Avadhana is a rare format of performance where the human intellect is put to ultimate test of mental concentration, multi- tasking, literary skill, creativity, erudition and wit. It is the most incredible feat of the human mind!
Nirupama and Rajendra, the popular dance exponents from Bengaluru organised Ashtavadhana by India’s revered scholar and poet Shatavadhani Dr R Ganesh and a host of 8 scholars. Dr Ganesh is the master of the ancient art of Avadhana where he faces a group of eight (Ashtavadhana) or hundred questioners (Shatavadhana) and responds to their many queries, composes extempore poems set to meter; solves poetic challenges; solves magic square; keeps track of the count of a randomly rung bell and many more such challenging tasks. Dr Ganesh is known to revive this art form in Kannada and he performs Avadhāna in Kannada, Telugu and Sanskrit.
Avadhana : Shatavadhani Dr R Ganesh
Pṛcchakas :
Vargha-nishedha - Sri Neelakanṭha Kulkarni
Samasyā-purṇa - Sri K B S Ramachandra
Datta-padi - Sri Sreesha Karantha
Dhātuvige-mātu - Vid Mahesha Swamy
Āshu-kavité - Sri Arjun Bharadwaj
Kāvya-vāchana - Sri Kashyap Naik
Udhishṭākshari - Smt Kanchana Ramachandra
Aprastuta-prasanga - Sri Somashekara Sharma
Organisers : Nirupama and Rajendra
Date : 4th Dec, 2020, Saturday
Venue : Abhinava Studio
Format of an Avadhana :
There will be a performer (Avadhana) seated on stage, and also with him will be several “questioners” (Pṛcchakas), in this Ashtavadhana there are eight questioners.
The eight questioners give challenging tasks (five of them is to do with composing poetry, and the rest are of a different nature).
The performer will have no access to pen or paper or any resources other than his mind. The questioners give him various tasks in parallel, and he must answer them all, dividing his attention between each one of them.
What will be the elements of The Avadhana ?
1. Vargha-nishedha (“letters forbidden”) : the questioner gives him a topic on which to compose a verse in Sanskrit, and a metre to compose it in. The questioner imposes a constraint on what the next letter must not be. Thus for instance, each time the performer appears to be using a word, the questioner can prevent him from completing that word. He must find a way around this constraint, and so on till the entire line is completed.
2. Samasyā-purṇa : A traditional challenge, in which a line is given, and the performer has to compose a verse with it as its last line.
3. Datta-padi (“given words”) : Poem. Given topic, given metre. The catch: he is given four words that must occur in the poem, but the words are from another language. For instance, here the questioner wanted words like “ape” and “monkey” to appear in each line, and the performer’s task is to compose a poem in Kannada, with the English words occurring as segments of Kannada words. One line per round.
4. Dhātuvige-mātu : To a musical tune challenge the poetry has to be composed to match the timing and raga played by the musician.
5. Udhishṭākshari : It is a task where he will compose a poem the letters of which will be asked randomly like second line 10 th letter or first line 8 th letter . Then at the end of Avadhāna his full poem with all aksharas which he would have said will be revealed.
6. Āshu-kavité : It is a task of compose a poem completely while the other tasks involve composing one line in each This is one poem per round.
7. Aprastuta-prasanga: In this questioner interrupts frequently, asking questions and making comments, and in general needling the performer and pulling his leg. This may include random humorous remarks, or the latest news, politics, celebrity gossip, whatever. The performer comes up with witty replies, deflects the question or answers it if it’s a serious one), and moves on.
8. Kāvya-vāchana : Identifying poems. The questioner reads / sings out a poem, which could be from a rather obscure work in the literature, and the Avadhana must identify where it is from instantly as soon as the singing ends the reply has to be given through song in the same raga that is used and in the same metre as the original poem.