virangam narrative

VIRANGAM

Telugu land is very rich in its folk performing arts, rituals, narratives. All these three do not survive in isolated pockets. They live in each other. The social folk custom and/or the belief system in the folklife is also connected to performing arts, rituals, and oral literature. One element may dominate in a genre but the other element also plays important role in other genres.

The Virangam a Telugu folk performing art is such a folk art that includes ritual, literature, performance, belief system and the custom.  The literal meaning of the Sanskrit loanword in Telugu ‘Virangam’ is dancing in highly charged, heroic emotion or serious anger. When a person shouts with and roars with utmost anger then the other persons says “Endu kaayana viirangam vestunnadu” “Endu kaayana viirangam tokkutunnadu” (why is playing Virangam). As such the word Virangam is associated with anger and heroic emotion. The reason for this analogy is the art form Virangam describes and perform the serious anger of lord Shiva. It is the main episode of the entire art form. Though there are many kinds of other feelings and expressions, the main rasa (emotion) in the art form is anger or Viram or the heroism. The word virudu in Telugu denotes the meaning of a hero or a warrior.   The art form is named after Virangam with these reasons and bases.

Virangam is an age old art form, the artists say that it is of at least 1000 one thousand years old. The cult of Vira Shaiva was flourished in 11^th to 13^th centuries in Telugu land. The art form Virangam is part of the Shaiva cult even today. It is an inseparable part of Shaiva customs of various non-Brahmin castes even in the present day. A sculpture depicts a Shaiva devotee in the Kakatiya sculpture resembles an artist in the Virangam performance. The dancers in the traditional Perini tandava also has close similarity with the Virangam performers. The attire and the music of Perini dance resemble with the Virangam. The Perini dance too belongs to Shaiva cult. There cannot be any doubt on the historicity or ancientness of the Virangam.

Composition and method of performance:

The Virangam performance comprises of 10 to 12 artists. Four are musicians and six are performing artists. The performing artist in this performance is called Virabharudu, in the plural it is Virabhadrulu. The Virabhadra is the name of the son of Lord Shiva. He himself destroyed the Yagna of the Daksha. The ferocious son, on the order of his father lord Shiva attacked the Yagna of Daksha the Father-in-law of the Shiva himself. The myth of Daksha says so. The destruction of the Daksha’s Yagna is a very important element or episode in the Shiva Purana or the myth of Shiva. The performers also mainly describe the incident of the destruction of the Yagna. As such the artists are also called Virabhadras. Whoever may play the performance he is called Virabhadra in the performance. A Virabhadra appears in traditional dhoti and it has a special style in covering the legs. It looks like Chudidari pyjama of girls, and the style is very comfortable for dancing in the performance. There is no upper cloth to the performers. They wear a jandhyam or the sacred thread over the neck and it falls up to the waist. A necklace of Rudraksha is there in the neck. The Shiva marks or the white three-line mark in white colour over the forehead, on shoulders and on the upper arm and on the wrist are decorated on all Virabhadras. This is a typical appearance of an ardent Shaiva devotee or the incarnation of the Virabhadra. The Virabhadra who lead the song or song-dialogue take one brass image of god Virabhadra, 10”x6” in size in the left hand and a three feet long sword in the right hand. The other Virabhadras follow the song in chorus and they dance. All the Virabhadras are the artists come from the Viswakarma caste. (community of five artisan group). The musicians may mostly come from Mangali, (barber) caste, rarely sometimes the drummers may come from Dudekala caste (a section of Telugu Muslims and cotton workers). Some of the performers mentioned that Virabhadra artists were there from some other non-Brahmin castes too. But in the present day contexts, I did not come across any artist from other than the Viswakarma caste. The Virangam performances were happening in many of the castes in the bygone days and artists were also drawn from such various castes. Now the performance remains in the Viswakarma caste alone. Similarly, the artists too, remain only from that caste. The Viswakarmas retained the Cult of Shiva and they worship Shiva as the deity of their clans. There are two major sections in the Viswakarma caste one is the Namadhari or Vishnavites the second is Lingadhari or Shivities (linga is the symbol of Shiva). All the Virabhadra artist or the performers are coming from the Viswakarma caste.

The four other artists are musicians; they appear in their normal daily dress in a white Jubba and a white dhoti. Two artists play Sanai a wind instrument and two artists play Dolu a percussion instrument. They play various tunes and rhythms varying normal mode emotional and highly charged emotional or speedy rhythms to help the Virabhadras to dance in a circle to show the anger.  In between the group and circular dances two Virabhadras stand opposite to each other and near to the Dolu players and exchange song-dialogues in which they describe the incident or narrate the event of destruction of the Daksha Yagna and the anger of Shiva. These chants are called “Chakralu”. Sometimes they raise some slogans with the word “Sharabha”. The word is a refrain and repeated by one artist when the other artist pronounces one sentence of narrating the event. At the end of each sentence, the word “Sharabha” is raised. Each episode of narration is concluded with the chanting of “Aga ga ga ga ga ga Ala la la la la la la” and so on. The drum beat also accompanied according to this chanting.

