Prahladha Bhakthi Vijayam- An introduction
Saint Thyagaraja is
supposed to have written three dance
Dramas , out of which only two namely Nauka Charithram , Prahladha Bhathi Vijayam
are at present available to us. I
have already translated in to English Nauka Charithram (http://translationsofsomesongsofcarnticmusic.blogspot.in/2015/04/nauka-charithram-of-saint-thyagaraja.html)
and I am presenting here the translation
of the mega dance Drama of Swami Thyagaraja
which is called “Prahladha Bhakthi vijayam” . Please note that it is not BHaktha Vijayam and does not
deal with the life of Prahladha . It
does not have Lord Nrasimha as a
character at all . Saint Thyagaraja deals
with the greatness of Prahladha as a
devotee. One reason why saint Thyagaraja did this was perhaps because an elder
and famous musicologist called Merator Venkatrama
SAstri had already written a
dance drama called Prahladha
BHaktha Vijayam in Telugu at that time
. This dance drama has five acts and 3
45 Krithis all connected by choornikas,
Dandakams , dvipadis etc which explains the
context of the following Krithi.
I have not translated these choornikas etc but has only given a
brief summary so that the context and
background of every krithi is properly understood . It is also interesting to note that Saint Thyagaraja was very much aware of the Rama BHathas of those times like THulasi Dasa
, Rama dasa , Panduranga , Nama
deva , Jaya Deva , Thukarama
, Narayana theerha and other
sages to whom he has offered his salutations
at the beginning of the work itself .
The Drama starts with a discussion between the Suthra DAra and the gate keeper of the king of the
ocean. Then the story of how the king of the oceans
saved Prahladha who was tied by serpents and thrown in the
sea by his father by taking help of Garuda is given. Prahladha becomes sorry at not being able to see lord Hari . Lord Hari later comes and tries to make
Prhladha take wealth and success as boons. But Prahladha wants only devotion
to the feet of Hari. The Lord consents after lot of discussion and goes back . Prahladha becomes miserable . The Lord
comes back and blesses him ,
in the presence of sages , Lord Brahma,
Indra, Devas etc,
The five acts of the Drama are translated
in to English and given separately
Act 4 http://translationsofsomesongsofcarnticmusic.blogspot.in/2015/04/prahladha-bhakthi-vijayam-act4.html
Act 5 http://translationsofsomesongsofcarnticmusic.blogspot.in/2015/04/prahladha-bhkthi-vijayam-act-5.html
The enactment of the Drama in Columbus Ohio by the local artists under guidance of their Guru Sow,Aruna
Darba is given in
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