This article is about Pingali Suranna, one of the Ashtadiggajas of the Vijayanagara empire, and his literary contributions and the books he wrote.
Who was Pingali Suranna – his books and his specialty
Pingali Suranna who belonged to the Pingali village of Krishna district is believed to be among the best writers ever in Telugu. He independently re-introduced slesha (poetry with twin meanings) in Telugu poetry.
His first great poem was Garuda-puranam and the first work that brought him immense fame was Raghava-Pandaviya, a unique attempt where each verse is capable of giving two meanings one applicable to Ramayana and other applicable to Mahabharta; one describing the events in the life of Rama and the other meaning describing the same in the life of Pandavas.
The identical events in the two stories are used to provide the natural joints to present the story. As an example, in both the stories the archery was common way to win the heroine. In Ramayana, Lord Rama lifted the bow to win Devi Sita; while in Mahabharta, Arjuna aimed the fish to win Draupadi. This literary composition carries over a gracious simplicity.
Kala-Purnodayam – A novel of Pingali Suranna and unique things of his novel
His Kala-Purnodayam is a novel in poetry based on veritable comedy of errors and holds the attention of the readers. The meaning of the title is complete-flourishing of the art.
This book is the best original work ever written in Telugu and the author has chosen a story of his own invention; a rarity at that time. This book is a mix of verse and poetry.
Suranna felt limitations in poetry and introduced verse along with the poetry to give dramatic twist and turn in the plot. He realized that poem detaches natural flow from life, and infused strong dramatization in his novels.
He gave attention to plot and its beauty and introduced life-like characters, spontaneous movements, situations in the book are tense and vivid and the conversation between the actors is natural.
Use of Flashbacks
Instead of following chronological order of the events, Suranna preferred to plunge into the middle of the plot and makes his character relate the story.
Kala-Purnodayam is the first book ever written in Telugu that use flash-backs; a style that Suranna continued in his next book Prabhavati-Pradhyumana, even that book starts with the beautiful description of Dwarka as seen from the haze and glow of the morning sun from the flying chariot of Lord Indra high in the sky.
The Storyline
Kala-Purnodayam starts with Rambha, the celestial nymph boasting about her peerless beauty and that nothing can ever separate her from her lover Nalakubera. The wandering sage Narada overhears the same and prophesies that a false Rambha and Nalakubera will humble her.
In the novel Kalabhashini and Manikandhara plays the double; Kalabhashini falls in love with Nalakubera and Manikandhara with Rambha. The false and real lovers meet after a maze of errors, realizes their mistakes and amend.
Picturesque Descriptions
There are several interesting strands woven into exemplary organic unity; the story contains picturesque description of the scenes and situations, dramatic presentation of the story and characters, lovely dialogues, and verses of exquisite melody and vivid impression of the atmosphere and manners of the time.
“When the lovely women descended into the lake {for bathing) the ripples caused thereby, moved about the lotus-flowers and the bees, fond of honey, would fly up and down like the blue dice used in their games by the water-nymphs.’
Character transforming into other
This is the first book that has character transforming into other and the one where readers are presented with the comedy of errors. Though Suranna was an expert of slesha, but probably he was also aware of its limitations and hence in this book he altogether discarded that writing style.
Prabhandhas full of shringaar rasa
He also wrote Prabhandhas that were full of shringaar rasa. In one of the episodes in the book, he presented the story of a Brahmin girl Sugathri and her husband Salina.
Sugathri failed to entice Salina when she wore rich bridal costumes and jewelry on her wedding night; Salina refused to show any interest and make love to her.
However, when Sugathri followed him and start working with him in the garden, the love God strikes him hard and he is awestruck by her beauty. Salina in this story reflects some for whom the beauty is more in simplicity than in richness and fineries.
Her slender waist quivering and growing thinner
in the hurry of her brisk movement,
Her hips moving visibly, glistening through the
saree round her waist,
Her swelling breasts, held in bounds by the garments drawn
tightly round her body, starting up at every step,
The ‘Kasturi’ on her forehead moistened by sweat
and set off by the turmeric paste all round,
Her huge knot of hair shaking loose every now and then,
Racing with him in her eagerness to forestall him everywhere,
Preventing him from doing anything of his gardening work.
