TELUGU DRAMAS BASED ON
THE MAHABHARATA
(ADI AND SABHA PARVAS)
Dr.
Chilakamarthi Durga Prasada Rao
3/106, Premnagar, Dayalbagh,
The Mahabharata is considered to be one of the greatest epics of our
country. Its greatness lies not only in
quantity but also in quality.
Epics
are of two kinds. One is Parikriya
while the other is Purakalpa. The
former is of single hero while the latter is of many.
परिक्रिया
पुराकल्प इतिहासगतिर्द्विधा
स्यादेकनायका
पूर्वा द्वितीया बहुनायका
The
two epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are the examples of those two
respectively. The Mahabharata is also
considered to be an encyclopedia of Indian knowledge and wisdom as it deals
with all the aspects of the four Purusharthas, Dharma,
Artha, Kama and Moksha which cover complete human life. It is also unique in nature as it consists of
more than five thousand roles of different characteristics, no one being
similar to the other. The influence of
the Mahabharata on Indian life is highly remarkable. The Mahabharata is divided into 18 parvas
(chapters). Sage Vedavyasa was the author of the Mahabharata.
The
Mahabharata was originally written in Sanskrit and later it was translated into
several Indian languages in course of time.
The trio of poets Nannaya, Tikkana and Yerrana
translated it into Telugu. Their translation, being independent in nature, left
an indelible impression among the hearts of Telugu people.
It is not an
exaggeration to say that there is no poet in Telugu literature who was not
influenced by those three poets to a greater or lesser extent. It is also not an exaggeration to say that no
other Indian language has produced such a great deal of literature as in the
Telugu version of the Mahabharata. Since
the Mahabharata is a treasure house of knowledge and wisdom, it is considered
as a Dharmasastra by dharmikas, a philosophical treatise by philosophers, a
treatise of ethics by ethicists, a great poetry by poets, as aesthetics by
rhetoricians, as epic by the scholars of epics, and a collection of Puranas by
pauranikas.
Kavya
is of two kinds. While Sravya, as
the name implies, can only be read (heard), Drisya is eligible both to
be read and seen (enacted or staged).
Hence Drisya is more advantageous than Sravya as it can be
read and visualized as well. Drisyakavya
is coined as a Rupaka. It again is of
ten types among which Nataka is said to be more comprehensive than the
rest. Though the variety of Rupaka is
comparatively a latter-day entry in Telugu literature, hundreds of Rupakas (dramas)
were written in Telugu basing on the two epics, the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata. The dramatists of Andhra
selected some important episodes from them, that can be enacted aesthetically
and receive the attention of the spectators.
Even of those two, the events of the Mahabharata are more plausible and
nearer to human experience than those of the Ramayana. The dramas, based on the Mahabharata are more
numerous than those of the Ramayana. The
dramas can be classified under three heads.
1.
Dramas
confined to an episode of a particular parva of the Mahabharata.
Example:- Draupadiparinayamu of Chilakamarthi
Lakshminarasimham.
2.
Dramas
based on the story of the entire Mahabharata.
Example:- Sampurnanabharatamu
of K.Subrahmanya Sastry.
3.
Dramas
written on the characters of the Mahabharata.
Example:- Maharathikarna
of N.V.Subbarao.
It is very interesting to note
that every important episode of every parva of the Mahabharata has been
dramatized. This reveals how deeply the
Mahabharata has influenced the people of Andhradesha. Most probably the number
of dramas in Telugu derived from the Mahabharata far out weigh those rendered
in other Indian languages. Let us now have a close perusal of them in a
systemic and chronological order.
Adi parva , the first of all
the parvas, is endowed with interesting topics such as the vow of Bhishma,
birth of Pandavas, the burning of the house of lac, the marriage of Hindimba
with Bhimasena, swayamvara of Draupadi and the marriage of Subhadra. The dramas
written on this parva are based not only on the Mahabharata, but also on
Vijayavilasa and other related works.
The first and the fore most available drama on the Mahabharata was Draupadiparinayamu,
a 5-act play, of which Chilakamarthi Lakshminarasimham was the author. He was not only a great scholar of Sanskrit,
Telugu and English but also a great patriot, who contributed his might for the
freedom of our country. He dramatized
the story of Draupadi’s marriage in his drama Draupadiparinayamu in
1889.
The drama starts with the coronation of Dharmaraja and
ends with the marriage of Pandavas with Draupadi. The burning of the house of lac, the slaying
of Bakasura as well as Hidimbasura by Bhimasena, the episode of Angaraparna and
Draupadi’s swayamvara are the important items that are dramatized. Another great poet, Hota Venkata Krishnayya, a versatile scholar,
authored a drama Draupadi swayamvaram in 1904. He introduced new characters such as Suvinda,
the disciple of Vedavyasa and Narada, the divine sage, to make the original
more effective. A few years later, Kondamudi Nrisimha Kavi composed a drama Panchaliparinayamu
in 1907. His 5-act play introduced many
deviations to the original story.
