Disappearing Folk art of Telangana
Disappearing Folk art of Telangana
Sarada Kala Rupam- Oral Narrative Folk Art Form of Telangana Region
Introduction:
One of the distinctive folk art forms of Telangana region is ‘Sarada’ art form popularly known as Sarada Kala Rupam. ‘Sarada’ is synonymous for Goddess Saraswati. ‘Sarada’ is the string instrument used by these folk artists in ballads. By playing sarada string instrument these balladeers- story narrators or in simple words story tellers narrate nearly seventy stories in song form. As these balladeers use Sarada string instruments, they are known as ‘Sarada Ganalu’.
In some regions they are also known as ‘Jangam-storyteller’. This is because; as per researches, it is still not very clear to which caste these Sarada balladeers belong to, they are considered as a sub caste of Schedule Caste (SC) community. Again, sarada caste is not recognised caste by the Andhra Pradesh government. Thus, in order to procure caste certificate for voters ID cards, white cards, and ration cards and so on their caste is entered as ‘Jangam’. This is not only with the Sarada folk community, but also there are many such folk artists' communities whose caste is not recognized by the community and claim their caste identity as ‘Jangam’ or ‘Jangalu’. Jangam community is found all over Andhra Pradesh, however, Sarada singers are only seen in ten districts of Telangana region.
However, they keep their caste identity intact they adopt “kancham pothu-mancham pothu”-which means that they restrict dinning and sharing a bed with other communities and sub communities. ‘Kancham’ in Telugu means plate used for eating food and ‘Mancham’ means a cot or a bed used for sleeping. Sharing of plate or bed is only possible by virtue of marriage. In spite being recognised as Jangam caste, Sarada balladeers to safeguard their folklore style restrict alliance of other castes and Jangam in marriage. When looked from logical point, there is reasoning behind. One of the reasons is that in order to pass on this folk art form to the next generation and easy adaptation of folk art by sarada balladeers right from childhood. Again, from progression of art form sharing of bed and sharing of the plate is not welcomed.
Any art form in folklore needs rigorous training. Children of sarada community are exposed to the story narration right from childhood. Children not only learn singing and narrating stories but they accompany the main balladeers during performance. Hence, the story, music, texts is passed directly. By the time these children attain fifteen years they learn around thirty-forty ballad narratives. In addition, they also learn to make manually ‘sarada- string instrument’-as village carpenters do not do it for the reason that sarada community is considered as ‘untouchables’ so is the instruments used by them. In a subtle way even Goddess Saraswati is also untouchable.
Sarada Kala Rupakam performers:
Three balladeers together perform Sarada kala rupakam. It could be a main male in the centre as main performer playing sarada and supported by two Vantha singers. Vantha means Siders who can be a male and a female or two females playing Dumkis. Dumki is a percussion instrument used for rhythm. The main singers are dependent on the vantha or siders. These vantha singers repeat the lines sung by the main singers and also question, provoke and justify the main singers’ line during ballad narration. This helps in continuation of the narration.
Generally, sarada performers come from the same family. It could be a husband, wife and son or daughter, or husband and his two wives, or sisters and brothers. They also constantly tour from one region to another to perform. It is the only folk narrative with women playing a dominant role and also sometime, it's the women the only performers. This confirms that sarada performers are nomadic folk singers. These sarada singers visit a particular village or villages called Patti. One patti is of forty villages. In order to maintain healthy folk performance relation and not to trespass others region, they believe in live in and let live in concept for the survival of this art form and performers.
They narrate ballads of regional importance. Historic stories of Reddy, Vellama and Kapu are sung and narrate by them more often. ‘Balaguri Kondarayudi Katha’, and ‘Sarvai Papadi Katha’ are popular ones. According to the context ballads are sung and narrated.
About Sarada performance
Sarada performers are secular performers. They perform for the whole community and not for particular caste or community. They are invited to perform both during different occasions such as marriages, harvesting time, festivals and grief. One gets to observe that during festival periods, in between narration witty and humourous jokes and comments are made, whereas, it is not so during the mourning period. During the mourning period they more often narrate the entire life story, his or her personality and greatness of the deceased is sung. Again, the main significance here is that even during the mourning period, these sarada performers act as counsellors in consoling the family of the deceased and make their grief lighter. The sarada performance begins during late evenings and goes on till early mornings 2to 3 am.
