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AlOchanaamR^itaM

Indian in Foreign Lands

It will be well when every Indian, instead of taking a wax-like stamp from his foreign surroundings, is able to carry India with him wherever he goes. For that will mean that India is destined to conquer and place her stamp upon the whole world.
- Sri Aurobindo (India's Rebirth, pp.  79)

sa.ngItaM karNATaka hindusthaani lalita (telugu)
telugu purANAlu pravachanAlu sAhityaM toli velugulu
Miscellaneous Articles telugu Recipes sa.nskR^itaM digvijayii bhaarata (blog) padya kaumudi (blog)

toli telugu velugulu - The Earliest Recorded Telugu Song and Drama (audio)

Sri Desiraju Hanumantha Rao garu is generously contributing his priceless collection of some of the very first gramophone recordings of telugu songs and dramas ever made. The rest of this page contains material and comments provided by him. Please check this page regularly, as a lot more will be added.
- Sai Susarla.

Sri D.H.Rao's comments:
These are the earliest possible gramophone recordings. Please bear with the pin noise, grating, hiss etc., since these records are unavailable, that easily. And we request the listeners proficient in digitally cleaning them, to make efforts in uplifting their audio from pin grate, hiss etc., and spare us a copy to re-post it here, as our facilities to make a clean copy are too meagre.

Contents

Krishna liilalu - The famous play of Vemuri Gaggayya. 1920-30
Ballari Raghava (1880-1946) - bhakta prahlAda - Drama
Songs by very Senior Stage Artists
Banda Kanakalingesvara Rao
Earliest cinema playback song of Bezawada Rajaratnam
paaNDava udyoga vijayaalu - Stage Play by Tirupati Venkata Kavulu (1870s - 1920s)
pratAparudrIyam: Stage Play by Vedam Venkataraaya Sastri [1853-1929]

Back to Sai's lalita gItAlu page

Krishna liilalu - The famous play of Vemuri Gaggayya. 1920-30

Year: 1920-30
Notes: You will listen to the voice/songs of Senior Sriranjani in this play which is otherwise unavailable. Gaggayya's voice itself is so. The casting is announced by AIR.
Select rm Select mp3 Title
play, rm play, mp3 kR^iShNa liilalu - 1 of 8
play, rm play, mp3 kR^iShNa liilalu - 2 of 8
play, rm play, mp3 kR^iShNa liilalu - 3 of 8
play, rm play, mp3 kR^iShNa liilalu - 4 of 8
play, rm play, mp3 kR^iShNa liilalu - 5 of 8
play, rm play, mp3 kR^iShNa liilalu - 6 of 8
play, rm play, mp3 kR^iShNa liilalu - 7 of 8
play, rm play, mp3 kR^iShNa liilalu - 8 of 8

Ballari Raghava (1880-1946) - bhakta prahlAda - Drama

Select rm Select mp3 Title
play, rm bhakta prahlAda nATakam: Part 1 of 10
play, rm bhakta prahlAda nATakam: Part 2 of 10
play, rm bhakta prahlAda nATakam: Part 3 of 10
play, rm bhakta prahlAda nATakam: Part 4 of 10
play, rm bhakta prahlAda nATakam: Part 5 of 10
play, rm bhakta prahlAda nATakam: Part 6 of 10
play, rm bhakta prahlAda nATakam: Part 7 of 10
play, rm bhakta prahlAda nATakam: Part 8 of 10
play, rm bhakta prahlAda nATakam: Part 9 of 10
play, rm bhakta prahlAda nATakam: Part 10 of 10

Select rm Select mp3 Title Author Artist

Songs by very Senior Stage Artists

Select rm Select mp3 Title Artist
play, rm manojavam maaruta tulya vegam S.P. Lakshmana Swamy
murali gaana lola Parupalli Satyanarayana
play, rm madhusudanaa he maadhavaa Rentachintala Satyanarayana
play, rm gopaala baala krishnaa Rentachintala Satyanarayana
play, rm edii gati naakuu rangaa Kapilavai Ramanatha Sastry

Banda Kanakalingesvara Rao

Notes: The most famous actor for his Sri Krishna roles, earlier to iilapaaTa Raghuramaiah. When Banda finished his scene in drama, audience used to call him back onto stage to sing this gutti vankai kuuroi baavaa... as they used to demand iilapaaTa from Raghuramaih.
Select rm Select mp3 Title
play, rm gutti vankai kuuroi baavaa
play, rm daasigaa nunDuTakaina taganaa

