| A World of Fascinating Stories |
| Prabandham is a term familiar to most linguists, adept in different languages. But most people are unaware of the presence of this word in three different languages. An insight into this term reveals a world of fascinating stories, facts and beliefs! |
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Introduction Indian languages are many in number and varied in their features and qualities. But all of them do cross the others' paths in someway or the other. It might be in their origin, their script, or the borrowing of words by one language from another that links them to the other languages. |
| A single term could be spelt and pronounced in the same way in more than one language. But it need not carry the same meaning in all the languages. One such term is "Prabandham". It is a familiar word to people who are comfortable with either Telugu or Tamil or Bengali language. But each of these languages associates the word to spheres unique to that particular language. The features attributed to this word in the three languages are discussed below. |
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Prabandham - the Telugu version Prabandham is a term, which is very prominent in the Telugu literature. It is the name given to a form of Telugu poetry. This form was adopted to cater to the literary needs of Telugu people who were not familiar with Sanskrit. The Prabandham style of literature took seed during the 12th Century. It reached the pinnacle of its glory under the patronage of the King KrishnaDeva Raya. The period during which this form reached its zenith is called the 'Prabandham Yugam' or the Age of the Prabandhams, roughly between the years 1510 to 1600. |
| History: The Prabandham poetry started with the translation of the earlier works in Sanskrit to Telugu. When most of the epics had been reproduced in the regional language, the poets decided to be the helmsmen of the ship of Telugu literature and navigated to unexplored territories like writing poetry for the sake of literary showmanship. The themes for these works were not based on divinity or religion. Instead, these poems were narratives of revelry and the zest for life. Variety in life and the desire for an ideal life were the main focus. The poets of that era seem to have felt a sense of saturation with writing only about divinity and morality. Their mindset was such that they considered Heroism to be a close second to divinity. Thus the poems covered topics like the glory of the kingdom, the chivalrous episodes of young men, the beauty maidens of the Vijayanagaram and also a few of them shed some light on the lives of the peasants. |
| It is noticeable that the protagonists were generally described as men of great valor, whose masculinity were unparalleled compared to the rest of general populace. An example for this would be an excerpt from one of the Prabandhams, where a king, Vasu raja managed to move an entire mountain, KolAhala, with just his toe! The women who were considered worthy enough to be included in these poems were ones whose exceptional beauty made them comparable to celestial beings. The Prabandhams display the story telling skills of the poets. NannecODa, a Chola king who authored the famous KumArasamBhavam, Verrana and a poet by name SreenAtha in the early 12th Century laid the foundation for the Prabandhams. SreenAtha was a pioneer in incorporating the Prabandham style in his poetry. His works have been dated to belong to the 14th Century AD of which Sringara Naishadham is very well known. |
| Emperor KrishnaDevaRaya, in addition to being an able ruler was himself a very accomplished poet. The period of his reign is considered to be the Golden Age of Telugu literature. He wrote poetry in the form of discourses and narratives, which was the format for the Prabandham style. His Amuktamalyada, a well-known Prabandham, describes the cravings of Lord Vishnu for his wife Godadevi (mother Earth) in a splendid manner. The credit for giving this form of poetry its elite status however needs to be accorded to the Ashtadiggajas. The era of these poets is what has been called as the Prabandham Yugam, 1510 – 1600 AD. |
| Ashtadiggajamulu as they were called, were the eight famous poets who wrote cotemporary poetry during the 16th century. The term is used to indicate the eight divine elephants holding up the four sides and four corners of the world of telgu poetry. The eight poets referred to here are Allasani Peddana, Nandi Timmana, Madayyagari Mallana, Dhurjati, Ayyalaraju Ramambhadrudu, Pingali Surana, Ramarajabhushanadu and Tenal Ramakrishnudu. Much folklore has been built around these poets, about their wondrous works and about how the Emperor KrishnaDevaRaya patronized them. Some facts generally overlooked about these poets are that all the ashtadiggajamulu did not belong to the same generation and neither did they write anything note-worthy during the reign of KrishnaDeva Raya. The Ashtagiggajamulus used bits from the Puranas as materials for their poems. Each poet tried to excel the other in his work. In essence, the books ended up being complicated in nature and often led to ambiguity in their meanings. |
| Structure of Prabandham: Prabandhams are classified based on their content. PraKhyatam is the type where the stories are famous, UtpAdhyam is the purely fictional kind and in the type called MiSramam, the stories are a mixture of different types. A Prabandham is divided into sargas or cantos. The first canto is generally dedicated to either a prayer to a chosen Lord – AvatArika Stuti, or a note of reverence to a previous poet/writer. This may even include the reason for the book being written and also any dedications if required. If a dedication is made, then a set of poems called ShaShTyantamalu is added, called so because all these poems end with a ShaShTee Vibhakti. These are written so to reiterate that the poems are being read to the person dedicated to. The poet then starts with the actual poems. These poets probably started the tradition of using a copyright because each chapter had an AsvasAnta gadhyam at its conclusion which described the details