Kancherla Gopanna

Kancherla Gopanna (c 1620 - 1680 CE), popularly known as Bhadradri Ramadasu or Bhadrachala Ramadasu( _te. భద్రాచల రామదాసు), was a 17th century Indian devotee of Rama and a composer of Carnatic music. He lived in the village of Nelakondapalli near Bhadrachalam, Andhra Pradesh during the 17th century and is renowned for constructing a famous temple for Rama at Bhadrachalam. His devotional lyrics to Rama are famous in Andhra Pradesh as "Ramadaasu Keertanalu".

Biography

Early years

Ramadasu was born in a Brahmin family to Linganna Murthy and Kamamba in Nelakondapalli village of Khammamett Taluk of northern Andhra Pradesh. He was appointed as Tahsildar (revenue collector) of 'Palvoncha Paragana' by Akkanna, his uncle and the administrative head in the court of Qutub Shahi Sultan Abul Hassan Tana Shah. He discharged his official duties earnestly and collected revenues due to the Sultan - while continuing his unswerving service to Lord Rama by chanting his name and feeding the poor.

Reconstruction of Temple

One day, he visited Bhadrachalam for a Jatara (fair) and was disturbed by the dilapated state of the temple there. Bhadrachalam was significant to devotees of Rama for many reasons. Lord Rama is said to have stayed near the Parnasala there with Sita and Lakshmana during his exile and also to have visited Sabari near Badrachalam. Pothana is believed to have been given direction by Rama to translate the Bhagavatam into Telugu here. In spite of its significance, the temple was utterly neglected. So, Ramadasu started to raise funds for the renovation and reconstruction of the temple. After he emptied his coffers and could raise no more money, the villagers appealed him to spend his revenue collections for the reconstruction and promised to repay the amount after harvesting crops. As such, Ramadas finished the reconstruction of the temple with six hundred thousand rupees collected from land revenues - without the permission of the Abul Hasan Qutb Shah.

As the temple was nearing completion, he was perplexed one night about fixing the Sudarshana Chakra at the crest of the main temple. On the same night,it is believed that he saw Rama in his dream and asked him to have a holy dip in the Godavari River. When Gopanna did so the next day, he found holi Sudarshana Chakra in the river without much difficulty.

Incarceration

Soon after the reconstruction though, his miseries started. He was dismissed from his job for misusing the Sultan Abul Hasan Qutb Shah's revenues and was imprisoned in the Golkonda Fort (near Hyderabad) with orders that he be released only after the exchequer received all the taxes in full. Unable to withstand his miseries, Ramadas implores Rama to relieve him through many emotional songs that were popularised from the stanzas of 'Dasaradhi Sathakam ' and 'Keertanas' of Bhakta Ramadasa. They praise the Lord for all his mysterious ways in testing his devotees and Ramadasu regularly pleads the Lord to ease his suffering. When that doesn't work, he pleads Sita to recommend her husband to ease his devotee's pain. All else failing to invoke a response, Ramadasu resorts to accusing God of being indifferent to his suffering. Of course, the songs quickly apologize for the harsh language and end in a state of total and unconditional surrender to the will of the Almighty.

Release

After 11-12 years of imprisonment, it is said that Lord Rama decided that his devotee's suffering had reached its pre-ordained ending (because of a certain transgression his soul had committed in a previous birth). Rama and Lakshmana, disguised as two young warriors, entered the bed-chambers of the Sultan Tana Shah in the middle of the night. They give the king the spent money in gold coins imprinted with Rama's own seal. The king was bewildered at the presence of these charming but strange youngsters in his inner quarters. They demanded and obtained on the spot, a written receipt for the money. The receipt was shown to the jailer who released Gopanna the same night. The next day, both Gopanna and the Sultan realized what had happened. Gopanna did not care much for his release but was inconsolable at his not having seen his Lord even with all his devotion while the Sultan was visited by the Lord. The Lord then appeared to Gopanna in a dream and explained him the real reasons for his actions and promised him salvation at the end of his natural life. The king was convinced that what had happened was a miracle of Allah. He returned the entire money to the Bhadracalam temple. Since then, it has been the royal custom of the Hyderabad State (now part of Andhra Pradesh State) to send gifts to the temple on the occasion of Sree Rama navami celebrations every year.

Media

Based on the Ramadasu story,Mr V Nagayya has made a Telugu movie.And recently Mr K. Raghavendra Rao has made a Telugu movie.

Carnatic compositions

Many of Ramadasus's compositions are exceptionally emotional and endearing. It is said that the Tondaiman rulers of Pudukkottai in Tamil Nadu loved his keertanas and took great interest in popularizing them. Ramadasu composed in the "Keertana" format, a precursor to the "Kritis". The great composer Tyagaraja admired Ramadasu's compositions and praised him in some of his compositions. Ramadasu perused many "mudras" (Signature) such as "Bhadrachala", "Bhadradri" and "Bhadragiri" in his compositions. Some of his popular compositions are "Emayyarama" ("Raga Kambhoji"), "Rama dayajudave" ("Raga Dhanyasi"), "Paluke bangara mayena" ("Raga Anandabhairavi") and "Nannubrovu" ("Raga Kalyani").

References

# [http://www.bhadrachalarama.org/temple-history.htm http://www.bhadrachalarama.org/temple-history.htm]
#http://www.karnatik.com/co1015.shtml