We, The Jonnalagaddas: Six Generations

 

We, The Jonnalagaddas:

  Six Generations

Introduction

Though there are three Jonnalagadda villages in the Andhra region, two in the Guntur district and one in the Krishna district, I presume that our genealogy begins from the third one. Maybe our ancestors migrated to Avanigadda from Jonnalagadda, a village of the same district, for livelihood.

The First Generation

I could trace our pedigree from the first quarter of the 18th century only.

Sriramulu was our great-great-grandfather, and Nagamma was our great-grandmother.

We with the surname Jonnalagadda are Vaidiki, Velanadu Brahmins of the Kaundinyasa Gothra (clan). 

I have no idea about the exact number of children he had. But his two sons Bhushaiah and Lakshmi Narayana were on record.

Second Generation

Bhushaiah and Lakshmi Narayana were our grandfathers. While Bhushaiah had inherited large tracts of fertile land from his father at Challapalli, Machilipatnam, Krishna district, my grandfather Lakshmi Narayana had not got his due share in the ancestral property.

Though he was advised to approach a court of law to claim his rightful share in the ancestral property, he was too proud to beg for his share in the property. He thought that his older brother Bhushaiah should have given his share of the property out of brotherly love.

Lakshmi Narayana, our grandfather, had a great passion for the classical dance art of Kuchipudi. This dance art came in handy for him to eke out his livelihood to support a large family of a wife and six children. He taught Kuchipudi dance art to devadasis (temple dancers). Though he lived in the Avanigadda village, he toured the nearby villages like Mellamarru and Kodali to give dance lessons to the temple dancers.

He insisted on the devadasis that they should learn the dance items from Sri Krishna Lila Tarnigini in a complicated and dedicated way. They were taught to dance with their feet on either side of a bronze plate with water to the brim. The skill of the dancer depended on dancing on the borders of the metal plate without spilling the water on the stage.

I was given to understand that my grandfather, who had a handsome figure, maintained a strong character, though some of the beautiful devadasis lost their hearts to him. He was content with a monthly fee of three rupees and some provisions like pulses and rice.

As a purohit (priest), he also officiated in rituals like house-warming ceremonies etc.

He was a stage artist too and played the roles of comedians. He was noted for his role as a comedian in the court of the French governor Charles Joseph Patissier de Bussy-Castelnau,  who destroyed the Bobbili fort. The audience, especially the groundlings, whistled ‘once more’ for his obscene dialogue, the governor demanding a harlot and sumptuous food every day.

The Third Generation        

Lakshmi Narayana had six children, five sons, Lakshmi Narasimham, Sriramulu, Nageswara Rao, Satyanarayana and Venkateswara Rao, and adaughter, Rukmini.

Our eldest paternal uncle, Lakshmi Narasimham, was a clerk to a lawyer. He qualified himself as a commercial correspondent and bookkeeper. He had a short stint as a subcontractor and incurred heavy losses

Nageswara Rao and Venkatalakshmi

My father Nageswara often told me that his older brother played Shakesperean roles. The complete works of Shakespeare in small font, from which he byhearted the dialogues, is still with me in a brittle condition.

He was a gourmand, and even on Saturday night when he was supposed to fast in the name of Lord Venkateswara and take only fruits in small quantities, he would eat at least ten black gram cakes. Then he would drink a long tumblerful of milk and belch, though he was a diabetic.

On that fateful day, he visited a hair-cutting saloon as usual. After the cutting of the hair was over, he asked the barber to cut the hair in the nostrils of his nose. But the barber’s scissors cut the soft tissue of the nostrils unfortunately, and the tissue began to bleed profusely.

Soon the nose was infected and began to swell due to his diabetes.

My father was a qualified doctor by then. He rushed his older brother to the municipal dispensary and treated him. Despite the best medical care provided to him, he succumbed to the incurable infection. 

Sriramulu was the second son of Lakshmi Narayana. He 

had been a school teacher and started his life with a salary of twenty-five rupees a month.

He was a good drama artiste too and was acclaimed for his role of a widowed sister-in-law who derived sadistic pleasure in torturing her brother’s wife. He was also a diabetic and died in his late sixties due to a carbuncle on his back.

