"Mr. Narayana Das, I am merely a vice-chancellor but you are a university!"
- Sir C. R. Reddy, Eminent Litterateur and first Vice
Chancellor,
Andhra University
"…an exquisite poet, a versatile genius conversant with
English, a profound scholar in Telugu and Sanskrit and an accomplished
musician of the most enchanting type. While this pride of Vizianagaram was
unfolding the story with his inimitable skill, the audience was beside itself
with joy. Not only was he applauded time and again, but at the close, there was
a spontaneous outburst from every one present exclaiming that it was a rare and
excellent treat. Of the gifted expounder, it may well be and truly said that he
is entitled to be spoken of in glowing terms by the best of Pundits, by the
most skilful songsters, by the most ardent lovers of music and by the most
reputed of elocutionists. The rhythmic cadences of his harmonious voice, the
melodious intonations of his musical flight and the snatches of vivid and
picturesque representations of nature, conjured up his lively and constructive
faculty of imagination and his powerful command of language appealed to the
listeners’ spiritual sensibilities.”
- The Hindu, June 30, 1894
“…a
careful perusal of the book fills us with admiration at the astounding
scholarship of the learned Pandit.
“…Pandit
Narayana Das, who frankly expresses the opinion that Fitzgerald’s work is not a
literal translation, has gone back to the original Persian in order that the letter
and the spirit of Omar Khaiyam may not be missed.
“We are
certainly unaware of any recent instance in India where so much
learning has been brought to bear on what is no less certainly a labour of
love, for it is evident that there are few persons familiar with the Sanskrit
language who are anxious to have a rendering of the Persian original.
“Pandit
Narayandas’s erudition is enhanced by the fact that even in using his own
mother tongue, he has selected what is called Atchha-Telugu, a
language that only a handful can understand. The work therefore is not intended
for the masses, and the learned author expects no profits out of his
scholarship.”
-The Hyderabad Bulletin January
16, 1937
"Narayana Das was like a gold
standard that balanced literature and music"
- Sri Sri
“Besides his mastery of music, what
appealed to me most was his brilliant exposition of ideas expressed by great
masters of poetry like Shakespeare. His translations of English and Persian
poetry were based on a born poet’s instinctive understanding of the ideas of a
fellow poet. The whole performance was indeed a feast of reason and flow of
soul.”
- Mahadeva Iyer, ICS, in Swarajya,
February 2, 1933.
“…He was
frequently to be met with in those days of an evening along the main road with
half a dozen disciples in his company with his arms thrown over his walking
stick laid across the back of his neck behind his capacious shoulders, all
absorbed in a peripatetic lesson in music and a difficult dance step. At a
certain point in his low-toned discourse he would go into a spin and, as he
pirouetted like a teenage girl, his voice would go mounting up and execute a
spellbinding Raga that transfixed the passers by in a tableau of exceeding
self-transcendence.
…His
skill in ‘Tala’ or rhythm was unrivalled and he was the only
man in his own day who could execute the‘Shanmukha’ or sextuple ‘Tala’ with
his hands and his arms against the sides and his right foot beating five orders
of sounds to synchronise with a prescribed tag sung in Sanskrit.”
- Ronanki Appala Swamy, Literary Critic.
To the
soulfully alive anvartha Servitor of God
Thine was
the Life of poesy
Thine was
the Light of beauty
Thine was
the Love of divine art …
MAY THOU
E’ER DWELL IN MY HEART!
"'Poets
nascitur, non fit.' Horace’s dictum finds ample evidence in the life and work
of Narayana Das.
"A
legendary figure in his own lifetime, the father of Harikatha, the only scholar
who translated Sanskrit poems into Telugu without using a Sanskrit word, the
only musician who wrote treatises on Rig Veda and Advaita Vedanta, the only
minstrel who sang with equal grace classical Hindustani as well as Karnataka
music, the only linguist who equally well understood two classical languages
(Sanskrit and Persian), the only poet who wrote with equal ease in both
Sanskrit and Telugu, Narayana Das was the one and only Andhra in the last
hundred years to whom that indiscriminately employed and hackneyed phrase
"Versatile genius" can be justifiably applied.
"He sang
as it pleased him and it was Music; he wrote as he liked, and it was
Literature, he acted his “stories of God” (Harikathas) on the stage and it was
Dance-drama; he spoke as it naturally came to him, and it was Wit; he composed
his lines spontaneously and orally, without paper or preparation, on the spur
of the moment and at the very instant, and it was Poetry; and he led his
earthly existence as his instincts guided him, and it was Everlasting
Life."
- R.M.Challa, Columnist and Literary Critic
"Sangeetha Sahitya Sarvabhouma", "Laya
Brahma", "Panchamukhi Parameswara", Pandit
Srimadajjada Adibhatla Narayana Das (1864-1945), was poet, musician,
dancer, linguist, litterateur and philosopher. He had mastery over several
Indian and classical languages like Telugu, Sanskrit, Tamil, Hindi, Bengali,
Urdu, English, Arabic and Persian.
Pandit Adibhatla Narayana Das used to prefix his
name with “Ajjada” (a tiny village in the Vizianagaram district of
Andhra Pradesh) as he wished to share his name and fame with his birthplace.
He has written over a fifty books in Telugu,
Sanskrit and Atcha-Telugu (Desyandhramu or Telugu unmixed of Sanskrit).
His works included original story-poems (Kavyas and Prabndhas), Harikathas,
prose works, treatises in Vedic studies and philosophy, musical works and
children’s literature.
His literary and musical accomplishments left him peerless in his
time. The literary and musical elite of his time joined to honour him with the
title of “Sangitha Sahitya Sarvabhauma”. The musical maestros of
his time honoured him with titles like “Laya Brahma” and “Panchamukhi
Parameswara” for his ability to sing to five different Talas (or
rhythmic cycles), beat with two arms, two shoulders and head. Five different
musicians used to keep time with him when he performed “Panchamukhi”.
Fusing the sister realms of poetry, music and dance he created a
new art form which he called the Hari Katha. Hari
Katha has a divine mythological core with poetry and music as the
medium. Dance & histrionics form the visual expression. The exponent of Hari
Kadha should be able to compose and recite poems extempore (Aasukavitvam)
the objective being to entertain and educate both the layman and the erudite
scholar. Hence he came to be known as the “Hari-Katha-Pitamaha”. Having
invented the vehicle, Pandit Narayana Das wrote twenty-one Hari Kadhas,
seventeen in Telugu, three in Sanskrit and one in Atcha-Telugu.