At the end of the each cycle of dance and chanting one performer takes a big steel needle and pierces it into his cheeks, neck or on the tongue and or on the stomach. This is also considered as showing Vira (heroism) roudra (anger or valour) and a service to the god. The drum beat and the Sannai go to the peak level of sound and one assistant gives smoke of incense powder or it is called guggilam (esin of shorea robusta). The smoke and the peak level sounds are considered very sacred. The artist inhales the smoke very deep and gets into a semi-trans state and the sounds are ritual sounds which make the artist to go into a state where he cannot experience the pain. He goes into a subconscious state. The artist pierces sharp needles into various parts of the body at this state. Within a couple of minutes, the needles are taken out or removed and some sacred white dust called vibhuti is applied on the wound. No blood is seen in each case. “Vibhuti” is very sacred powder in the Cult of Shiva. It is made-up of dried cow dung by burning it.

One event of performance is completed by the circle of above events. After one performance they move in procession in the street and perform the same with different narration at another center in the street. They may repeat the narration, performance on the demand of the devotees standing around them. Such ritual performance is called Virangam.  

The above method of Virangam performance is not performed independently just for performance. It is very important to note that the Virangam is never performed for pure entertainment. It is a serious art form and the patrons pretty well know that they are going to be part of the ritual not going to watch an entertaining performance. When the Virangam procession goes on in the street, the general public also does not watch it as an entertaining thing. They too watch it with a sacred feeling. Of course, there is some entertaining element in the performance and it really gives some entertainment to the audience but the ritual element dominates in their mind.  It is always connected to a ritual and it is part of a ritual. All the said rituals are related to the cult of Shiva and worship process of Shiva.

In the Viswakarma caste, the family which follows the Shiva cult has to organize the Virangam ritual before it officiates any other rituals like a wedding, puberty and so on in the family. even death ceremonies should be preceded with the Virangam performance. Many other non-Brahmin castes who practiced Shiva cult had organized the Virangam performances in their rituals in the bygone days the performers explained. But in the present day context, the performance tradition remained only in Viswakarma families. It is a reminiscent ritual of the cult of Shiva. The cult of Virabhadra is part of the cult of Shiva. When the Virabhadra is worshipped the Virangam performance would be an inseparable part of the same. 

Virabhadruni Pallem:

The god Virabhadra the son of Shiva is worshipped in many Viswakarma families once in a year or as the preprogram of the wedding ritual in their family. The ritual of “Virabhadruni Pallem Ettadam” (literally lifting the plate of Virabhadra) or Worshiping of Virabhadra is performed as a precursor to the wedding ceremony of many Viswakarma families. The woman folk who gathered in the wedding ceremony prepare a leaf plate. They collect leafs of the banyan tree and knit a leaf plate.   The women folk sit in a circle and prepare a big plate, two to three feet in diameter. Then they cook the sacred food for the god Virabhadra. All the women bring the sacred food and pour it into the leaf plate. All the married and un-widowed women of the family and their relatives are supposed to carry this leaf plate in a procession and to take it to the Virabhadra temple or the Virabhadra statue specially erected for this purpose. The bride and the groom who are going to marry lead the procession and then the women and other male relatives follow them by carrying the sacred plate to Virabhadra. They carry the plate of Virabhadra hence it is called Virabhadruni pallem (literally the plate of Virabhadra). The Virangam performance is performed before the procession. The artists perform the Virangam in the aforementioned method in three, five or nine times before they reach the Virabhadra statute. They perform the episode of the destruction of Daksha's yagna, chanting before offering the sacred food or the payasam to the god. The bride and groom stand before the statute and stretch their upper cloth in their two hands and expect some flowers to fall from the statute into their stretched cloth. That is considered as the blessing of the god Virabhadra to the couple. The performers perform the music and chanting until the flowers fall into the lap of the couple.

The procession goes back to the home. The Virangam is performed once again after the wedding ceremony is completed. The next morning of the wedding the couple is made to sit on an elevated platform in special chairs and the family members organize ritual of Virangam. The performers measure five measures of rice and pour it into an earthen pot and they close mouth of the pot by turmeric-applied-cloth in a ritual way. Then they start performance, an episode of Shiva is performed in chanting style along with the music. After the ritual performance is over they open the rice pot and measure the rice again. The rice should be measured more than five measure. It would be five and a half or five and a quarter measures. It is a miracle, the rice poured into the pot increases in a measure by the power of the ritual performed. It is believed as the power and blessing of god, by the performers and by the family who organized the wedding and the Virangam ritual. 

When such Virabhadra ritual is organized in a family in any village the other families who have similar cult practice, join in the ritual voluntarily. They may belong to any caste they need not even be invited by the host family but the Virabhadra families can join in the ritual participate and even share the food. This tradition is still followed in coastal districts and some parts of Telangana.

In such a way the Virangam performance and the ritual are very important to Shaivite families of Viswakarma caste. Any of the important ritual or happy occasion should be marked by the Virangam performance.

The Virangam performance is on the verge of its extinction. Only three or four performance groups are living and getting their lively hood and leading a happy life. They serve the entire state. The reason for the decline is the decline in the cult tradition in the families of Viswakarma. The Venkatabhadra Chary troupe belong to Durgi mandal of Guntur district is famous and widely acclaimed one in the tradition.