ఇక్ష్వాకు
కులతిలక ఇకనైన పలుకవే రామచంద్ర
నన్ను
రక్షింప కున్నను రక్షకు లెవరింక రామచంద్ర
Ishvaku kula thilaka is
a beautiful composition on Sree Rama – heard this ! .. .. on 5.11.2021 we had
the fortune of visiting this temple town and had very good darshan of Lord Sree
Ramachandra murthi (more of the temple and some photos of the Gopuram and
temple later in a separate post!) – in front of the temple, there is slightly
more than a life-size statue and we took photos in front of him – some reading
on him would make us admire him more and feel very divine blessing in being
nearer to him .. ..
Bhadrachalam is a town on
the banks of holy Godavari, in Bhadradri
Kothagudem district in present day Telengana.
This is a revered place and a pilgrimage town being associated with
Bhagwan Sree Rama. Situate on the banks of Godavari river, it lies 312
kilometres (194 mi) from east of state capital, Hyderabad,115 kilometres (71
mi) from Khammam,192 kilometres (119 mi) from Vijayawada, 220 kilometres (137
mi), from the Andhra Pradesh State Capital Amaravathi. The town has a documented history of Lord Sri
Rama temple constructed circa 17th century CE by Kancherla Gopanna
The statue referred to is that of “Kancherla Gopanna (1620
- 1680)” – more famously known as Bhadradri Ramadasu or Bhadrachala Ramadasu.
His devotional lyrics to Rama are
famous in South Indian classical music as Ramadaasu Keertanalu. The place – Bhadrachalam is called
Ayodhyapuri for its association with Ithihasa purana, Sree Ramayana.
For sure
Carnatic connoisseurs have hard "Paluke Bangaramayena", one
of the famous Telugu compositions by the 17th century composer and devotee of
Lord Sri Rama, Bhadrachala Ramadasu. He is known to have composed hundreds such
songs however the original music is lost. Carnatic vocalist Mangalampalli
Balamuralikrishna set music to these songs in the 1950s and popularized them.
Kancharla
Gopanna (Bhadrachala Ramadasu) – is a
famous Vaggeyakara (classical composer) of the Telugu classical era. He lived
in the village of Nelakondapalli, near the town of Bhadrachalam, in
Muslim-ruled Telugu country during the 17th century and is renowned for
constructing a famous temple for Lord Sri Rama at Bhadrachalam. Even
the doyen of South Indian classical music Swami Tyagaraja learned his musical
compositions. He also wrote Daasarathi Satakamu (దాశరథి శతకము)
with a 'makuTamu' (మకుటము) 'Daasarathee Karunaa payonidhee' (దాశరథీ కరుణా పయోనిధీ!), a
collection of nearly 108 poems dedicated to the son of Dasaratha (Lord Rama).
Sri Rama
of Bhadrachalam is known as “Vaikunta Rama” as Emperuman has Conch (Sankha) and Discuss (Chakra) in his hands.
Ramadasu
was orphaned as a teenager. He spent his
later years in Bhadrachalam and 12 years in solitary confinement at the
Golconda prison during the Qutb Shahi-rule. The existence of deities at this holy
place was first revealed in the dream to
one Pokala Dammakka. She was the first to come, identify and offer worship to
the idols. She had been ordained to continue worshipping the Lord until a day when one bhakta (Ramadasu) would
arrive and take up the responsibility of the temple. Ramadasu realized that he
had been ordained at birth and specially selected to be so – he dedicated his
life to the cause. Ramadasu composed nearly 200 Keerthanas on Bhadrachala Rama,
most of which are available to us through Bhajana sampradaya. Some of the
keerthanas are available to us in the traditional tunes while some were
composed recently by eminent artists like Sangeetha Kalanidhi Nedunuri Krishna
Murthy, Padmabhushan Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna, Malladi Suri Babu among
many others.
In
1650, Gopanna traveled to Hyderabad to meet his maternal uncles, who were at
that time working in the tax department of Golconda Sultanate under the
minister Mirza Mohammed Sayyad. Ramadas was to be appointed as tax collector at
Bhadrachalam. The lifestory of him becoming the
tehsildar and his tax collection activities at Bhadrachalam may
not be of the greatest importance when one knows about his devotion to Rama and
the construction of the beautiful temple. Golconda Sultanate, was furious on
his ways, arrested him and incarcerated him - during 12 years in solitary confinement in
Golconda prison, he composed poems on Rama.
