Telugu is a language spoken by 100 million people in the World.
Telugu language has a nick-name 'Italian of the East', probably because its words mostly end in a vowel sound, whereas words of most languages often end with a consonant. This characteristic of words ending with a vowel sound, seem to give the Telugu language some additional sweetness to listen to. Hence, Telugu language has become a language loved for its melody. It has hundreds of thousands of verses and songs. Telugu is amenable both to AalAp (humming without any literature, or percussion instruments), and for singing of rhythmic songs , with accompaniment of percussion instruments.
Telugu Prosody meters called "chandas" in Indian languages, are very melodious both for recitation and singing. These metric verses are compulsorily used in the Ancient Telugu books such as Mahabharatam, Mahabhagavatam, Ramayanam, These meters have a wide range on the continuum of difficulty i.e. most difficult to compile at one end , and relatively easier meters to compose, at the other end. In variety, these meters outshine English Poetic meters in several respects.
Some important Telugu poetic meters
1. Utpala mAla (literal meaning , a garland of lotuses)
2. Champaka mAla (literal meaning , a garland of lavendars )
3. mattEbham (literal meaning , an elephant which is in its heats or which is very excited)
4. SArdUlam (literal meaning , a tiger)
5. matta kOkila (literal meaning, an excited cuckoo)
so on so forth.
Though the above meters are believed to have a Sanskrit origin, I am unable to find any popular usage for the meters in Sanskrit books such as Mahabharata, Mahabhagavata, Ramayana etc etc.
Indigenous Telugu meters
1. Kandamu
2. Sisamu
3. TETa gIti
4. AaTa veladi
5. dvipada so on so forth.
Amenability of Kandamu prosody, in conforming to the Aadi tALam (Carnatic Music) / teen tAL (Hindusthani music
The Adi TALam /teen tAL of Indian Classic Music run with a 4 / 8 / 16 / 32 / 64 time units depending upon the expected tempo. Kanda padyams (Kandam verses) too run in these 4/8/16/32/64 beat. I shall give some examples of the verses and show how they conform to the Aadi tALam / tEEn tAL.Note: Though Telugu classical songs (called kritis, kIrtanAs, etc. etc.) are made to adhere to fixed length meters , cycles and beats, it is rare that they conform to Telugu Prosody meters such as Utpalamala or kandamu. Literary Poetic prosody meters and Classical Music tALa cycles are unconnected. They are different.
I believe that I am the first fortunate person to identify the link between kandam and Aadi tALam; strangely it struck me in a dream when I was having an afternoon summer siesta. But, I need not be the first person; others too might have had this experience, but they might not have had time to write about it, with some good publicity such as internet.
Kandam verse has four lines called 'pAdams' (literary meaning 'feet'. Etymology akin to "ped"=feet, Indo European Prototype.).
First line and third line have a similar structure of 3 x 4 time units.
Second and Fourth lines have a similar structure of 5 x 4 time units.
Most kanda padyams have symmetric construction in the sense that first two lines have one continuity. 3rd and 4th lines have one continuity.
Thus first two lines, when combined, will have 8 time units. 3rd and 4th lines have combined 8 time units.
First two lines, we can treat as one cycle of Aadi tALam / teen tAL.
Third and Fourh lines, we can treat as one cycle of Aadi talam / teen tAL.
Alternatively, we can take the entire kanda padyam as one Aadi tALa / teen tAL cycle of 16 time units.
How to make Kanda padyam 1-2 and 3-4 lines?
POETIC PROSODY OF KANDAM
Kandam's first two lines, can be divided into total eight "gaNam"s. GaNam = a group of persons, a group of things etc. GaNam with the meaning "group" , is probably a word of Indo European Prototype origin of Scandinavia and Baltics.
Kandam two lines, require use of eight gaNams of equal length, of length of four vowels each.:
Telugu Poetic Prosody has gaNams of different lengths.
Examples:
"ha " gaNam, "va gaNam", "na" gaNam = 3 vowels length. "ha", "va" "na" gaNams are not used in kandam.
"bha", "ja", "sa" gaNams have 4 vowel length, with one Long vowel of value 2, and two short vowels of value 1 each, i.e:
L+s+s =4. vowel length. This is bha gaNam.
s+L+s = 4. vowel length. This is ja gaNam.
s+s+L = 4. This is "sa" gaNam.
Similarly L + L= 4. = 2+2= This is called "gagam".
In the same way, s+s+s+s - 4 short vowels = 4 length. This is called "nalam".
Likewise, "ya", "ra", "ta" gaNams have five vowel lengths each. Hence they are not used in kandams.
"Ma" ganam has six vowel length. Not used in Kandam.
"nagam" has five vowel length. Not used.
In the following lines L=2 units of time or vowel length, s=1 unit of time or vowel length
Essence: Only 4 vowel lengths gaNams are permitted, i.e. "bha" i.e. Lss, "ja" i.e. sLs, "sa" i.e. ssL, "nalam" i.e. ssss, "gagam" i.e. LL are permitted. 8 gaNams x 4 vowel lengths = 32 time units, a multiple of 8/16/32/64 which will fit into the meter of Aadi tALam or teeN tAL, or 4/8/16/32/64 beat of Western Music. I am nto conversant or profificnet with Western music. Hence, I shall cover only South INdian (Carnatic), and North Indian (Hindusthani) music.
To continue.
