting legacy by penning works and mentoring students who often grew up to contribute to Telugu literature in their own uniquely rich ways.
Types of Avadhanas
The number of Prucchakas can be 8 (ashtavadhana) or 100 (shathavadhana) or even 1000 (sahasravadhana). A person who has successfully performed Ashtavadhana is called as Ashtavadhani, a shatavadhanam is called a Shatavadhani and sahasravadhana is called Sahasravadhani.The other lesser known forms of Avadhana are Chitravadhanam (painting), Nrutyavadhana (Dancing) and Ganitavadhan (Mathematics).Netraavadhaana (using the eyes) is another important form of avadhana.
Trend Setters
The evidence of first Avadhana is seen in Kannada literature. It is said that Kavi Kaama was the first scholar to perform Avadhana in Kannada in 12th Century.The trend of Avadhana was later popularized by Divakarla Tirupati sastry (1871–1919) and Chellapilla Venkata sastry (1870–1950) who were popular as "Tirupati Venkata Kavulu
Tirupati Venkata Kavulu
Tirupati Venkata Kavulu refers to the Telugu poet duo Divakarla Tirupati Sastry and Chellapilla Venkata Sastry . This twin poets are acclaimed as harbingers of modern poetry in Telugu. They have dramatized several of the Hindu epics into dramas and plays consisting of singable verses set to...
". Contemporaries of Tirupati Venkata Kavulu that are famous for enriching the heritage of Avadhana include Kopparapu Sodara Kavulu
Kopparapu Sodara Kavulu
Kopparapu Sodara Kavulu consists of Kopparapu Venkata Subbaraya Kavi and Kopparapu Venkataramana Kavi . They were famous poets and well known for conducting Avadhanams. They were born to Venkatarayalu and Subbamamba at Kopparam village in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh, India...
and Venkata Raamakrishna Kavulu. Kopparapu Sodara kavulu are well known for their speed in composing poems.
Students of Tirupati Venkata Kavulu include famous Gnanapith award winner Viswanatha Satyanarayana and well known Subbanna Satavadhani. Sri Paada Subrahmanya Sastri, a well-known short story and novel writer is a student of Venkata Rama Krishna Kavulu.
Some of the Avadhanis
- Dr. Garikipati Narasimha Rao - He is referred to as Maha Sahasraavadhani for having subjected himself to thousand Prucchakas. He is well known for amazingly fast recollection of hundreds of verses composed and recited earlier and has the title 'Dhaarana Brahma Raakshasa'. His 'Saagara Ghosha' is an acclaimed literary work.
- Dr. Medasani Mohan - He performed many Ashtavadhanams, Satavadhanams ,a Sahasravadhanam and a panchasaharsravadhanam i.e. answering five thousand Prucchakas. Besides being Avadhani he also heads the Annamacharya Project involved in uncovering, compiling, classifying and popularising Annamayya works at Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam.
- Dr. Nagaphani Sarma - He performed many Asthtavadhanams, Satavadhanams and also Sahasravadhanam. He performed avadhanams in both Telugu and Sanskrit languages. He also lead the Telugu Adhikara Bhasha Sangham.
- Kadimalla Varaprasad - He conducted many Ashtavadhanams, Satavadhanams and also a Sahasravadhanam. His students include Satavadhanis like Vaddiparti Padmakar and Kota Lakshminarasimham. In past, "Jamta kavulu" conducted Ashtavadhanams and Satavadhanams, but Kadimalla Varaprasad and Kota Laksminarasimham pioneered as "Jamta kavulu" in conducting Sahasravadhanam together.
- Astakala Narasimha Rama Sharma - A teacher by profession, he is referred as Wikipedia of ASHTAVADHANAM prakriya and completed more than 150 asthavadhanams. He also built a unique temple for goddess Saraswati in Medak, Telangana.
- Dr. Rallabandi Kavitha Prasad - (Director, Dept of Culture, Govt of Andhra PradeshAndhra PradeshAndhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...
