Tadepalli Satyanarayana Sarma

Tadepalli Satyanarayana Sarma

Tadepalli Satyanarayana Sarma is an academically well qualified, good performing artist, an adept organizer and above all an youngster with a clear vision and self responsible member of the noted Tadepalli lineage of Kuchipudi village.

Born on August 28^th, Sarvana Suddha Padyami to Tadepalli Subba Rao & Munukutla Adilaxmi in Kuchipudi village. His great grandfather (paternal) Tadepalli Peraiya Sastry is Guru of Vemapti Chinna Satyam, and his grandfather (maternal) Munukuntla Viswanatha Sastry was Kanchipuram Asthana Ganapatti.

Till Peraiya Sastry, for almost 300 years history points that his family was primarily supporting accompanists (mridangam, nattuvangam and literature) for sampradhaya Bhagavathamelam families and contributing to dance from Sanksrit, Andhra basha and literature angle. From Peraiya Sastry, dance teaching and learning took primary seat in the family.

His paternal grandfather Tadepalli Chandraiah is famous for his Kuchipudi Pagateveshams and Kalapams. The environment set at home being that of dance throughout in all the acitivites, Tadepalli Satyanarayana Sarma took to Kuchipudi dance right from young age itself.

At the age of eight he started learning from Vedantam Radheshyam when he had the ritual of both nose and ear piercing done, one of the primary requirement for donning stree vesham. Then he went on to learn the nuances of stree vesham from one of the experts, Padmasri Guru Vedantam Satyanarayana Sarma. The influence of his friend Guru Vedantam Venkatanaga Chalapathi facilitated him to take interest on Kuchipudi Yakshaganam.

His other influence, Chinta Ramanathan was instrumental in Tadepalli taking up with keen interest / in depth approach in enriching his knowledge on dance and literature related aspects as his special interest.

He is a Dwivedi having become Gana patti of Krishna Yajur vedam and Moolam in Atharvana vedam. He has done his Bachelors in Oriental languages from Machlipatnam and Masters in Telugu literature from Venkateswara University, in Sanskrit from Kendriya Vidyapeeth, Tirupathi and Jyothishyam from Benares University. Presently he is pursuing for his Doctrate from Benares University on Temples and dance in relationship to the Vedas (why dance is called as Panchamavedam).

Tadepalli Satyanarayana Sarma is working at Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam as Veda pandit. He is also avidly involved in promoting, preserving and protecting Kuchipudi Yakshaganam being a principal Secretary of Kuchipudi Bhagavathamelam organization started for the same purpose. The members of Bhagavathamelam are essentially dancers from the younger generation of the Kuchipudi traditional dance families who are torch bearers of the art form for centuries. This group is into self sustained efforts in learning the Kuchipudi Yakshaganams, documenting, promoting and taking steps to preserve for posterity with the responsible feeling of bearing the mantle of doing so being born in the rich cultural heritage families of Kuchipudi village.

While he has learnt all the roles of almost all the principal Kuchipudi Yakshaganams – as a tradition for all the artists of the Kuchipudi village – from parevesa daruvus to mangalam, he has played roles which ideally suits the dancer. He has played various roles in Kuchipudi Yakshaganams, namely as Lord Shiva in Usha Parinayam, as Bhama in Bhama Kalapam, as Uthra Kumara in Sasirekha Parinayam, Basmasura in Mohini Basmasura among others.

Tadepalli Satyanarayana Sarma in Stree vesham

He has been conferred with the title Natya Ratna, Abhinava Kala Sagara. Samanvaya Puraskar and Simha Talatam by Vedantam Satyanarayana Sarma for his dance, while the Seer of Kanchi Mutt, Jayachandra Saraswathi gave a Golden Bracelet for his proficiency in Vedas.

One other facet of Tadepalli, is his passion and soulful involvement in promoting heritage, parampara, dance, Sanathana darma by way of lecture demos targeting youth in colleges and universities throughout the country with a view to drive home the importance of ancient values and modern technology for a better and purposeful living.

TADEPALLI SATYANARAYAN SARMA,

Secretary, Kuchipudi Bhagavathamelam

Kuchipudi Village

Movva Mandal

Krishna District

Andhra Pradesh

PIN 521 136.

Emal: tadepallisatyanarayanasarma@yahoo.com

tadepalli.bhagavathamelam@gmail.com

Mobile: +91 80084 42215.

+ 91 86712 52211