Madugula Nagaphani Sarma

In an avadhanam, a poet answers challenges from many scholars at once, composing verses on the spot and remembering every thread. Madugula Nagaphani Sarma has done more than anyone in his time to bring this art to large audiences. In 2025 he was named for the Padma Shri in the field of art, from Andhra Pradesh ^[1].

The youngest avadhani

Sarma was born on 8 June 1958 and learned the Vedas from his father as a child ^[2]. He studied at Sri Venkateswara and Andhra universities and earned a PhD in Sanskrit in 1996 ^[2]. He performed his first avadhanam at 14, becoming the youngest avadhani in the country ^[2].

Thousands of performances

Over more than fifty years he has performed more than 2,000 avadhanams, in India and in countries including the United States, Australia, Singapore and the UK ^[2]. He is the only avadhani to have performed a maha sahasravadhanam with 1,116 scholars, and later one with 2,116 scholars, in Sanskrit and Telugu ^[2]. He has added new forms, such as setting extempore verse to the footwork of dance ^[2].

He has written more than 40 books and 33,000 poems ^[2]. About thirty years ago he founded the Avadhana Saraswathi Peetham, an ashram with a Saraswati temple and a shelter for more than 100 native cows ^[2]. He also chaired the official language commission of undivided Andhra Pradesh from 1999 to 2002 ^[2].