,presently posted as secretary,dharma prachara parishad (dpp),in T.T.D tirupathy) has performed more than 500 avadhanams, including satavadhanam and dvisatavadhanam. He also performed various avadhanas such as navarasavadhanam,and astadasavadhanam,etc. and introduced various new trends in avadhana vidya. Osmania University awarded him a Doctrate degree for his thesis on avadhanam vidya. He hails from NemaliNemaliNemali is a small village in Gampalagudem mandal in Krishna District in Andhra Pradesh, India. Nemali means "peacock" in Telugu-Demographics:According to Indian census, 2001, the demographic details of this village is as follows:...
Village, GampalagudemGampalagudemGampalagudem is a village and Mandal in Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh, India. It has a population of 68,112 people. The main city Gampalagudem has several educational institutions including a junior college and a ZPH Highschool...
Mandalam in Krishna District of Andhrapradesh. Recently he has published "ontari poola butta" an anthology of modern poetry. He is the author of several books such as Kadambini.
- Amudala Murali: He entered into avadhanam on 2nd dec 2008. Till now(10-20-2011) he performed 37 astavadhanams and one Dwigunita astavadhanam(16 pruchakas) at Shad nagar and titled as " AVADHANA KALANIDHI ". His avadhanams were performed in Karnataka and Tamil nadu also. His earlier work was PACHANI TELUGU and the latest work is SWARNA THUSHARAM(A golden snowfall of poetry).
For more details www.avadhaniamudala.blogspot.com
- Shatavadhani Dr.R.Ganesh - (Research Officer at Southern Regional Centre, BangaloreBangaloreBengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
). He performed over 900 Astavadhanams and 4 Shatavadhanams. Dr.R.Ganesh is fluent in more than 17 languages (Indian and foreign). Dr. Ganesh performed his 915th Ashtavadanam on Saturday, August 27th, 2011 at Sri Vani Education Centre, Rajajinagar, Bengaluru 560 010, India, as part of the school's annual Avadhana presentation. His recent Ashtaavadaana was performed at InfosysInfosysInfosys Limited, formerly Infosys Technologies Limited is a global technology services company headquartered in Bangalore, India. It is the second largest IT exporter in India with 133,560 employees as of March 2011. It has offices in 33 countries and development centers in India, China,...
,Bengaluru on Wednesday, November 16'th 2011.
- Muni Mahendra Kumar - A Jain monk and disciple of Acharya Shri Tulsi and his successor Acharya Shri Mahaprajna. He is professor at Jain Vishva Bharati Institute, deemed university, Ladnun, Rajasthan, India, departments ‘Science of Living’ and ‘Preksha Meditation’.He is a versatile scholar having mastery over diverse disciplines such as Physics, Mathematics, Biology, Philosophy, Psychology, Ancient History, Meditation, Spirituality and several languages like Sanskrit, Prakrit, English, Hindi, Gujarati and Rajasthani. He is a practitioner and instructor of Preksha Meditation. His work "The Enigma of the Universe" and "Vishva Prahelika" (Hindi Version) is a research in the field of cosmology of modern science and ancient Jain philosophy.
- Dr. Shankar Rajaraman - He is presently a Research Scholar at National Institute of Advanced Studies, IISC. He was earlier a programme officer at Foundation for Revitalization of Local Health Traditions, Yelahanka. He has taken part as pruchaka in several avadhana and has done 6 ashtavadhana as an avadhani.
- Vidhwan Ambati Subbaraya Chetty - He is a scholar known for his contributions to history, literature. He contributed to the freedom efforts of India. He was the first district magistrate of Indian origin in the entire state of Andhra Pradesh under British rule.
- Sathavathani Sheikh Thambi Pavalar - He was a TamilTamil peopleTamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...
poet, Scholar and a freedom fighter. He has performed sathavadhanam on 10-March-1907, at Madras Victoria Town hall. In 31st December 2008, a commemorative postage stamp on him, was released.