A Battle Of Wits- Avadhana

ASHTAVADHANA AND SHATAVADHANA

‘Avadhana’ is a Sanskrit word which means ‘concentration’. The word ‘Ashtavadhana’ means eight-fold concentration and ‘Shatavadhana’ means hundred fold concentration. It is an impromptu versification by a person, normally a literary genius, composing a poem according to specifications. He is called an ‘Avadhani,’ whose attention is disturbed and distracted by 8 or 100 different situations at one time, while he is actually in the act of composition. The person who disturbs him is called a ‘Pruchchaka’ in Sanskrit which means a questioner. In Ashtavadhana there will be 8 questioners to distract one Avadhani and in Shatavadhana it will be 100. It is an extremely difficult and rare feat as the Avadhani has to compose a verse extempore on a given topic without the aid of any notes.

The origin of Ashtavadhana as is now practiced could be traced back to the days of the Golden Age of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 14th Century A.D. During this period, all creative urges found varied outlets since the Vijayanagara emperors patronized myriad arts and literature. Avadhana was one such literary talent which received tremendous boost. Ashtavadhana first arose in Sanskrit on account of the language’s rich vocabulary, flexibility and adoptability. Subsequently the other languages also developed the art, most notably Telugu in which it is widely practiced today, next only to Sanskrit. Recently Avadhana in Kannada has also become popular.

Ashtavadhana is a battle of wits between the questioners and the Avadhani. The questioners set the posers and constraints within which the Avadhani has to compose a Shloka extempore. The different posers flung at the Avadhani in an Ashtavadhana are normally classified under the following 8 heads:

1. Nishiddhakshari: [means rejected letter] This is almost like a literary chess game. The Avadhani is given a topic to compose a verse. At each step, the questioner anticipates what word the Avadhani might normally use and prevents the use of the very first letter in that word so that the Avadhani should at once scratch his brain for an alternative suitable word which fits in.
For example, let us presume that the questioner asks the Avadhani to compose a shloka in four lines on Lord Ganesha in a specified metre Anticipating that he may start the first word with the letter “GA’ [for Ganesha or Ganapathi], the questioner bars the use of letter GA. At this stage the Avadhani will have to go back to his verbal mine field and search a new word fitting into the situation.

2. Samasya: The questioner gives the last line of a 4-line shloka and asks the Avadhani to compose the first three lines so as to give a comprehensive and clear meaning to the whole verse. This last line is normally a deceptive statement, often contradictory and incongruous.
Example: In a Sanskrit Ashtavadhana, an Avadhani was given the last line of a 4 line shloka as “Kunti Suthou Ravana Kumbha Karnou” which means Kunti had two children by name Ravana and Kumbhakarna which is totally absurd. The Avadhani cleverly maneuvered the situation by making the given 4th line as answers to the questions which he composed to complete the first three lines of the poem. He started the first line with a question ‘Ka Pandu Patni’ [who is the wife of Pandu?], the answer is obviously Kunti:
He framed the second question to complete the first line ‘Gruha Bhushanam Kim?”[What decorates a house?] ; The answer is obviously children [Sutau]; the third question he framed was ‘Ko Rama Shatruhu’; Who is the enemy of Rama? The answer being Ravana The next question was ‘Kim Agastya Janma?”[In which Constellation was Agastya born? the answer being Kumbha: the last question he framed was ‘Kah Surya Putrah?’ Who is the son of Surya? The answer being Karna. All the answers joined together now forms the 4th line “Kunti Sutau Ravana Kumbhakarnau”

3. Dattapadi: The questioner proposes four different and totally disjointed words, with or without meaning, and asks the Avadhani to compose a shloka in four lines having a bearing on the given topic. The most popular Shatavadhani in Karnataka, Prof. R. Ganesh, was once given the four words Hello, Hi, Sweetie and Honey and was asked to compose a Sanskrit shloka in four lines describing Lord Sri Rama’s conversation with Shurpanakha in the Ramayana. Prof Ganesh admirably came out with a shloka spontaneously and stunned the audience with his rich vocabulary, displaying a wonderful grasp of Sanskrit language, its grammar and composition.

4. Chitra Bandha: A topic is given to the Avadhani to compose a verse in a specified metre with the use of a particular letter in each line in such a manner that when these letters are joined by a line, they should conform to a geometrical pattern.

5. Ashukavita: In this round, the Avadhani is expected to compose an extempore shloka in four rounds on any given topic, conforming to a specified metre and having only specified number of letters in each line. Kavyakantha Vasishtha Ganapati Muni, the greatest Avadhani of the 20th Century and one of the closest devotees of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, was once asked to compose instant poetry based on the theme of Shakespeare’s play ‘Macbeth’ in a specified metre. At once came out the brilliant Avadhani with the first line in Sanskrit as ‘Duncan Nama Mahipatih Samabhavat Scotlandu Deshe Pure”, meaning once there was king by Name Duncan in a place called Scotland.

6. Kavyavachana: An obscure verse from some ancient literary text is quoted by the questioner and the Avadhani has to explain by identifying the source, name of the author, sequence and its meaning

7. Aprastutha Prasanga: This is the most difficult questioner to manage. He disturbs the Avadhani at any time of his choice by asking stupid and nonsensical questions. The Avadhani must, on priority, answer him in an entertaining way.

8. Ghanta ganana: As if these distractions are not enough, one questioner rings a bell at random intervals and the Avadhani has to mentally keep track of the number of times the bell is rung and announce the total number of rings at the end.

Avadhana is a literary feast which is primarily meant to be heard and enjoyed rather than read and understood.

B.M.N.Murthy





ARTICLE No. 506--ASHTAVADHANA AND SHATAVADHANA
Created: Friday, June 26, 2009 11:33 AM