922 The Story of 'Pingali vAri pEki' in the context of Demonetization and Remonetization of High value Currency Notes in India

Our readers are aware that from Nov. 8, 2016, to-date, nearly 1300 million Citizens of India have been undergoing the travails of demonetization and remonetization of high value currency notes. In the place of Rs. 1,000 denomination notes, Rs. 2,000 denomination notes have been introduced. A new design notes of Rs. 500/- denomination have been introduced. Indian Citizens in possession of the old notes were forced to surrender all their notes to Banks in India, and were thereafter permitted to withdraw their monies, subject to some limits. Initial teething troubles of replacing old currency notes with new notes were expected to end after 50 days i.e. from 1st Jan. 2017. It appeared as though the difficulties were going to end. The Central Government and also some active (over-active? overzealous?) State Governments took up on their shoulders, the task of (nearly) forcing people to opt for digital payments with debit cards, credit cards, aadhar cards, different types of apps on mobiles, etc. etc.

About Pingali Surana

Shri Pingala Surana was a great poet of Telugu language, of 16th Century CE. He was in the court of Vijayanagara (Karnataka State, India) Kings. It is believed that he was in his youthful years, made a late entry into the Court of Shri Krishna Deva Rayalu, who died in 1531 CE. Surana is considered as one of the 'ashTa diggajams' (ashTa= eight (Indo-European origin word) dik gajam = Elephants bearing the burden on this this Earth in the Eight directions i.e. East, South East, South, South West, West, North West, NOrth, North East). The other seven elephants were: Allasani peddana, Nandi Timmana (also called mukku timmana), DhUrjaTi, mAdaiah gAri mallana, Ayyalaraju RamabhadruDu, rAmarAja bhUshaNuDu (also called bhaTTu mUrti), and tenAli rAmakrishna.

Distinction between Telugu Poets and English Poets

Telugu poets (like their counter parts in other INdian languages) were vegetarians, teetotalers, had great memories, had great control over poetic metres, prosody, and vocabulary. These characteristics are essential ingredients for all Indian poets, even for those who adorned the courts of Sultans and Moghul Emperors.

These characteristics also make the INdian poets different from English and European poets, many of whom were paedophiles (like some Catholic Christian Missionaries), drunkards, debauches or love-lorn birds, sufferers of consumption and TB. Hence, we rarely see the themes of melancholy, revenge and retribution, in the Indian Poetry. As Medieval Indian Poets did not visit taverns or pubs, they were not involved in drunken brawls. Most of their only weaknesses were self-boasts, and flattering of their patron kings.

Particularly, Telugu language verses have very difficult meters, though most of them have only four lines. Writing one poem, in compliance with the rules of prosody (called chandassu), itself was very difficult, unless the persons trying to write poetry have very large treasures of vocabulary, and patience. Incorporating the words into the verses and meters was like a work comparable to inserting diamonds and precious stones into gold ornaments. Telugu poets not only wrote thousands of verses complying with meters, but some of them like Pingali Surana, Ramaraja BhushaNuDu specialised in writing verses with two meanings e.g. a verse with one meaning of Ramayana and second meaning of Mahabharata. Not only did they write one or two verses, but they could write whole books of verses with two meanings.

Not only the poets in the Courts of Vijayanagara Kings, but also most of the Telugu poets were 'AaSu' (Telugu word Aasu = instantaneous, spontaneous) poets. That means, they can render verses of difficult meters instantaneously, and spontaneously, ORALLY EX TEMPORE, without writing on papers. They can bless or curse with Spontaneous verses, as circumstances and situations may require. (e.g. poet: vEmulavADa bhImakavi).

The Telugu land is very fortunate, though such fortunes are receding, that we have poets who can spontaneously render verses in difficult meters. There is a public process-procedure called 'avadhAnam' where the poet will stand to tests by eight scholars (ashTA avadhAnam), 100 scholars (SatAvadhAnam), 1000 scholars (sahasrAvadhAnam), 5,000 scholars, 10,000 scholars etc., on public fora.

THE STORY OF PINGALI VARI PEKI

PingaLi is the surname (family name) of sUrana's ancestors. sUrana is the first name of the poet, given by his parent. sUrana means "SUN".
There are two versions of this story which may be a fantasy, but it can generate laughter.

FIRST VERSION

Pingali Surana (or his ancestors) were going in a forest. We shall take it as Surana himself was going. On the forest path, he found a bead. He picked it up, and took home, quite casually, without thinking of consequences. When he reached home, he found a woman waiting there at his home. She said that her name was 'pEki'. She wanted to work as a servant in Surana's home, without taking any salary. Her only condition was that under no circumstances, she should be kept idle. 24 hours, she should be given work. Surana and his wife didn't / couldn't foresee the difficulties ahead. They gladly took her into service. Intially, everything went on well, because there was lot of pending things and chores. Whatever work was given to her, she was finishing in few minutes, and was asking for more work. Surana's wife was unable to provide more and more work to pEki, who was pestering them for work.

One day, sUrana's wife delivered a baby, after pregnancy. pEki was also sleeping in the same room as sUrana's wife. In those days, there were no electric lights, or remotes. As the oil lamp was getting exhausted, sUrana's wife asked pEki to push up the wick slightly, to make it burn better. pEki suddenly felt lazy, and not ready to get up, stretched her tongue from the place she was sleeping, and pushed up the wick with her tongue. Seeing this, sUrana's wife was flabbergast (astonished), and started believing that pEki was not a human, and that she might have been a ghost.

Next day, sUrana's wife narrated the incident to her husband. After sending pEki to fetch water from river, in order to escape from pEki, they tried to shift their family to a neighboring village, taking all their belongings in carts. When pEki returned from the River with water, she found that sUrana's family was missing, and neighbors told her that they shifted to the neighboring village, taking their luggage on carts. pEki found that there was a grinding-stone which was left out by sUrana's family, owing to its heavy weight. She took it up on-to her shoulders, and went to the neighboring village, in search of sUrana's new home. She reached there, and again started pestering them for work.

Finally, sUrana and his wife were so tired with pEki that they asked her, how she would leave them. pEki asked for the 'bead' which sUrana picked up in the forest. sUrana gave the bead to pEki, and she left.

SECOND VERSION OF PINGALI VARI PEKI'S STORY

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