Earliest cinema playback song of Bezawada Rajaratnam

Notes: The first playback song was sung by Ogirala for YV Rao in maLLii peLLi film, and the next known song was rendered by Bezawada Rajaratnam, being a singing star and disc-dancer of the day, for dancer Samrajyam in Bhakta Pothana, namely the jaavali - idi manchi samyamu raaraa : VAK Ranga Rao.
Select rm Select mp3 Title film Artist
play, rm idi manchi samayamu raaraa Bhakta Pothana: 1942 Bezawada Rajaratnam

paaNDava udyoga vijayaalu - Stage Play by Tirupati Venkata Kavulu (1870s - 1920s)

Year: 1910-1920
Notes: This is the most famous stage play before the advent of electronic media, and there is no village in Andhra without seeing it. Many village actors used to learn the song/verses and used to sing for themselves, even before the coming of AIR. This play is performed throughout a complete night, and last scenes used to come at about 4 am in morning. AIR Hyderabad used to broadcast a program namely rangasthalam, wherein this abridged, rather available records or tapes, are consolidated and presented to listeners.

In this the first part maya sabha is not written by Tirupati Venkata Kavulu, but by one pandit from Peda Avutapalli, namely Sri Venkata Ratnam. Even then it is coupled with the main play for the usage of words and samaasaa-s in Duryodhana's dialog. Even today maya sabha is used as a piece for monoacting competitions of performances.

The next one is maayaa juudam of Shakuni-Dharmaraja. These records are the earliest known recordings of this play, perhaps during first or second decades of 1900. We have included a sampler file of the records available, by which listeners can estimate its age. Next follows eelapaaTa Raghuraamaiah's era. In this Ghantasala is also there trying his level best to maintain his shruti with Raghuramaih. This is from a film Kurukshetra. Next we will post other parts of stage artists, as some time is needed to cleanse the records at this end.

sandhi vachanamulu - are of Pandava-s to Hastina thru Krishna. Though these records do not fall under oldies, they are to be incorported here as per story. Further, the style of singing of Abburi Kamala, inherited from Abburi Vara Prasada Rao, the most famous actor for Krishna's role, is extingquished with these records. Breaking the tradition of following Marathi baaNi-s, Abburi estbalished his own style that reigned supreme up to 40s, but later went into oblivion, as none could sing that sophisticatedly.

rAyabAramu:
Ever heard of 'celliyo cellako...' 'jenDaapai kapi raaju...' sung by almost all goDla kaaDa buddoDlu... while washing their buffalows? These are those songs in their true tone. With these the inimitable style of Raghuramaih and maraTha baaNi-s have ceased to exist.

BTW, the text of most of the rAyabAram padyAlu sung in these recordings are available on this webpage.

Select rm Select mp3 Title Artist
play, rm sample of mAyA jUdam original LP recording P. Suribabu and other artists unknown to us
play, rm maya sabha Achanta Venkata Ratnam Naidu
play, rm mAyA jUdam P. Suribabu and other artists unknown to us
play, rm adigO dvAraka kriShNa: iilapATa Raghuramayya; arjuna: kAntA Rao, ghaNTasAla; duryodhana: mAdhavapeddi, rAjanAla
play, rm pAnDavula sandhi vachanAlu Abburi Kamala
play, rm rAyabAram iilapATa raghurAmayya

pratAparudrIyam: Stage Play by Vedam Venkataraaya Sastri [1853-1929]

Year: ?
Notes: Previously performed by Mukkamala Krishna Murthy, Jupudi Yajna Narayana, ex MLC Guntur et al.
Later Performed during 1970s by Natya Sangham Hyd, under the direction of Padma Bhushan [late] A R Krishna.

Later by Desiraju Hanumanta Rao.
Hundreds of stage performances are given in modern theatre concept using constructivist portable stage design.
This play is a sort of its own for the earliest known Telugu play for mixed Musalman-Hindu spoken languages.

AIR broadcast it with many theatre personalities included as a venture when period plays/costume plays are on downturn in AP. Late Manapragada narasimha Murthy - the famous folk singer rendered the playback song 'elli naato gadde ekki unTadii...' for caakali peri gaaDu in this radio play.

This play, though nobody knows that such a play exists in Telugu, has seen its own golden days and was an outranking play of yore - esp. for the roles of Yugandhar and caakali peri gaaDu + king Prataapa Rudrudu.

If anyone is interested in staging this, they may pl contact dhrao for stage design etc.

Select rm Select mp3 Title
play, rm pratAparudriiyam nATakam: Part 1 of 4
play, rm pratAparudriiyam nATakam: Part 2 of 4
play, rm pratAparudriiyam nATakam: Part 3 of 4
play, rm pratAparudriiyam nATakam: Part 4 of 4

- Desiraju Hanumantha Rao


- Sarada and Sai Susarla (sai.susarla@gmail.com)