Similarly Draupadiparinayamu and two dramas with the same title
Panchaliparinayamu were written by Dronamraju Sitaramayya in 1911,
Dharmavaram Krishnamacharyulu (1924) and Ayyagari Veerabhadrarao (1926).
The second best episode of this
parva is Subhadra’s marriage and it attracted the attention of many authors of
Andhradesa, who dramatized the event wonderfully. The main story of this drama is as
follows. Draupadi, being a common
property of all the five pandavas, had to spend one year in the house of each
of the five brothers. If, when she was
alone with one of them, any other brother should intrude on their privacy, he
must go for exile for one year. One day
some cows of a Brahmin had been stolen by a thief and the Brahmin approached
Arjuna and asked him to recover the cows for him. Arjuna immediately rushed to the place where
Dharmaraja and Draupadi were alone. As
per the condition, Arjuna went on his voluntary exile for a year. During his journey he visited several places
and married Ulupi, the daughter of the king of Nagaloka; Chitrangada, the daughter of Chitrasena and
had a son Babhruvahana by her. Finally,
he proceeded to Dwaraka and disguised himself as a monk. Subhadra, the sister of both Lord Krishna and
Balarama was appointed to serve the pseudo monk for his comfortable stay. Arjuna spent several days being served by
Subhadra. They fell in love with each
other. Finally it ends with their happy
union.
In the name of Subhadraparinayamu three dramas were
written by Bethapudi Lakshmikantham in the year 1916, Gandikota Babu Rao in 1923 and Chakravartula Venkata Sastry in the year 1961.
Besides those three dramas, Ekkirala Krishnamacharya wrote Subhadra in
1952. In 1921, Bhagavatula Chenna Krishnamma authored a
drama entitled Subhadravijayamu.
The burning of the house of lac is the third best
episode of this parva. It attracted the
attention of many authors who sketched the incident in a dramatic form. The theme of the drama goes like this. Dhritarastra sent Pandavas to Varanavata, a
city to spend some time there happily. The
people of Varanavata welcomed them with joy.
Some days passed by. One day
Purochana, an evil-minded servant of Kauravas directed them to live in a house
specially designed for their comfort.
The house is made of inflammable material. Yudhisthira, with the help of the hint given
by Vidura sensed the plot of the Kauravas and alerted Bhimasena and with the
help of a miner sent to them by Vidura, they secretly arranged a tunnel to get
themselves out of the danger. Kauravas
were waiting for the opportunity. One
day Kunti, the mother of Pandavas arranged a feast for the poor. A tribal lady, with her five sons, attended
the feast and slept there in the palace.
According to the plan, Purochana set fire to that palace. But Bhima, who was aware of this, kept his
sleeping mother on his back, the twins on his hips, and other two brothers in
his arms and walked the entire length of the tunnel and escaped unhurt. The
house had been burnt down completely. The ashes of seven bodies (of the tribal
woman, her five sons and Purochana ) were found by the people of Varanavata and
thought that Kunti with her five sons and Purochan were burnt alive. They were unhappy at the evil fate of the
Pandavas and at the same time felt happy to see that at least Purochana was
punished for his sinful act. The people
of Hastinapura felt sad over this incident.
But Dhritarastra and his sons were happy. Taking this small episode as basis,
Viswanatha Sarma of Malladi family wrote a very small drama namely Lakshagrihamu
comprising eight scenes, in 1909.
Bhuvanagiri Venkataramayya wrote a drama of five acts
entitled own Hidimba-bhimasenamu (1927), which is very much related to
this story. The burning of the house of
the lac, the killing of Hidimbasura by Bhima, Bhima’s marriage with Hindimbi
and the birth of Ghatotkacha are dramatized.
Some more dramas based on the Adiparva are written by
other scholars. Dronapratijna
(The vow of Drona) by Jonnalagadda Mritynjaya Sarma is worth mentioning. Dronacharya, humiliated by the king Drupada,
a boy-hood friend, decided to take revenge against him and put an end to his
arrogance. Incidentally, he had an
opportunity of teaching archery to the sons of Panduraja and
Dhritarashtra. He imparted all his
knowledge to Arjuna and designated him as the best archer among equals. To Dronacharya, Arjuna became dearer even
than his own son, Aswatthama. The
education was over and the time had come to pay gurudakshina. Then Dronacharya asked Arjuna, to pay
gurudakshna by defeating Drupada and drag him alive before him. Arjuna, as directed by his guru, captured
Drupada alive and placed him before Dronacharya. Drona taunted him vehemently with harsh words
by which the king Drupada was put to shame.
But the story did not end there.
Drupada, in to take revenge against Drona, did a severe penance and got
two boons. As the first boon, he was
blessed with a daughter, Draupadi, who could marry Arjuna, a great archer,
comparable to none and also a son Dhrustadyumna, who could kill the great
Dronacharya.
