Pallavi
A daya shrI raghuvara! nEDEla rAdaya? O dayAMbudhi nI (kAdaya)
Anupallavi
mOdamutO sadbhakti marmamunu bOdhana jEsi sadA brOcina nI (kAdaya)
Charanam
ninnu tiTTikoTTi himsa beTTina danniyu nannana lEdA? Ennaraani nindala tALumani mannincaga lEdA? Annamu tAMbUlamosagi dEhamu minna jEya lEdA? kannatalli taNDri mEmanucu tyAgarAjuniki paravasha mIlEdA? (A daya)
Meaning
Pallavi : O Lord SrI raghuvara! O Ocean of Compassion! Why wouldn’t You have that compassion today?
Anupallavi : Why wouldn’t You, who always protected me kindly by teaching the secrets of true devotion, have that compassion today?
Charanam : Didn’t You say “all violence perpetrated on you by abusing and beating, amounts to having been done to Me”? didn’t You commend me to forbear abuses, no matter what happens? didn’t You make my body shine by offering food and betel leaves? didn’t You bestow on this tyAgarAja exhilaration by asserting that “We are the parents who bore You”?
Notes
Pallavi : rAdaya – though this has been split as ‘rAdu+aya’; however, the word ‘aya’ does not seem to be available. It is not known whether this is a colloquial usage to mean ‘Lord’ (ayya).
Charanam : In the book of TSV/AKG, the caraNa is divided into two; beginning from ‘annamu tAmbUlamu’ has been treated as the second caraNa. All other books contain the whole as a single caraNa.
Charanam : mannincaga – this word means ‘forgive’, ‘respect’, ‘honour’, ‘obey’, ‘accede’ etc. In the present context, there is some doubt about meaning of this word, particularly in view of the background of the song given below.
Background
The great exponent of harikathA – SrI TS Balakrishna Sastrigal, in his discourse ‘tyAgarAja caritraM’, states that this song was sung by SrI tyAgarAja after the incident wherein his elder brother beat him and consequently SrI tyAgarAja remained in coma for more than five days. During the period of coma, Lord SrI rAma, along with sItA appeared before him and spoke to his inner body (sUkShma SarIra) on the lines as stated in the song ‘ninnu tiTTi koTTi hiMsa beTTinadanniyu nannu’ – ‘the violence – verbal and physical – perpetrated on you amounts to having been done to Me’. Subsequently, the Lord is said to have soothed SrI tyAgarAja’s body by touching the wound; after the incident SrI tyAgarAja woke up, as if from sleep, fully recovered. According to SrI Balakrishna Sastrigal, in this song, SrI tyAgarAja asks the Lord to pardon his brother for the offence.