A poet who is building a museum for rare indigenous Deccan artefacts

Jayadhir Thirumala Rao has introduced the kinnera instrument and artistes like folk balladeers Darshanam Mogilaiah, Dakkali Poshappa and Dakkali Balaiah to the outside world. (Illustration: Suneesh Kalarickal)

Jayadhir Thirumala Rao wears many hats. He is an academic, poet, author, scholar and researcher in ethnic studies. A vast repository of information on the art, culture and social history of the Deccan region, Hyderabad-based Dr. Rao is also an on Telangana’s rich folklore and history. 

Working painstakingly over four-and-a-half decades, he has documented information on his subjects of expertise and collected thousands of musical instruments and daily-use implements, many of them centuries-old.  

 That has been made possible through extensive travels that took him to remote villages and tribal areas in the Deccan region, interaction with locals, and painstaking research of documents and other material gleaned from academics. 

Now, a permanent museum to house the artefacts Dr. Rao has amassed is being planned in Telangana with support of the state and central governments. It is likely to open later this year. 

How did he come to choose the work that has become his obsession? What drives his passion? 

 Dr Rao says he wants to protect, preserve and promote the art and culture of the Adivasis (tribespeople) and other marginalised communities.   

Musical instrument Kikri. (Photos by AV Arvind)

The scholar worked as a professor at Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University, Hyderabad; and director of the Andhra Pradesh Government Oriental Manuscripts Library and Research Institute. 

‘Sidelined and undervalued’ 

Although they live on the same soil and under the same Constitution, tribespeople and folk artistes are “sidelined and undervalued,” Dr. Rao said. 

“Fifty years ago when I first visited the tribal areas, their treatment by society at large pained me,” he explained.  

“I also found that their artistic, literary and extraordinary cultural abilities were (and still largely are) unacknowledged and treated as inferior, and suppressed to the point of oblivion. It was the same with the rural folk communities. I decided to dedicate myself to the cause of tribal and folk communities.” 

Dr. Rao has walked the talk. His contributions include tracing the unique Pagidelu,  a scroll with a collage of figures and motifs of the Koya tribe. He has documented tribal ballads including those of Sammakka and Saralamma (worshipped as goddesses by many).  

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He has introduced the kinnera instrument and artistes like folk balladeers  Darshanam Mogilaiah, Dakkali Poshappa and Dakkali Balaiah to the outside world. 

“We traced 10 old manuscripts of Gondi script and named it Gunjala Gondi Tribal Script,” Dr. Rao said. “Our team has developed it so as to create software enabling it to enter the World Unicode Consortium.”

The US-based Unicode Consortium is a non-profit that develops, maintains and promotes software internationalization standards and data

Rare artefacts

Dr. Rao went on: “Further, we prepared I and II Readers in Gunjala Gondi script. We collected endangered, unique articles of many communities for preservation. During the pandemic, to help financially itinerant folk musicians (like runja and kinnera artistes), we organised video calls so they could perform for city dwellers.” 

Today, he has some 2,800 artefacts in his collection. Only a few are with him at home while the rest are housed in storage facilities in Telangana.

"These have been brought under one umbrella -- Aadya Kala. There are five categories and we propose to arrange them into five museums in the future.” 

 The groups include Adi Chitram; Adivasi Koya Pagidelu and Jartali of the Gonds and patams and painted scrolls of folk communities. There are sawdust toys; Nakashi masks; figures of deities on wood; clay and leather puppets; Ganga patams  or scrolls; and toys of the Mandahechu Katha (a storytelling tradition).  

His collection includes Nakashi masks (left) and masks made of wood.

They include Adidhwani rare musical instruments (about 280) of tribespeople and folk artistes.  These include the Jatur/Brihat Kinnera, a stringed Gond musical instrument with three resonators made with pumpkin; kikri; runja; kaddi and vadyam; Dokra tribal metal art work: These are mostly found in Telangana, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, and Orissa. 

The collection includes masks, lamps and lights of various kind. Adi aksharam showcases 250 palm-leaf  manuscripts and 100 paper manuscripts, and 20 paper scrolls along with distinct writing tools such as Ghantam (styli); besides books bound in leather and wood.  

Dr. Rao and his team made replicas of the inscriptions on stone to understand the antiquity of the Telugu script and its evolution. The length of the scrolls varies from eight to 25 feet. The scrolls in his collection date back to one to two centuries.

Adi jeevanam comprises tools and implement used in agrarian and other production, besides doors and windows inlaid with artistic work. 

An ancient plough is part of the Adi Jeevanam collection.

 Dr. Rao acknowledges the help of many individuals in his work.  

"This vast collection is sustained with the work of different groups  in different areas. So, there are Paddam Anasuya and P. Vidyasagar in Koya region,” he said.  

“In Gondi tribal area, there are Thodsam Devrao, Arka Manikrao and S. Bhujangarao. Besides, this Professor Guduru Manoja, Dr Prithviraj, J. Praveen, D. Charan and my family members work as a team for Aadya Kala. Team members. almost always, drive on their own and collect artefacts and bring these back to Hyderabad and store them." 

Challenges lie in wait  

Many challenges lie ahead. He has worked long and hard. but concedes there is much more left to be done. A paucity of funds is one challenge. He needs to consult more subject experts. 

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“I have collected some old manuscripts and digitised them, but many remain. Moreover, many  manuscripts are yet to be deciphered and published in books, which is my aim.” 

It is a tough ask given that they need careful editing and by those with knowledge of arcane subjects. 

Dr. Rao says the pressing need now is for a large and permanent space for cleaning, colouring, photographing, and collecting details and writing descriptions for the artefacts and safe storage areas.