A drama, entitled Bhishmapratijna, is also
available in Telugu. This drama was
written by Malladi Suryanarayana Sastry, in which the vow of celibacy taken by
Devavrata, the son of Santanu and the marriage of Santanu with Satyavathi, the
daughter of Dasaraja was narrated. Three
dramas are available under the name Bhishamapratijna by Avasarala
Seshagirirao, Malladi Suryanarayana Sastry and J. Venkatraju (1968). There is one more drama titled Pandavajananamu
which is also famous. The authors of
this drama were Divakarla Tirupati Sastry
and Chellapilla Venkata Sastry, which duo is popularly known as Tirupati-Venkata-kavulu,
and who condensed the events of the entire Mahabharata in to six parts. In Pandavajananamu the birth events
right from Vyasa to the Pandavas are vividly sketched.
Sabhaparva is the second parva
of the Mahabharata. The Rajasuya
sacrifices, the killings of Sisupala, the removal of clothes of Draupadi are
considered to be the main events of this parva, which are also convenient to be
dramatized. Pandavarajasuyamu written
by Tirupati Venkatakavulu is very famous in Andhra. The theme of the drama is as follows. Yudhisthira was going to perform the
Rajasuya. It was his duty to honor the
guests. He was not in a position to
decide whom he should worship first because it was a delicate task. But on the advice of Bhishma, he came forward
to worship Lord Krishna and he asked his brother Sahadeva to bring the necessary
articles of worship. The puja was
over. No body could dare to raise his
finger against Yudhisthira, who was responsible for this though some of the
members did not seem to be pleased with the selection. But Sisupala, the king of Chedi, laughed at
the decision of choosing Lord Krishna as the guest of honor and insulted Lord
Krishna vehemently in the midst of all that were present in the assembly. Krishna was
trying to ignore the insults of Sisupala.
Finally, having condoned hundred insults, made by Sisupala, he could not
bear it any longer and cut the head of Sisupala with the disc, Similarly,
Sandepudi Srihari Rao wrote Sisupaliyamu, which depicts the slaying of
Sisupala. The next interesting episode
of this parva is the foul dice. Kauravas
sent Vidura to invite Yudhishira for playing dice. Accompanied by kunti and Draupadi, followed
by his brothers, Yudhisthira left for Hasthinapura and was invited cordially by
the Kauravas. Sakuni the maternal uncle
of Duryodhana suggested that they should sit down and play a game of dice. At the very out set Yudhisthira denied the
invitation as it would lead to unpleasant situation. But, later, he was pressurized by Sakuni and
accepted to play. The game started. Game after game was played. He began to lose his wealth, his bothers and
finally lost himself and even his wife Draupadi in the foul dice,played by
sakuni,on behalf of Duryodhana.Duryodhana sent his servant Pratikami to bring
Draupadi to the court. Draupadi refused to come to the court with a riddle
whether Yudhisthira lost himself first or her. On hearing that Duryodhana
became angry and ordered his brother Dussasana to bring her to the court.
Dussasana dragged her away to the court. Draupadi had no more tears to weep.
She questioned the entire house whether her defeat was legally valid or not.
Nobody could dare to oppose the insult done to Draupadi. It was Vikarna, one of
the sons of Dhrutarastra who opposed the event. Though his words created a
sensation, they did not prevail. Karna stopped him by saying that Draupadi was a
slave just like her husbands and he also went the extent of saying that slaves
have no right to wear clothes. And he ordered Dussasana the brother of
Duryodhana, to remove the garments of them. Dussasana, after observing the voluntary
removal of the upper clothes by pandavas , went to Draupadi and began to remove
her clothes forcibly. She looked at the entire assembly helplessly for help but
in vain. In the beginning she tried to guard herself but finally gave up all
her hopes and prayed to Lord Krishna with folded hands. Though Dussasana was
pulling her clothes continuously they were getting longer miraculously. Finally
getting exhausted, Dussasana gave up his attempt. Subsequently Dhritarasta, relieved them all
by granting boons. Then Pandavas left
Hastinapura for Indraprastha. They were
again called for dice. They were again
defeated in the foul play and left for exile.
Tallapragada Suryanarayana Rao composed a drama Durnayadurodaramu which
presented the foul dice that lead Pandavas to exile. The most important episode of this parva of
which a number of dramas were written is the disrobing of Draupadi. About ten dramas were written on this
subject.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.
Bharatanatakamulu
Dr. Kallakuri Annapurna,
K.S.R. Lakshmi, D.No.26-133, Sarada Nagar, Safilguda,
Hyderabad-47
2.
Andhranatakadarshini
(Bibliography of Telugu stage
able plays 1860-1962)
Sankalanamu
Sri Srinivasa chakravarthi
Jayanti publications
3. Andhranatakarangacharitra
Sri Mikkilineni Radhakrishna Murty.
4.
Mahabharata
Kamala Subrahmanyam
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
5.
Andhr
Mahabhabharatamu
6.Telugu dramas the names of
which are cited in the article.
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