Introducing Chitrakala Avadhanam

Tirupati: Here is a 73-year-old artist in the temple city who is known not only for his accomplishments on the canvas, but also ‘Avadhanam’ through his paintings.

In the popular literary tradition of ‘Avadhanam’, the Avadhani has to answer diverse questions with various challenges set by ‘Pruchakas’. This is a beauty of Telugu literature.

In what has been termed, ‘Chitrakala Avadhanam’, Singampalli Satyanarayana answers every question by musician, dancer, artist and others in the form of paintings. This makes him a unique artist. He says that it is his favorite subject. In a related feat, he made 50 paintings during a non-stop 24-hour show held in Thyagaraja Mandapam, Tirupati, in 2005.

Also, after the Mumbai terrorist attack, in 2008 he drew various paintings on the effects of that attack. It seems Satyanarayana drew pictures even at his own aksharabhyasam. “Instead of writing letters of the Telugu alphabet, as told by my parents, I drew small pictures and it never stopped”, he told The Hans India. He has opened an exhibition hall at his residence in Tirupati to display his works.

He explained the highlights of his career as an artist. “I used to draw some picture or the other whenever I see a slate or a white paper. He first started his career as a photographer and later worked as artist-cum- photographer in Agricultural College, Tirupati. Irrespective of the demands of his profession, he continued drawing various portraits, scenery etc. all the time.

Given his proclivity to draw portraits of eminent personalities, he drew JC Bose, Mokshagundam Visveswaraiah, Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Parmahamsa, Jaggi Vasudev and many others. Similarly, he has drawn many paintings of various gods.

After three years of work, he finished a beautiful painting in which Dasavataras have been embodied in Lord Venkateswara. Similarly, two huge paintings of Kathak and Kuchipudi dancers performing in a temple amidst audience were completed in six months each.

So far, he has done 5,000-6,000 paintings and most of them were executed for the Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha (RSVP) in Tirupati. They even organised an exhibition in Russia for which he could not go, says Satyanarayana.

Following Prime Minster Narendra Modi’s call to take Sanskrit language universally, the RSVP has been assigned a project with Prof SS Murthy
and Prof Ramakrishna as its coordinators. As part of that project, Satyanarayana drew 100 paintings for about 400 Sanskrit slokas, which were sent to New Delhi.

During ‘Telugu Sahiti Utsavams’ held around 2005 in Tirupati, he made 200 paintings on various Telugu literary giants. Although his works have reached various countries and he earned fame internationally, he has not got recognition in the form of any awards.

On this, the artist says modestly, “I am not a commercial artist. Of course, the Government has not recognized me. However, as suggested by my well-wishers I have applied for ‘Padma Sri’ award this year”.

To another question, he says he approached a devotional channel offering to perform ‘Gana Chithra’ in which a painting must be completed before a song is completed. But, there was no encouragement. Having trained many artists, his ardent desire now is to give a stage performance at which he wants to paint all seasons.

By V Pradeep Kumar