Reflections on the Rythms of Gold Poetry Reading at the Carlos Museum

by Samyukta Mullangi

I went to a reading of classical Indian poetry in languages ranging from Sanskrit and Hindi to Urdu, Marwari, Telugu, Tamil and Bengali at the Carlos Museum on March 1, 2010. I was really interested in this reading because I have been curious about Indian poetry and fiction for a long time now, and in the differences between the Indian forms and the English ones. Though I went in with relatively high expectations to start with, the entire evening still blew me away. Professors Salman Rushdie, Laurie Patton, Joyce Flueckiger, Deepika Bahri and Sasikala Penumarthi read from an incredibly wide selection of poetry, the earliest poem being from the second century AD and the most modern one from the nineteenth century. Many of the professors read the poems in both their original languages as well as translations that often paled in comparison. As someone who understands Hindi and Telugu very well, and Urdu to a small extent, I had the pleasure of noting these losses in translation. All of the poems had something to do with jewelry and adornment since the reading launched the Carlos exhibit of South Indian jewelry this semester. The readers all explained the context of the poetry, the style in which they were written, and the unique features of the different forms of poetry before their readings, which really helped in my appreciation of them as a listener. For instance, I was already familiar with the ghazal style of poetry in Urdu, but was unaware that some predominant themes in ghazals are ones of calamity and loss. I also did not know that there were so many poems in Sanskrit and Telugu that were startlingly explicit about sex, desire and lust, even in relation to the gods themselves. Many of these poems were written by devotees who addressed the deities as lovers, which was very, very interesting. Finally, I learnt that in Indian poetry, the text and music are often inseparable, so that much of the poetry was only fully transmitted when sung. The evening ended with a Bharatnatyam classical dance performance by Sasikala Penumarthi, who adorned the gold and gemmed jewelry described by the various poets, and danced to the poetry that had been sung all evening. It was a perfect follow-up to the readings since she really epitomized the art forms hinted at in the poetry. I had a great time.

Note: Samyukta wrote this piece for a class.