My father Nageswara Rao, a physician by profession, was the third son of Lakshmi Narayana, who rose from rags to riches. He settled down in Madras. He died a natural death in his early eighties.

The fourth son of Lakshmi Narayana was Satyanarayana, who was rather mentally deranged. One day his mental illness was discovered when he was giving a serious lecture on a lesson to an electric pole. He was also seen smashing the glass frames of photographs on the wall of the hall. My father treated him successfully.

He was attracted to a group of Aghoris when they visited Machilipatnam. He begged the Shakti worshippers in the crematorium to initiate him into the worship of Mother Kali.

They warned the young man that this kind of worship would be complicated, as Mother Kali might test his power of self-control. But he was obstinate. The supreme guru of the team of Aghoris pitied him and initiated him into the worship of Kali.

It was fine with him when the Goddess appeared to him in his dreams as a ten-year-old girl and played with him.

But his concentration was disturbed when she began to appear in his dreams as a beautiful young girl with alluring looks.

He stopped worshipping her and was attracted to her sexually. He gave up all rituals and began to roam around the town like a mad person in search of his dream girl.

Again, my father cured him of his hallucinations by treating him with a combination of allopathic and Ayurvedic drugs.

The last one among the sons was Venkateswara Rao, who was an Ayurvedic doctor and a fun-loving person. The moustache of one of his patients looked like that of a cat. When the patient visited his clinic, he winked at my father and observed in chaste Sanskrit, 'Hey sodhara, bidala smasru agachhati', which means that the patient with the cat moustache has come. He laughed and told the patient that the Sanskrit word meant a ‘good person'.

He also studied Amara Kosha, the Sanskrit dictionary, to some extent. He used to embarrass a swamiji during religious discourses by asking questions in Sanskrit. The swamiji begged my uncle behind the curtains to speak in Telugu only since he did not know Sanskrit. My uncle enjoyed the swamiji’s discomfiture very much. He was such a font of fun. He had a sudden death due to cerebral thrombosis in his early seventies.

Lakshmi Narayana’s sixth and last child was a daughter, Rukmini. I was deeply attached to Umamaheswaram among all her children, whose hobby was creative writing like mine. God claimed him to be His own when he was barely sixty years old.

The Fourth Generation

Lakshmi Narasimham had a daughter and a son, Janaki and Sankara, respectively. Janaki was married decently. But Sankara died an early death in his early twenties due to the health complications which arose due to the amputation of his leg. On a tragic day, he kicked a knife with a wooden base (katthipeeta in Telugu and aruvamani in Tamil) on the floor of the kitchen. When he sustained a deep cut, he pressed the wound with rice bran instead of seeking treatment from a doctor. Again, my father tried in vain to save his life. He was brought to Madras and admitted into the government general hospital. But by then, the leg was dangerously infected. The surgeons at the hospital told my father that the leg had to be amputated from the foot to the knee joint. He returned to Machilipatnam with the amputated leg and died soon, possibly due to juvenile diabetes.

Sriramulu had three children: Lakshmi Narasamma, Janaki, alias Chanti, and Hanuman. All three were no more by now.

Nageswara Rao (the blogger’s father) had seven children – Janakiram, Narayana Rao, Lakshmi Narasimha Rao, Manga, Vijaya Lakshmi, Sumathi and Madhusudhana Rao. Now, Manga, Narayana Rao and Vijaya Lakshmi were no more.

Satyanarayana had two daughters. His wife was a cook and supported the family with her meagre income. While the elder daughter disappeared from the town mysteriously, the younger one eked out her living by begging after a broken marriage. All four died a forlorn death in their eighties.

Venkateswara Rao had five children – two daughters and three sons: Sujatha, Sulochana, Lakshmi Narasimha Rao, Santharam and Muralikrishna. Lakshmi Narasimha Rao died due to cardiac arrest in his early fifties.

Fifth Generation

Janakiram has three sons: Venkata Nageswara Sarma, Krishna Kishore and Srikanth.

Narayana Rao has two children – a son and a daughter: Sridhar and Sri Sudha.

Sri Sudha and
Uppuluri Venkateswara Rao

I, the blogger, have two sons, Sivakumar and Vishnuvardhan. 