regarding its author and his illustrious lineage. Standard meters called Chandas were used all through the stories told in the form of poetry. Prose was used for only three purposes. It was either used as a short connection between two pieces written in Chandas or for describing things with long and explicit detail or to just quicken the pace of the story. Evolution of Prabandham: The use of the Prabandham style is rarely observed in Telugu writers of the present day. There are difficulties in mastering the art of reading this archaic style of poetry. The play of words is so intense that the readers need to experiment with their possible interpretations every time they read a Prabandham. There is a chance of the poems sometimes not making any sense at all due to limited forms of diacritical symbols available in the medieval ages. The poems have a tendency to sometimes seem quite ordinary or sometimes artificial if the reader fails to grasp the intention of the poet in his wording the story in a particular way. Some of the poems may tend to sound offensive too! Even though some of the modern poets have attempted at recreating the beauty of Prabandhams in their works, the uniqueness of the original works is missing in them. The Prabandhams are gems, which are incomparable in value to any other form of poetry. |
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Prabandham - The endeavor towards popularizing a Tamil religion, Vaishnavism For the Tamil speaking class, the term Prabandham evokes an intense sense of pride and devotion. Prabandham in the Tamil language are songs that are sung in the praise of Lord Vishnu. There are about 4000 songs recorded as the Prabandhams right now. The songs are eloquently worded with details describing Lord Vishnu, his features, his characteristics and above all, his greatness. |
| Divya Prabahandams, as these songs are called, were the mark of devotion of Vaishnavite saints called the Alvars. Vaishnavite is a term used to denote people who are devout followers of Lord Vishnu. They traveled from one shrine of Vishnu to another, composing songs at each location. These songs were mostly descriptions of the idols in the shrine. The Alvars went around the country advocating Vaishnavism, beseeching other people to join their creed. Their amazing poetry had teachings about caste, religion, the position of women at that period of time and other important issues. The poems were intended to cast good light on Brahmanism. Though the Alvars claimed to be against Buddhism and Jainism, a lot of teachings from these religions were incorporated into these poems. |
| The Prabandhams were the descriptions of the murthis or idols at the various locations of the Vishnu shrines. These sites, called as Divya Kshetrams, are 108 in number. The contents of these songs give researchers a good insight into the condition of these monuments at those times. The poems also talked about the various Avtars of Vishnu. Of these, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Rama and Krishna were the favorites. Tiruvoymoli, one of the first Prabandhams to be popularized is a work of NammAlvar, who is better known as known Alvar. |
| There is no empirical evidence to substantiate the statements in these Prabandhams. With the diminishing faith in religion, the Prabandhams have lost their popularity. Due to the absence of written records of these songs during earlier times, they have been passed down the ages by the word of mouth. The Prabandhams have also lost their popularity owing to the fact that the present-day youth have a problem pronouncing most of the words used in them! |
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Prabandha - The Bengali tune The Bengali interpretation of the term Prabandha is associated with music. Popularly known as Prabandha Sangeeth, this constitutes a large class of music encompassing various renowned forms of music like Charya. Being a medieval family of music, it inherited its form and characteristics from the Vedic and post- Vedic Marga Sangeeth. These were the well-ordained, ancient Indian musical traditions. This style of music was one of the pioneers in having formal structures. Prabandha Sangeeth served as the basis for many forms of classical music. The modern classical styles of Hindustani or the music particular to the North Indian regions – the Dhrupad and the Kheyal, have evolved from Prabandha Sangeeth. |
| Music through the years has been preserved in the form of a legacy, handed down from generation to generation by singers. Notations to denote music came into existence somewhere during the late nineteenth century in Bengal, and at a much later in the rest of India. Hence there is no concise description of the singing patterns of Prabandha Sangeeth. Excerpts from a book called Sangeet Ratnakar, written by Shrangadeva during the early 13 th Century, has some amount of information about this archaic form of music. |
| The Geeta Govind is a very fine example of the Prabandha style of music. Jaydeva, a poet in Raja Lakshmana Sena's court, composed the entire piece. The composition is a tribute to Lord Krishna, describing his methods of amusing himself with the love of the village belles. Geeta Govind can be called an opera of sorts of the medieval times. This is perhaps the first piece of work where the Raga and Tala assigned to various sections have been mentioned. The composition consists of twenty-four Asta padis and connecting verses (Slokas). The term Asta padi means literally means eight-feet. The structure of this literature is quite simple. The Geeta Govind attracted various dancers and painters post 15th Century, as it was the only form of music to be played in the Puri temple. |
| The popularity of Prabandha Sangeeth lasted till around the late 17th century after which it started dwindling. The principal forms of this style were lost during its journey through the ages. |
| Today, the term Prabandha generally denotes any form of music or song. It does not refer to any pattern in particular. Let us make an effort to preserve this gem, which has been passed down through the centuries enriching our illustrious culture. |