ODUGABBA AND HAADUGABBA
(POETRY:
This is one of the major tensions that have been
operative right from the beginning of Kannada literature. It has many
dimensions such as the choice between the oral tradition and the written
tradition, choice between the Dravidian and Aryan cultures as also the poetry
meant for the layman and erudite poetry meant for scholars. The pendulum has
swung either way during different intervals of time right up to our days of neo
orality. Of course, more often than not both the
trends are in vogue simultaneously catering to different kinds of receivers.
Literally, ‘Odugabba’ (ಓದುಗಬ್ಬ) means, poetry that is meant to be read and ‘hADugabba’(ಹಾಡುಗಬ್ಬ) is poetry that is intended to be recited or sung.
This is not a reference to the distinction between poetry and prose. Nor does
it have any thing to do with metered verse and free verse; we are not talking
about melody that is inherent in all great poetry either.
After
this series of negations some thing has to be said about the essential
difference between these two categories. Oral tradition lays an emphasis on
singing and reciting. Many a time, literature becomes a shared activity by
these practices. Languages that do not have a script are more prone to develop
such practices and sustain them. As we know, Tamil the premiere Dravidian
language did not have an evolved script centuries
after the beginnings of literary production and it did rely on oral, musical
modes of production. Consequently the Dravidian prosody is more oriented
towards musicality. ‘Amsha Gana Chandassu’
forms the basis of this prosody. As a result of this, any attempt in Kannada to
promote musicality and recitation indicates a movement towards its Dravidian base.
Old
Kannada poetry was deeply influenced by Sanskrit prosody and we find a
preponderance of ‘Akhshara Gana Chandassu’
and Sanskrit metrical forms such as Vrutta and Kanda.
It is true that Pampa the first great poet of Kannada
uses a number of Dravidian meters such as ‘piriyakkara’, ‘geetike’
and ‘ragale’ in his
works. But that was not the dominant practice. This situation continued even
during the medieval period with the advent of ‘Matra Gana Chandassu’. Of course
Dravidian prosody was being used in folklore all through these centuries.
But
it was Ratnakaravarni who chose ‘Sangatya’ meter for a long epic namely ‘Bharatesha Vaibhava’. One need
not attribute the invention of this prosodic form to Ratnakara.
But his choice itself is significant. He wanted his poetry to reach lay men and
house wives and his choice was dictated by this decision. ‘Bharatesha Vaibhava’, ‘Hadibadeya Dharma’
and ‘Kumararamana Sangatya’ are ‘hADugabba’s in
every sense of the world.
This
trend continued in the musical adaptations of ‘Vachanas’
and ‘Keerthanas’. ‘Tatvada Padagalu’ opened up one more possibility like that.
Even the modern poets of twentieth century have oscillated between these two
possibilities and they have written many poems that could be adapted to music.
The re discovery of folk music and folk epics have contributed further to this
theory. Amidst all this, many poets have continued to be loyal to the written
form which converts the assimilation of poetry to something absolutely private
in spite of critical interfaces.
Thus,
‘Odugabba’ and ‘hADugabba’
constitute one of the major concepts that have formulated the patterns of
Kannada poetry.