Shatavadhani r ganesh biography sample

Polyglot, Avadhani and an author

R. Ganesh (also known popularly as Shatavadhani Ganesh, born 4 December ^[1]) is a practitioner of the art of avadhana, a polyglot, an author in Sanskrit and Kannada and an extempore poet in multiple languages.

He has performed more than avadhanas, in Kannada, Sanskrit, Telugu and Prakrit.^[2][3] He is known for extempore composition of poetry (āśukavita) during these performances, and even of chitrakavya.^[1] He is the only Śatāvadhāni from Karnataka.^[1][4][5] He once set a record by composing poetry for twenty-four hours continuously.^[1] From 30 November to 2 December , he performed the first ever Shatavadhana entirely in Kannada.^[6][7][8][9] On 16 February , in Bangalore, he performed his th avadhāna.^[3][10]

Childhood and education

Ganesh was born on 4 December to a Tamilbrahmin family, in Kolar, Karnataka, to R.

Shankar Narayan Aiyar and K. V. Alamelamma.^[1] Ganesh picked up Tamil, Kannada and Telugu from his environment as a child.^[11] Also in his childhood, he read Sanskrit and Kannada literature and was writing poetry at the age of sixteen.^[11] He learned English at school, and he later learned several other languages like Prakrit, Pali, Tamil, Hindi, Marathi, Greek, Latin and Italian.^[11] He has a B.E.

degree in mechanical engineering from UVCE,^[12] an MSc (Engineering) degree in metallurgy from IISc,^[12][13] pursued research in materials science and metallurgy,^[14] has an MA degree in Sanskrit, and a D. Litt in Kannada,^[1][13] which was awarded by Hampi University^[11] for his thesis on the art of Avadhana in Kannada.^[14]

Avadhana

Ganesh is well known for his performances of avadhana, in which he composes extempore solutions in metrical verse to problems posed in parallel by the pṛcchakas on stage, satisfying the constraints imposed by them, while simultaneously dealing with interruptions designed to break his concentration.^[9][12] The performance tests poetic skill, creativity, memory, concentration, scholarship, and wit.^[13] The main variants are the Aṣṭāvadhāna (eight pṛcchakas) and Śatāvadhāna (hundred pṛcchakas), both of which he performs.^[12]

Although there are records of Bellave Narahari Sastry performing avadhana in Kannada during –36 (having learnt it from Telugu's Pisupati Chidambara Shastri), there was no living tradition of avadhana in Kannada when Ganesh took it up; thus he is credited with reviving avadhana in Kannada.^[12][13][15] In , after seeing an avadhana performance for the first time, by Lepakshi Medavaram Mallikarjuna Sharma, he tried one himself in front of his friends.^[12] He performed 13 astavadhana between and ^[12] In , he gave a major astavadhana performance at Kolar in the centenary year of D.

V. Gundappa, where thousands of people and several learned persons assembled.^[12] His th and th astavadhanas were also performed at Kolar, his native place.^[15] His astavadhanas became very popular and he gave hundreds of performances, some of which were viewed by people even in pouring rain.^[12] He has performed avadhanas using eight languages, including Sanskrit, Kannada and Telugu.^[12] He is also credited with introducing chitrakavya into avadhana, previously considered impossible to do in an avadhana.^[12] He has given more than 20 avadhana performances in American and European countries.^[15]

He performed his first Shatavadhana at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bangalore on 15 December ^[12] He did another one 15 days later, then one each again in and , with his fifth, the first to be done entirely in Kannada, in ^[12][16][17]

In addition to his D.

Litt thesis The Art of Avadhana in Kannada and the forthcoming Avadhana Sahasra, he has written books about the art of Avadhana to groom future avadhanis ^[12] including 'Shatavadhana Sharade, Shatavadhana Srividye and Sataavadhaana shaashvati. He has also started lectures on poetry composition, prosody and poetics on the website of "Padyapaana" organisation.^[12]

Other work

He performed a shatavadhana in a single day in ^{[citation needed]}.

He also gives public lectures,^[18] on dance (nāṭya śāstra), music,^[19][20] art, culture, literature,^[21] poetics, etc.^[5] In his kAvya-chitra shows, he performs with painter , composing poems while the latter paints.^[22][23] He has also written lyrics and composed verses for dance performances.^[12][24][25] He learned the performance art Yakshagana and conceived the idea of eka vyakthi yakshagana (single-person Yakshagana), of which several performances have been given by Mantapa Prabhakara Upadhyaya.^[12] He has played the role of Horatio (dubbed Harshananda) in a Sanskrit production of Hamlet.^[26] He has given multiple lectures on various topics in Gokhale Institute of Public affairs, most of which is published on YouTube.

Shatavadhani r ganesh biography sample pdf Germany United States. One should not violate the time-tested universal aspects of the tradition. His th and th astavadhanas were also performed at Kolar, his native place. Tahmasib Ajdarov.

Literary works

• Kannadadalli Avadhanakale (The art of Avadhana in Kannada) (D. Litt thesis)^[5]
• Vitaana
• Nityaneeti^[1]
• ShriChakreshwari Stavana
• Sandhyadarshana
• Shatavadhanasharade
• Kavitegondu Kathe
• Dhoomadhoota, a parody of Meghaduta^[1]
• Samaanyadharma^[1]
• Neelakanthadeekshitana Shatakatraya
• Shaddarshana Sangraha
• Vanitaakavitotsava
• Kusumadevana Drishtantakalikaa Shataka mattu Neelakanthadeekshitana Shaantivilasa
• Vibhootipurusha Vidyaranya
• Human values in the code of Kautilya
• Human values in Manusmriti
• Human values in the Ramayana^[27]
• Human values in Telugu Literature
• Subhashita Samputa
• Alankaarashastra
• Bharateeya Kshaatra Parampare
• Brahmapuriya Bhikshuka^[13]
• Mannina Kanasu

Works in Sanskrit

Ganesh is considered one of the Sanskrit authors to have "carved a niche for themselves in twentieth century", and is credited with introducing new genres into Sanskrit literature.^[1] His works include:

• Anveṣaṇam, an allegorical one-act play (rūpaka), a satire on social evils ()^{[1][4][28]:&#;5&#;}
• Sāmbalaharī (khaṇḍakāvya) ()^[28]:&#;&#;
• Śaṅkaravivekīyam, a poem with two readings (dvisandhānākavya)^[1]
• Antaḥkāntiḥ, a novel in blank verse, on the last days of Vivekananda^[1]
• Saugandhikā, a collection of sonnets in blank verse^[1]
• Citraculikā, an example of Chitrakavya.^[1]
• Śrīkṛṣṇa-laharī, verses on Krishna^[1]
• Śrījāmba-laharī, 51 verses on Shiva^[1]
• Śṛṅgāra-laharī, verses long^[1]
• Jātaśakuntalā, a verse work on Shakuntala^[1]
• Ilākaivalyam, verses in Vedic metre^[1]
• Evam api ṛtavaḥ, poem on the effects of the seasons on village life^[1]
• Cāṭucandrikā, 87 blank verses^[1]
• Śrīcandreśvarīstavanam (with Kannada translation)^[1]
• Madhusadma&#;: a collection of Sanskrit poems 1st ed.

  R. Ganesh; with a foreword by K. Krishnamoorthy. Published Library of CongressPKG29 M33

Awards

References

External links