The Lyrical Phase of ‘Kavisamraat’ Viswanatha

DR C. NARASIMHA SASTRI (AMARENDRA)
K. C. College, Guntur

Some years ago I was asked to speak about Modern Telugu Literature to a group of writers from Kerala and I referred to Dr Viswanatha Satyanarayana as a Titan, a colossuswho bestrides our literary world.

By his amazing versatility, virility and creative opulence Kavisamraat Viswanatha dominated the Telugu literary scene for several decades during this century. When many of his compeers became spent forces and rested upon their oars, Viswanatha remained active and alert to the fag end of his long and memorable career. He chose an apt and happy symbol to suggest his creative vitality. In the prologue to his Ramayana Kalpavriksham he characterised his poetic spirit as a wheel of fire that is ever revolving. That wheel fire scattered sparks of dazzling light in every literary form. It may be said of him with ample justification that he touched nothing that he did not adorn. Though he achieved eminence as a poet and a novelist, he left his stamp upon all forms of literary expression including criticism which he made creative by his intuitive insights and impressionistic evaluation.

Like many men of genius, poet Viswanatha has provoked controversy. Ardently acclaimed by some and vehemently denounced by some, he compels the attention of all because of the frank and free expression of his views which may not appeal to some. Though some of his opinions smacked of chauvinism and obscurantism, he never minced matters. From the platform and on the printed page he declared his ideas and with a rare courage and strength of conviction. To gain popularity he never trimmed his sails according to the wind. He often espoused unpopular opinions without an inch. Though he was a vehement critic of democracy was full of the milk of human kindness. It was full to the brim with boundless sympathy for the sufferings of the common man. He was in more than one sense a hero in the realm of letters. He stands as a shining embodiment of Carlyle’s idea of the hero as poet.

The most widely accepted phase of Viswanatha was the earliest, when he was a lyrical poet of great force and fervour. Then poetry gushed out of his heart as a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” His Andhra Prasasti roused patriotic zeal in the hearts of readers. It was an impassioned recital of the vanished glories of Andhra history and culture. Standing as a column oftriumph on the soil of Vengi, poet Viswanatha recalled the manysided achievements of the race in a tone of high rapture. He kindled in the hearts an intense desire to recapture the splendours of the bygone days.

His lyrical genius accomplished an amazing feat in Kinnerasani Paatalu. The sequence of songs unfolds the moving tale of a maiden who is harassed at home and transformed into a stream. Her loving and helpless husband is transformed into a rock that is washed by the ripples of the stream. The lustful sea-god amorously longs for a union with the stream that is rescued by her mother Godavari. The stream Kinnera fulfils her destiny by serving the pilgrims that go to the temple of Rama in Bhadradi. Such simple theme was handled with rare mastery and fashioned into a masterpiece of literary art. The melodious supple rhythm match the subtle shades of feeling and the songs bear testimony to the poet’s mastery of verbal felicity and lyrical intensity. For sheer originality of conception and dexterity of execution Kinnerasaani has achieved universal acclaim. There was no literary function where the poet was not pressed with requests to recite a lyric from his “Kinnerasaani.” Its popularity is perennial as its appeal is immediate. It went straight to the heart because of its simplicity and musical charm.

During the heydays of the romantic movement in Telugu love became the predominant theme. The anguished outpourings of unrequited love and the endless vigil of expectation inspired several impassioned poems. Shorn of its sensual element love was treated in an exalted emotion which exerted an uplifting and chastening influence upon the soul of man. Viswanatha contributed his Girikumaaruni Prema Geetaalu as a distinct offering at the altar of love which establishes a kinship between the worm beneath the sod and the celestial God. In the manner of Shelley he addresses the monsoon cloud and remarks, “You are the poet the sky and I am the poet of the earth; Let us chant the agonies of our hearts!” In these lyricswe find the alchemy that transmutes drops of tears into drops of nectar. Romantic poetry expresses the intensity of desire for something unattainable and far beyond the reach of man while classical poetry gives utterance to a sense of satisfaction and fulfilment. The hopeless desire of the moth for the burning flame symbolises its irresistible and consuming quality. We catch glimpses of this hopeless longing and consuming anguish in the love-lyrics of Viswanatha. Romantic imagination displays itself in detecting affinities between the apparently dissimilar phenomena in Nature. Such hitherto unperceived affinities flash upon the intuitive sensibility of the poet with the shock of a significant discovery. Viswanatha’s lovely lyric on the clouds offers a thrill of joy by the establishment of a strange kinship between fleeting clouds and tender feminine feelings. The dark bashful glances of a bride, the shy looks of a pregnant wife, and the confused glances of a mother with her first child in her arms are beautifully identified with the tints and shapes of three different types of clouds floating in the blue. This lyric is tender and fragrant as a jasmine and can be set by the side of the best lyrics of the world without any fear of diminution of its charm.

to Nature was the watchword of romanticism in all parts of the world. Far from the dust and heat of urban life, far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife, the poet found a paradise of joy, beauty and contentment. The beauties of Nature were observed with a keen sense of wonder and portrayed in a refreshing manner. The poets looked at Nature not through the coloured glasses of convention. The romantic poet glanced at the beauties of the earth and the sky as though he were the first-born child of the universe and none had lived before him. In his celebrated Nature-poems “Telugu Rituvulu”, Viswanatha displayed keen observation, original approach and picturesque portrayal of the beauties of rural Andhra during the different seasons of the year. Unmistakable stamp of genius is imprinted on every verse which glows with delightful freshness and delicate charm. Only a poet of Viswanatha’s calibre could have steered clear of Kalidasa’s “Ritusamhaara” composed an off-beat poem of unexcelled glory. His “Telugu Rituvulu” presents colourful pictures of villages in the coastal region, before the process of industrialisation and urbanisation deprived them of their serene beauty. He draws attention to the beauty of several objects which we overlook because they are too familiar. Viswanatha “plucks from the dusty wayside of life” the delights that are scattered allover. He is one of those gifted poets who look with a child’s undoubted wisdom “upon the living pages of god’s book” which contains the open secret.

With a feeling of nostalgia we read his poems and recall the scenes of those vanished delights of our countryside. Poet Viswanatha looks at Nature as a teacher and draws edifying and ennobling sentiments from her treasure-house. Without deliberate didacticism, he suggests ideas which render life a pilgrimage and an adventure. Viswanatha in his lyrical phase remains a poet pure and simple. His muse does not languish under the weary weight of erudition which encumbers his later poems. His poetic vision is not coloured and clouded by theories of life which do not find wide acceptance. Even his worst detractor cannot remain blind to the charm and beauty of Viswantha’s lyrical poems which have become great things of beauty and offer joy forever.