Madhusudhana Rao has a son and daughter, Krishna Praveen and Sravani, respectively.

Sumathi has three children, Madhavi, Sandhya and Prasanth.

Sridhar and Pallavi

Please pardon me for stepping out of the timeline for the time being. I will return to the mainstream shortly.

 We Jonnalagaddas entered into matrimonial alliances with reputed surnames as Yadavalli, Malladi, Bulusu, Pillalamarri, Maddur, Sishtla, Chitta, Uppaluri, Pisupati etc. My grandfather Lakshmi Narayana paid four hundred rupees KANYASULKAM (dowry to the bride), and Janakamma was married to him when she was four years old. My grandmother's surname was not available.

Vishnu Vardhan and Sharada

Sriramulu arranged the marriage of his daughter Lakshmi Narasamma with Malladi Ramamurthi, a well-established gentleman of Anandatheertha Agraharam in Guntur town. The alliances of his other two children were unknown.

Among Lakshmi Narasamma’s children, her son Malladi Venkeswara Sarma alias Venkati, now in his late seventies, was a highly successful person, holding many posts in the government and private sector as well, and has been a good friend of mine.

 My father, Nageswara Rao, tied the nuptial knot with Venkata Lakshmi, who was the nine-year-old daughter of Kuchibhotla Ramaseshaiah, a school teacher and purohit. By the time my father married my mother, it was the market of the bridegrooms, and my father was paid a grand dowry of six hundred rupees and a silver vessel as a customary gift to my paternal aunt Rukmini, called 'AADAPADUCHU LAMCHANAM' in Telugu.

Venkateswara Rao married Susila, the elder sister of Yadavalli Chakradhara Rao, and had five children – Sujatha, Sulochana, Lakshmi Narasimha Rao, Santharam and Muralikrishna. Lakshmi Narasimha Rao and Santharam had no male issues.

Santharam and Mrs Santharam

They have two daughters each. But Muralikrishna has a son and a daughter.

In the fourth generation of our Jonnalagaddas, we again entered into a matrimonial alliance with the Yadavallis. when my younger sister Sumathi was given in marriage to Yadavalli Madan Mohan.

Nageswara Rao’s elder son, Janakiram, married his maternal cousin Anasuya, the eldest daughter of Kuchibhotla Venkatapaiah. Younger son Narayana Rao (who was no more now) married Surya Varalakshmi, daughter of Dr Sarva Adisesha Sarma.

The fourth son, Madhusudhana Rao. married Venkata Krishna Bharathi, daughter of Sishtla Sitaramaiah, an astrologer at the royal court of Bobbili.

Now I return to the timeline again.

Janakiram has three sons, Venka Nageswara Sarma, Krishna Kistore and Srikanth. Venkateswara Sarma has two daughters, and Krishna Kishore has a son and daughter, Manikanta and Niharika. Srikanth has three daughters.

Narayana Rao has a son Sridhar and daughter Sri Sudha. Sridhar  has two  daughters, Maya and Arya.

Anvita and Ananya

My two sons, Sivakumar and Vishnu Vardhan married Padmaja, daughter of Cherukuri Muralikrishna, and Vishnu Vardhan was wedded to Sarada, daughter of Tirumala Srinivasulu. Both my sons have two daughters each – Shruti, Swetha, Anvita and Ananya, respectively.

Sravani and her sister

Sixth Generation

In the sixth generation of our Jonnalagaddas, Muralikrishna’s son and Krishna Kishore’s son Manikanta are the only ray of hope for continuing our pedigree further since all other Jonnalagaddas of the sixth generation are girls. Their surnames are bound to change when they get married to boys of other surnames. 

I pray to God for a male issue to Muralikrishna’s son and Manikanta’s son so that the seventh generation of our Jonnalagaddas will continue when they get married, sooner or later.

So far, this is our genealogy in a nutshell. My failing memory might have left some names of our kith and kin and their achievements among our Jonnalagaddas. If such forgotten people send me their biographical details, I shall insert them humbly. 

The Jonnalagaddas of Vaidiki Velanadu Brahmins of Kaundinyasa gothra are not to be confused with those of the Haridasa gothra of the same surname and sect.