The basic element of ‘Golla Kalapam’ is the main chapter called ‘Pinda Prakararanam’, conception and birth of a child. It indicates the union of ‘jeevatma’ with ‘Paramatma’.
This ballet is also known as ‘Gopika Vipra Samvadam’ for the entire episode runs on the interaction between a young Brahmin boy and a young woman. This was written by a great scholar Bhagavatula Ramayya belonging to 18th century, a period when only a few may have had the knowledge of how a woman conceives, the different stages of the growth of a foetus and how sex of the foetus gets determined by the interaction of male and female cells. All this process is explained through the ballet.
This ballet was presented by P. Ramadevi and noted guru Bhagavatula Sethuram at Ravindra Bharathi recently. Most of the early part ran as a kind of question answer session between Vipra and Bhama. It opened with Bhama trying to reach out to people to buy her products milk and curd, that she carries in a pot on her head.
A mischievous young Brahmin Vipra first taunts her by repeating the names of what she was selling. Then they face each other. The maid then asks who this young man is. To which he replies proudly he’s a Brahmin. From then on the questions lead to the basic intent of the ballet underlining the concept that one becomes a Brahmin only if he performed the yagnas and acquire Vedic knowledge. This leads to maid’s explanation of the process involved in a woman’s conception and birth of male or female child. It was a kind of Bhagavad Gita that Krishna taught to Arjuna. The milkmaid is symbolic of Sri Krishna. Both Ramadevi and Sethuram carried the element of verbal drama appropriately to a logical end of ‘Pinda Prakaranam’.