By divine intervention and the historical occurrence of Sultanate under attack from Aurangzeb forces facing
imminent collapse, opened up a new
trial, finds was found innocent and acquitted. The varying accounts are found
in the records of the Dutch East India company, the temple's hagiography, and
the regional Telugu oral traditions.
Once,
Ramadasu visited Bhadrachalam for a Jatara (fair) and was disturbed by the
dilapidated state of the Rama temple there. Lord Rama had stayed near the Parnasala here with Sita and
Lakshmana during his exile and also visited Shabari near Bhadrachalam. Pothana is believed to have been given
direction by Rama to translate the Bhagavata Purana into Telugu here. In spite
of its significance, the temple was utterly neglected. So, Ramadasu started to
raise funds for the renovation and reconstruction of the temple. After he
emptied his coffers and could raise no more money, the villagers appealed him
to spend his revenue collections for the reconstruction and promised to repay
the amount after harvesting crops. As such, Ramadas finished the reconstruction
of the temple with rupees collected from land revenues - without
the permission of the Abul Hasan Qutb Shah.
After
his release, returning back to Bhadrachalam, Ramadasu was to spent his life
here composing keerthanas that inspired one and all including Thyagayya: - in ksheera saagara sayana in Devagaandhaari,
he says "Dhirudau Ramadasuni Bandhamu dirchinadi Vinnanura Rama?" (O
Rama! I have heard how You obtained the release of the bold Ramadas from his
prison life); in brindaavanalOla in tODi, in kaligiyundE gada in keeravaaNi, in
Emi dova balkuma in saaranga and in Prahlaada Bhakti Vijayam he says
"kaliyugamuna vara bhadra calamuna nelakonna raamacandruni pada bhaktula
kella varudanandagi velasina shree raamadaasu vinutintu madin" (I praise
Sri Raamadaas, who shines in this world as the supreme devotee of Sri
Raamachandra, who shines forth from his seat at Bhadraachalam in this kali
Yuga).
Among
his other accomplishments is the creation of the whole Ramayana story in the
form of a prose-poem, a Choornika. Ramadasu described himself in this way in
the last verse of his Dasarathi Satakam: "Allana Linga Mantri
Suthudu(son), Atreya Gothrudu, Adi Sakha, Kancherla Kulothbhavudu,
Gopakavindrudu." Bhadraachala Raamadaas lived for 68 years.
One
must bow their head and appreciate
Tollywood (Telegu tinseldom) for the movies based on Purana and lead
actors doing full-fledged movies on faith without distortion unlike what we see
in Kollywood. The verse seen at the
start is a Ramadasu keerthana that appears in movie “Sri Ramadasu” of
Nagarjuna, co-starring Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Suman, Sneha and others. The movie was directed by K Raghavendra Rao
with pleasant music of MM Keeravani.
Ikshvaaku
kula thilaka ikanaina palukave
ramachandra
nanu rakshimpakunnanu
rakshakulu
yevarinka ramachandra
chuttu
praakaaramulu somputo gattisti ramachandra
.. ..
and here is another mellifluous song from the same movie “Adigadigo
Bhadragiri” sung by legendary SP Balasubramaniam to the music of
MM Keeravani.
om om
om sreeramachandraparabrahmane namaha
adigo
adigo bhadragiri andhrajatikidi ayodhyaapuri
ye
vaalmeeki rayani kadhaga seetaramulu tanapai odaga
ramadasakruta
ramapadamruta vaggeyaswara sampadaga
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiHZHnGaHZw
Sri
Ramadasu with Nagarjuna in lead role was released in 2006. Nagarjuna received appreciation for his
portrayal in the titular role and subsequently went on to win Nandi Award for
Best Actor that year. Music director M. M. Keeravani also received rave reviews
for his work. Along with being critically acclaimed, the film recorded as
Blockbuster hit at the box office. The film won four Nandi Awards.
Earlier
in 1964 “Ramadasu” based on the life of Kancharla Gopanna, was produced
and directed by Chittor V. Nagaiah (whose statue stands forlorn in Panagal
Park) – it starred Nagaiah, with NT Rama Rao, Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Sivaji
Ganesan and Anjali Devi in special appearances, with music composed by
Ashwathama. The blockbuster film garnered the National Film Award for Best
Feature Film in Telugu, and garnered several state awards too.
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
10th Nov. 2021.
Very very nice great history 🙏🙏🙏
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