Folk Tales and Narrative Traditions of

Folk Tales and Narrative Traditions of Telangana

Folk art forms and their significance

The study of folk literature is essential to understand the life and philosophy of the rural masses who constitute the great majority of Indian population. The beauty of their hearts, their longings and aspirations and their beliefs and convictions are codified in the folk tales, legends, songs and stories. This oral literature embodies the hoary wisdom accumulated over hundreds and thousands of years. For the simple villagers the orature provides active social and spiritual guidance, offers a practical philosophy of life, and sets before them models and ideals for emulation.

Telangana, which consists of the ten northern districts of Andhra Pradesh, is very rich in speech genres and folk narrative traditions. Prior to Independence, for various historical reasons, the people of Telangana led a secluded life which resulted in the evolution of a distinct folk culture of their own. This region has not gone through the same phases of cultural transformation as the rest of Andhra Pradesh. Even to this day there is a touch of primitive freshness about life in Telangana. Added to this, a relative lack of individualism, strong community bonds and the unselfconscious, spontaneous and emotional nature of the people have contributed a great deal to the growth of the folk arts including the narrative arts. Often sentiments like great good fortune reaching the audience or the patrons are attached to the performance of these arts. Thus even superstition played a role in nurturing them.

Until the radio, films, and more importantly the TV encroached upon their territory, the folk narrative and performing arts were the only source of collective entertainment and education for the villagers. There was also the leisure and willingness on the part of the villagers to patronize, appreciate and benefit from these arts.

Most of these narrative art forms are traditionally practised by certain marginalized sub-caste groups who depend on the dominant communities for survival. Some of these important narrative communities are: Addamsingvallu, Veedhi Bhagavatulu, Budige Jangaalu, Chinduvallu, Dasarivallu, Ganjikootivallu, Gollasuddulavallu, Gondaleelu, Jangaalu, Kakipadigelavallu, Koonapulivallu, Maladasarulu, Mandechulu, Matlevallu, Oggulu, Pichukakuntlu, Pondavulavallu, and Sharadagallu. Apart from these, there are also the non-caste specific teams such as batukamma teams, burrakatha teams, kolatam teams, and yakshganam teams. Depending on their traditional training the performance patterns and methods of presentation vary a great deal.

Methods of presentation

1. Short narratives (meant for a single presentation, e.g. Ellamma katha, Mallanna katha).
2. Long narratives (presented over a period of 3 to 30 days, e.g. Katamaraju katha).
3. Narratives presented by means of pictures (e.g. Kakipadigela stories, Pandavulavalla stories).
4. Narratives presented through clay and wooden figures (e.g. Mandechula stories).
5. Stories rendered by two lead narrators (e.g. Oggu).
6. Four or more narrators donning various roles on the spot (e.g. yakshaganam).
7.Single narrator, usually to the accompaniment of one or two musical instruments (e.g. Budige Jangam)
8. A group of actors performing at a street corner (e.g. veedhi bhagavatam).
9. A group of singers making a presentation clapping or striking sticks against each other as they go round and round (e.g. batukamma, kolatam).

Current scenario

The young men and women of the artist communities mentioned previously are now gradually switching over to regular professions because of a combination of factors such as the indignity attendant on dependence, meagre and uncertain income, lack of patronage, hectic pace of life and above all the lure of gainful employment elsewhere. As things stand now these speech genres have reached the brink of extinction. They may as well disappear forever once the last practising members of these communities pass away. The government, the official electronic media and the Telugu University have been doing their bit to keep them alive but it is almost certain that, in the absence of full-time practitioners of these arts, they will eventually die out and disappear. In spite of the fact that these tales, legends and stories constitute a virtual treasure trove of wisdom, history and culture of our timeless past perhaps nothing can be done about saving them from extinction, given the several constraints and compulsions. What however can be done at the present juncture is to record them in performance and then compile, and archive them. This may, apart from offering the other regions of the country a glimpse of the richness of the Telangana culture, give the future generations of the region itself an idea of their folk culture and may at some point of time in future even encourage them to revive some of these arts. This has happened in the case of yakshagana in Karnataka, thanks to the pioneering efforts of Shivarama Karanth.

