Chinta Venkataramayya

Chinta Venkataramayya was a dancer and teacher of Kuchipudi, the village of dance-drama in Krishna district.¹² For about sixty years he led a troupe that played the Bhama Kalapam and other dance-dramas across the Andhra country.² Mikkilineni Radhakrishna Murthy, the historian of Telugu folk arts, calls him the teacher of everyone who tied on ankle bells at Kuchipudi.² This page follows Mikkilineni’s account, written in 1992.

Early training

Mikkilineni writes that Venkataramayya was born in 1860. His father was Sivaramayya and his mother Arundhatamma.² By the age of ten he could already sing, dance and play comic parts, and he sang the songs of the Bhama role.² Eleswarapu Narayanappa noticed his talent and took him into his troupe.² At twelve he began to study dance with his elder brother Venkataratnam, and by sixteen he was an expert.²

The Venkatarama Natya Mandali

From 1875 to about 1936, Venkataramayya ran a Bhagavata mela (troupe of Bhagavata players).² The Venkatarama Natya Mandali, still at work in 1992, was the troupe he began in 1875.² Mikkilineni calls him a great dance teacher who trained many fine actors through it.¹

For a time the troupe played the Bhama Kalapam under the name of “Bhagavatam”.² Then, to suit the public taste, Venkataramayya added yakshaganas (song-and-dance dramas) such as Prahlada, Usha Parinayam, Gaya Natakam, Rukmangada, Rama Natakam, Harischandra and Sasirekha Parinayam.² There were no easy means of travel then. The troupe went by bullock cart to every corner of the Andhra country, and won rewards from officials and the rulers of the zamindari estates.²

Teacher of a village

Mikkilineni writes that every artist who tied on ankle bells at Kuchipudi, until Venkataramayya died, was his pupil.² Among the older dancers he names Chinta Narayanamurthy, Vempati Paradesi, Vedantam Chalapati and Chinta Adinarayana. Among the younger ones he names Vedantam Raghavayya, Vempati Pedasatyam and Pasumarthi Krishnamurthy.² The last of his pupils was Pasumarthi Venugopalakrishna Sarma.³

He trained Vedantam Raghavayya to play every kind of part.² In 1934 he led a performance at Madras, at a meeting of the Andhra Nataka Kala Parishat presided over by Gudavalli Ramabrahmam. Mikkilineni says the praise it won laid the foundation of Raghavayya’s later fame.²³ Raghavayya went on to work in Telugu films, first as a dance director and then as a film director.⁴

His way of teaching was his own. Whatever step, feeling, style or pose came to his mind, at any moment, he taught it to his pupils then and there.³ Mikkilineni says he shone like a pole star for ninety years, and died on 6 January 1949.³

For the art he served, see Kuchipudi and Perini.

Where the sources disagree

Mikkilineni is the only source in the library that describes his life. His book gives two dates for the start of the troupe. In one place he says Venkataramayya founded the Venkatarama Natya Mandali “a hundred years ago”,.¹ In another he gives the year as 1875.²

Footnotes

1. Mikkilineni Radhakrishna Murthy, Teluguvari Janapada Kalarupalu (Hyderabad: Telugu University, 1992), p. 205 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Mikkilineni, Janapada Kalarupalu (1992), p. 217 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷

3. Mikkilineni, Janapada Kalarupalu (1992), p. 218 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. Mikkilineni, Janapada Kalarupalu (1992), p. 208 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