(English translation taken from http://www.yabaluri.org/CD%20&%20WEB/sugathriandsalinaamedievalloveepisodemar50.htm)
Who was Kalapurna in the book?
Kalapurna on whom this story is based is the son of Salina and Sugatri but in a transformed state where Sugatri is a male and Salina is a female. The story is also of Kalapurna’s rise as a king known for his special skills at the military campaign throughout the country. He is a model king devoted to the welfare of his people and had a perfect balance between his head and heart.
Prabhavati-Pradhyumana – A book by Pingali Suranna
Pingali himself considered ‘Prabhavati-Pradhyumana’ – a book on Puranic theme presented in a dramatic manner, as his best work.
This is a love story of Pradhyumana, son of Lord Krishna, and Prabhavati, daughter of the demon king Vajranabha. The demon-king pleased Lord Brahma with his severe penance, who in turn built him Vajrapuri, a city where no-one can enter without demon’s permission. The demon king took advantage of this unique gift to inflict defeat upon Lord Indra.
Indra discuss this with Lord Vishnu and they agree that the only way to defeat the demon would be to enter his city, but who and how? They realize that the only way to do so could be the love. And enters the swan, Suchimukhi, in the scene.
Suchimukhi is not an ordinary swan; She is tutored by the Goddess of Speech and speaks in similes and exaggerations. She is an epitome of intellect and understand the human mind in depth. She provides the connecting link between the two lovers and wield a strong influence on the course of events in the drama.
Below is the how she tells about Prabhavati to Pradhyuman, to kindle fire of love in him,
When she speaks, its not only your ears that are happy; your eyes too bath in a spray of white light bouncing off her teeth.
Another excerpt where Prabhavati shares her feelings to the Swan,
On seeing the moon rising, the princess remarked to her companion the swan, “Oh! dear, my body burns, the face fades away and the heart is agitated. What is this disease for which I can devise no remedy ? This full moon is doubling my ailments. How strange it is that I am suffering all this for the sake of one whom I have not seen at all. The cool breeze is like the eternal fire. Try how I might, I am not able to control my mind. Oh I Fie upon woman’s life and fie upon youth.’’
The swan then brought the two lovers together and then followed love scenes, political intrigues, father of the girl is killed and the daughter is married to her lover.
It is agreed upon that Pingali Suranna was the epitome of talent and the two above kavyas – Prabhavati-Pradhyumana and Kala-Purnodayam are unique in Telugu literature and set high bar. Unfortunately, he failed to inspire the fellow authors to write something similar to these two books.
Why Pingali Suranna is praised even in modern times
Now, in modern times he is praised for his choice of the subject for Kalapurnodayam as it has no Sanskrit equivalent. In Kala-Purnodayam the story is novel but the treatment is on traditional lines.
And in Prabhavati-Pradhyumana the theme is Puranic, but the treatment is novel and original. The idea of love between a girl and boy whose parents are sworn to eternal enmity forms good old situations on which even contemporary movies and stories are based.
Pingali Suranna, the influences and comparison with Shakespeare
Suranna raised his writings from the creeping paralysis of kavya and injected new life to it with dramatic inclusions. In both his famous work he combined the learning of Peddana and the dramatic interest of Kalidasa and Banabhatta.
Interestingly, he was a contemporary of Shakespeare and independently wrote play similar in plot to that of Shakespeare, Kala-Purnodayam similar to the comedy of errors and Prabhavati-Pradhyumana similar to Romeo and Juliet.
In his own words, Suranna, describes writing poetry as follows,
Writing poetry is like milking a cow
You have to pause at the right moment
You have to feel your way,
Gently with a good heart
without breaking rules.
You need a certain soft way of speaking
You can’t use harsh words or cause a disturbance
Your feet should be firm,
Your rhythm precise.
If it all works right,
The poet becomes popular,
and a cowherd gets his milk,
If not, they get kicked.
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