Sharada Kathalu were prominently seen in ten districts of
Telangana State (prior to districts divisions). During Nizams period, there
were mandicants to big landlords and zamindra. They were the once who recorded
all the births and deaths of landlords community.
Historic stories of the heroic legends like-Saravai Pappinna
Katha, Kumbham Chenna Reddy Katha,
Renukunta Rami Reddy Katha, Kuradagu rami Reddy Katha, Kambhoji Raja Katha, Even the story of revolt against Nizama-Nawabs
by Zamindar-Aarunta Ramachandra Reddy , Katha, Kuraragu Ramachandra Reddy Katha,
Renuka Yellammma, Balanagamma- women heroic stories. They also toild stories
from Ramayana and Mahabharatha too. Like-Padmayuham, Draupadi story and so on.
Around 80 stories they narrate.
Saradas live in groups in a colony away from the village. This is because they are treated as untouchables. While touring they live in the outskirts of the village. This shows that they are excluded from main village structure. This exclusion from village structure has further excluded them from the government structure of caste recognition.
Saradas being nomadic don’t have permanent residential address. This is also one of the reasons for not becoming part of village structure. However, recent pressure from government agencies for the last five-six years is that they have one residential address given in one village for contacting them for professional purpose or for other purposes related to voters ID card issue and so on.
Again, Saradas are not part of main stream religion. They have their own deities whom they worship. No proper temples or rituals of their deities as such. They worship deities at the time of marriage, festival or jathras (fairs) and death of the family members. They also sacrifice animals like goat, cock as offerings. They have their own belief system, faith and taboos that differ from the other communities. The deities other than their own worshipped are Maisamma, Pochamma and Yellamma.
Saradas have their own dialect or to say code language. This dialect has more than three hundred words. They communicate in their respective code language to be aware of the police, villagers, and other officials and when in contact with new people and till they gain confidence of the people.
Saradas, till recent gathered food by hunting. They are also habited to eat rats, big lizards and other animals. They do domesticate dogs as it accompanies them during hunts. Both men and women consume liquor and toddy regularly, sometimes together also.
Marriage and Divorce
Polygamy is quite commonly visible among saradas. Again, divorce and remarriages are also quite common among saradas. Divorce takes place by breaking a tiny twig either by the husband or wife in the presence of the sarada community. This is called ‘pulla virupu eravadam’
Political Aspect of Saradas
Saradas do not approach police stations, or village Panchayat, as they don’t believe in going to police station or courts or Panchayat fro settlements. Sarada community is highest for settling any disputes that arise between husband and wife or between one sarada family and another or it could be marriage or divorce settlement Again, they obey to their community decision and accept penalty called ‘dandaga’.
Economic Aspects of Saradas
Women of sarada community weave baskets and mats of palm leaves in the mornings. This is one of the sources of income generating. This they do while learning ballads and nursing young infants. Women also go house-to-house in the village and collect food in the evenings. Men don’t earn or work except singing and practicing ballads fro performance.
List of Historical and semi historical ballads
Historic Ballads and Semi historic Ballads
SARVAI PAPADI, BALA NAGAMMA
BALAGORI KONDALARAYUDI, KUMARA RAMA
RENUKUNTA RAMIREDDI, GANDARI KATHA
BOBBILI KATHA, DESING RAJU KATHA
KATTAMRAJU KATHA, MUGURU OR ARYA MARATHI KATHA
SADASIVA REDDI BANGARU THIMMA RAJU KATHA
PALANATTI VEERA KATHA,
STORIES RELATED TO MASS MOVEMENTS, AND MASS HEROES
Conclusion:
Many folk art forms have disappeared and disappearing due to no scope for performance in modern days. One side we are proud of Globalization, science and technology advancement, advancement in the field of entertainment, print and media. On the other hand we are loosing native folk art that acted as not only channels of entertainment but also as agencies of the media.
Sarada folk art is not an exception; this art form is also slowly disappearing due to advancements in other entertainment channels and cinemas. Sarada folk art is shrinking, one side education and compulsory schooling is forbidding the younger generation to learn the historic and semi historic ballads. Further, younger Saradas are now taking up other occupations for livelihood.
This is oral narrative folk art form is not available in textual form. There is a need to safeguard this art form. As the time passes on, no wonder like other folk art forms sarada kala rupakam will slowly disappear, unheard and become extinct. Not only the art form disappear, the ballad singers, families and with them historic evidences shall also disappears and remain unheard.
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