BURRA

BURRA

Burra Is a Telugu language word. A performance called burra katha derived from burra, which means Skull and Katha means story. Burra uses in several contexts in Telugu language.

Burra means a skull in Telugu and there is a similar meaning like burralu which are palm tree dry products. People use this word in thelug as ( nee burra upayoginchu ) which means use u r brain properly (especially in the drama rehearsals) . In deepavali festival particularly in north part of Andhra Pradesh (telengana) villagers they themselves become two groups and break their heads each other which is burra pagalagottadam as a part of festivals, and if there is any quarrel (performance) in between neighbors they say nee burra pagalagodatha means I will break your skull.

In burra katha the shell resembles a human skull. It is made of baked clay or dried pumpkin, or of brass and copper. The instrument looks very similar to Veena and the performer can pull and press strings to get music.

The main story teller (called as Kathakudu) narrates the story. He plays Tambura and dances to music. He also wears a metal ring called as andelu on his right thumb, holds another ring in his other hand and adds more music by colliding them frequently. The co-performers plays gummeta(also called as dakki or budike), earthen drums with two heads. All three or only kathakadu will be wearing anklets (also called as gajjelu), which add even more music when they dance.

The right side performer (called as the hasyaka, means joker) acts as a joker and cracks satires and jokes. The left side performer (called as the rajakiya, means politician) acts as a person who knows worldly ways and talks about contemporary politics and social issues. (Who really need to use his burra).The main performer and co-performers are constantly addressing each other. The co-performers interrupts him with doubts, and they sometimes add emphasis to the main events in the story with short words similar to "Wow!" ,"aaha" and "That it it".

Whenever the main performer sings a song, he starts with "vinara veera kumara veera gadha vinara" followed by the co-performers singing "tandhana tane tandhana na", hence it is also called 'tandana katha'.

Burra katha was a pastime event in villages. It is seen even now during Dussehra or Sankranti festival seasons to describe events in epics like Ramayan and Mahabharat and also some of best and moral kingdom stories like kambojaraju katha, chinnamma katha, muggurumoratila katha etc.

Burra katha is a folk performance, now a day’s using for political and religion purpose instead of traditional stories. The word burra we use in our daily life but we don’t see it as performance way. But at the same time a performance is there with the same word. So it made me to think in a different context.