GUNTUR: Striving to continue the legacy of their gurus and keep the art form alive, these Tenali women are making all efforts to bring back the lost glory of Harikatha.
Harikatha, also known as Harikatha Kaalakshepam in Telugu, is a form of Hindu traditional discourse, in which the storyteller explores a traditional theme, usually the life of a saint or a story from an Indian epic. The story will be narrated through songs and music. The narrator is called a haridasa. The art form is usually performed by men since its origin in the 12th Century in coastal Andhra.
The introduction of women into the art form began in the 20th Century with renowned artist Tellakula Venkateswara Gupta, a native of Tenali in the Guntur district. As a result, most of the women Harikkatha artists in the State now hail from the Tenali region, including Vemulalwada Sathyavathi CH Parvathi, V Sri Vani, Velpula Saraswathi, Vinnakoti Ramakrumari and many more. Bejjani Nagamani, a 49-year-old artiste, has been practising Harikatha since she was 9 years old.
She has given over 10,000 performances not only in Andhra Pradesh, but also in neighbouring Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Odisha, and Maharashtra. Another artiste, Mogilicherla Bhagavatharani, also a native of Tenali, opined that the significance of Harikatha has been decreasing for the past two decades.“It feels like we are the last generation of Harikatha performers,” she added.
“I’ll continue to perform and continue to entertain people until my last breath,” she said.