Avadhanam is a literary feat popular from the very ancient days in Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada etc. It requires immense memory power and tests a person's capability of performing multiple tasks simultaneously.‘Avadhänam is an experiment as old as the language itself… In olden days an avadhäni was supposed to be proficient in eight languages and was expected to compose poems in all eight languages as answers to questions…. The feat was used to test the scholarship of the performer in traditional knowledge. Initially, it started with testing one’s proficiency in pada, krama, Gana and Jata of Védädhyayana but later spread to literature and poetry….
“The pruchchaka asks a complex question in the form of four words. The avadhäni has to keep in mind all the questions in the order they are posed and give the answer in the same order, filling the blanks in verse form. The meter is also mentioned.
“Performing avadhänam is no ordinary feat. The complicated system of attentive listening to the question, retention, weaving answers to it in a manner satisfying to the scholars and reciting the answer in the order it is supposed to be, is like Yôga. ‘Dhyäna, Dhäranä and Samädhi’ are the three characteristics which are present in avadhänam.
With time, avadhänam has become more complex. Social problems are being reflected in the questions nowadays. Kashmir issue to Naxalites to budget to Cinema songs -everything is a subject matter nowadays. For example, one might say “idly, vadä, sämbar and pûri”, and ask the avadhäni to describe Pärvati Parinayam. This happened once.
A renowned scholar like Pandit Dr. Shankar Dayäl Sharmä sometime ago asked Näagaphani Sharmä to describe Lord Shiva in Sanskrit using for words chapäti, parotä, sämbhar and kûrmä. The avadhäni rendered a shlôka in Sanskrit an it was this:
Yashchapati jagatsarvam, monuku pa parvotati, samba rudra tamasvita, vayukurma namasvatam. (The one who is ruling the creation, the one who is all compassionate, the one who is goddess Amba, to such a one I bow down a hundred times - This is not a good translation by the writer at all!)
Sri Cheruku Satyanäräyana Sästry, known to trouble avadhänis with his ticklish posers, had this four-word input :Roop Terä Mastänä pyär Merä Divänä that had to be used for describing Lord Räama.The answer: Neelabhra roopate Räama, Samastänäm Shubhankara,
Tattadhä pyärame Räme, Nädivandana Vardhana.
Such should be the clarity of thought and mastery over language.
Additional note:In Telugu, avadhänam was prevalent even during Adikavi Nannayya period. His colleague Narayana Bhattu who first earned the title ashtadashävadhäni
