Vedantam Lakshminarayana Sastri

Vedantam Lakshminarayana Sastri was one of the great dancers and teachers of Kuchipudi, the dance-drama of Krishna district.¹ Mikkilineni Radhakrishna Murthy, the historian of Telugu folk arts, gives him the title Natyakala Nidhi, “treasure of the art of dance”.¹ He belonged to the Vedantam family, one of the old dancing families of the village.²¹ This page follows Mikkilineni’s account, written in 1992.

Satyabhama and other parts

Lakshminarayana Sastri was most famous as Satyabhama, the heroine of the Bhama Kalapam. Mikkilineni says no one played the part with such skill.¹ He also played in the Golla Kalapam, and in a solo show called the Dadinamma vesham.¹ In the Dadinamma show one dancer sang, acted and danced for three hours while carrying the weight of a light bed tied to his body. Mikkilineni names him and Vempati Venkatanarayana as its most famous performers.³

He was a scholar as well as a dancer. At the start of the Bhama Kalapam, a long braid hung on the curtain and the performer explained its meaning verse by verse. Scholars in the front row waited to catch any mistake.⁴ Mikkilineni writes that masters like Lakshminarayana Sastri stood firm “like a great mountain” and finished the explanation to the wonder of scholars and common people alike.⁴

A new way of dancing

Mikkilineni says Lakshminarayana Sastri broke away from the usual dance style of the street plays and yakshaganas.¹ Following the rules of the Bharata Natya Sastra, he made new dances for songs that had not been danced in that way before.¹ Among them were the tarangas of Narayana Tirtha’s Krishna Leela Tarangini, the ashtapadis of Jayadeva, the padams of Kshetrayya, and verses of the Krishna Karnamritam.¹ He worked out the nature and feelings of each main character, and trained pupils in the new style.¹

He also danced solo pieces such as Ramayanam, Manduka Sabdam, Prahlada Pattabhishekam, Tataki Samharam and Dasavataralu.⁵ His performances all over the Andhra country won great praise.⁵⁶

Honours

Mikkilineni writes that he spent his whole life at royal courts.⁵ When the dancer Uday Shankar saw him dance, he could not hold back, and fell at his feet.⁵ The government of the old Madras state honoured him with gold bracelets as a leading artist. This was done under the Maharaja of Bhavnagar, the Governor, in the presence of P. V. Rajamannar.⁵

His pupils

Mikkilineni says his pupils in the Bhama Kalapam and Golla Kalapam were too many to count.⁵ Among them were Vedantam Raghavayya, Vempati Satyam and Vempati Chinna Satyam, who became famous in the Telugu film world.⁵ Ramaiah Pillai, a well-known dance teacher of Madras, learned some styles from him in person.⁵ The dancer Yamini Krishnamurthy also learned from him, among other teachers.⁷

He lived for eighty-two years and died at Hyderabad on 13 July 1957.⁶

For the art he served, see Kuchipudi and Perini.

Where the sources disagree

The library’s sources do not disagree about him. Mikkilineni is the only one that describes his life, so his dates and honours rest on that one book.¹⁶

Mikkilineni, Janapada Kalarupalu (1992), p. 219 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰
Mikkilineni, Janapada Kalarupalu (1992), p. 203 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩
Mikkilineni, Janapada Kalarupalu (1992), p. 211 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩
Mikkilineni Radhakrishna Murthy, Teluguvari Janapada Kalarupalu (Hyderabad: Telugu University, 1992), p. 198 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²
Mikkilineni, Janapada Kalarupalu (1992), p. 220 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸
Mikkilineni, Janapada Kalarupalu (1992), p. 221 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³
Mikkilineni, Janapada Kalarupalu (1992), p. 225 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