Three-performer Telugu narrative balladry of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana pairing a tambura-playing kathakudu with twin dakki drummers.
Photo: Sukanto Debnath from Hyderabad, India · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0+ Add licensed photo →
The tradition & historical record
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Originating in coastal Andhra Pradesh and Telangana from Jangam Shaivaite mendicant songs, a Burrakatha trio places the lead narrator (kathakudu) at centre stage playing a hollow brass-or-wood tambura plucked over the shoulder while wearing rhythmic ankle bells and thumb rings. 1
Flanked on right and left by two drummers playing two-headed earthenware dakki (burra) drums—one advancing historical or mythological politics and the other interjecting sharp comic satire—the form galvanized twentieth-century Telugu village theatre. 1