A compendium of tales, legends and stories

Some of the tales, legends and stories listed below are derived from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and other all India epics and puranas but they are often characterized by a significant variation on the original stories. Some are pure extensions of the epic and puranic tales. According to an estimate there are also at least thirty caste-specific puranas in Telangana. The origin of these puranas and non-derivative narratives is difficult to trace but it may be conjectured that they originated in the prehistoric past and have been transmitted orally from generation to generation, mainly through the medium of the narrative communities. There are also legends describing the glory and valour of local heroes and village deities as do those of the presiding deities of certain temples where fairs are held annually. Chirutala, yaksha (yakshaganam), oggu, natakam, and Jangam (mentioned in parentheses against some of the following entries) denote the main narrative modes of those particular stories. The entries that have no parenthetical explanation may be understood to yield to a wide variety of presentation styles.

Akkalabhairavi katha
Anumula Brahmareddy katha
Aremarateela charitra (yaksha)
Balaraju
Balasanyasamma
Balavati katha
Batukamma katha
Bayyabai katha
Beerappa katha
Challapuramma katha
Dangneya (natakam)
Desinguraju katha (Jangam)
Dharmangada (yaksha)
Edla Ramadasu charitra.
Ektang katha
Ellamma katha
Gavunada Bhallana charitra
Gowramma katha
Guruvunu Minchina Shishyudu
Harabandiraju
Jiyyarani katha
Kalinga Maharaju katha
Kambhojaraju katha (yaksha, Jangam)
Kanakadurgamma
Kanakatara (natakam)
Kanthamati charitra (yaksha)
Katamaraju katha
Kollapuri Lakshmi
Kondala Raya charitra (Jangam)
Lakshmidevamma katha
Madalasa Parinayamu (yaksha)
Madanakamaraju katha
Mallanna katha (yaksha, oggu)
Mandata charitra (yaksha)
Matapuranamu katha
Maya Subhadra (yaksha, natakam)
Mohini Rukmangada (chirutala)
Mugguru Marateelu
Mynavati
Myravana (chirutala, yaksha)
Nagadi Kooturu
Nalla Thangal katha (Jangam)
Nallapochamma katha
Patala Homam
Peddadasu charitra
Poleramma katha
Pundmeeka charitra
Radhabhai Kaloji katha
Raja Hamsa
Raja Nalaneela
Rajakarlu
Rambha Rampala charitra (chirutala)
Renuka Yuddam
Rukmabhai charitra (yaksha)
Sanyasamma katha (Jangam)
Sookshmanarayana (natakam)
Sri Lakshmamma katha (Jangam)
Stree Sahasamu
Tabeluraju
Veera Timmamma katha
Vichitra Maharaju
Virata Jangam katha (Jangam)

A large majority of these tales and legends are not available in recorded form—written, taped or filmed—and therefore the need to record, compile and preserve them before they are lost forever.

Conclusion

Some research has certainly gone into this aspect of the Telangana culture as is evidenced by these scholarly works: Bigicharla Krishna Reddy’s Janapada Nrityakala, Nayani Krishnakumari’s Janapada Geya Gathalu: Nrusastra Vignanamu, G.V.S. Mohan’s Janapada Vignana Vyasavali, Mikkilineni Radhakrishna Murthy’s Teluguvari Janapada Kalaroopalu, Biruduraju Ramaraju’s Janapada Geya Sahityamu, and R.V.S. Sundaram’s Andhrula Janapada Vignanamu.Although these studies are significant as critical analyses of the folk art forms, they cannot be said to have done much by way of recording and rendering in Telugu or English the tales and legends as highly readable texts.

Therefore for the purpose of preserving these narrative arts the surviving members of the communities practising them should be located and their cooperation should be enlisted in recording the narratives on audio tapes and VCDs. After recording, these narratives should be transcribed and reduced to readable texts in Telugu and possibly even translated into English so as to give them an all India currency. Finally the materials so obtained should be carefully documented with detailed introduction to each of them and archived. Who knows, they might rise from there, Phoenix like, at some point of time in future.
*

World History facts about India

The art of navigation was born in the river Sindhu 5000 years ago. The very word navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word Navagatih.

Bodhyan first calculated value of PI, and he explained the concept of what is now known as Pythagorean theorem. In 1999 British scholars officially published that Bodhayan’s works date to the 6th century, which is long before European Mathematics.

Algebra, Trignometry and Calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were by Sridhacharya in the 11th century.

The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Indians used as large as 1053.

According to Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source of Diamonds to the world.

USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century-old suspicion amongst academics that the pioneer of wireless communication was Prof. Jagadishchandra Bose and not Marconi.

The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.

Chess was invented in India.

Sushruta is the father of surgery. 200 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted surgeries like cesareans, cataract, fractures and urinary stones.

Use of Anesthesia was well known in ancient India.

When many cultures in the World were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, India established Harrappan culture in Sindhu valley (Indus valley civilization).

The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.