Multiple vaggeyakara mudhras in kritis

[sureshvv]

It seems some of our vaggeyakaras embed additional mudras in their kritis, as if to create some confusion as to the identity of the composer. There are instances of kritis wrongly attributed to the other composer because of this practice.

Is this deliberate mischief or a kind of intentional tribute/acknowlegement of the other composer?

[rshankar]

Examples?

[sureshvv]

1. Sri kamakshi katakshi in Vasantha (has Vedapuri indicating Tiruvarur Ramasamy Pillai & Kumara which causes some to wrongly attribute it to Subbaraya Sastry). See this thread: http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2828

2. Neeye sharan shanmuga in kambodhi by Sivan: Has Rajapujitha. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xeQoLefTyQ

3. Ka va va in Varali - Has padmanabha (& Muthaiah )

[rajeshnat]

needu charanamula - simmhendra madhyamam has thyagaraja mudra. The composer is K V Srinivasa Iyengar

[sureshvv]

That one is the case of the composer using a more popular composer's mudhra rather than one of his own. So it is slightly different.

In these kritis, the actual vaggeyakara mudhra is present but additional (one or more) mudhras get thrown in - may be as a shout out to the other composer

[sureshvv]

4. Anudinamu in begada, has srinivasa and additionally venkateswara

[KRISHNAMOORTHY]

IMO, in most of the cases it is not deliberate. For example the deekShitar kritis, tyAgarAja yOga vaibhavam (Anandabhairavi), , tyAgarAja pAlayAsu mAm (gauLa) etc. These are compositions in praise of tYagarAjar at tiruvArUr and naturally the word tyAgarAja, which is also the ankita mudra of saint tyAgarAja , appears in these kritis. Similarly any kriti on padmanAbha will have the word padmanAbha or its synonyms and they are likely to be attributed to svAti tirunAL.

[shankarank]

If somebody is that capable to match the yati-viSrama of tyAgaraja and his artha bhAva - I will take it as is without worrying about it..
nItu caranamulE shows weakness right after gati yani!

Of his own siShya parampara - ninnu jUci samyudaiti is no match for the grandeur of Sri gaNapati nI, paridAna mItchitE is no amma ravamma ( raga being different is ignored - as we are talking metrical structure super imposed on tAla flow).

dEva dEva kalayami is no tulasi daLa.

So it does not matter if tyAgaraja or somebody capable of his era composed some or all of the songs - the ones that shine are simply the ones that fulfil his vision in yati viSrama of sogasuga mridanga tAlamu. There was one rasika who even questioned if this kriti (sogasuga mridanga tAlamu) was composed by tyAgaraja.

The viSrAnti signature is akin to the right handed helical structure of DNA that tells us all life originated from one initial cell.. or the relic background microwave radiation that is taken as proof of a singular event called the Big Bang.

But then I would still entertain the possibility that there were more than one individual that contributed to tyAgaraja corpus purely on academic probability.

The official site of his Aradhana doesn't have the guts to shake off all this historicity and be gung ho about him! http://thiruvaiyaruthyagarajaaradhana.org/aradhana.html

So much talk on all controversies and lack of historical records!

A culture which used to think "rishi mUla and nadi mUla should never be inquired" now needs historicity to prove it's authenticity!!

[arasi]

sureshvv,
Intriguing yes, certainly possible in few instances, but as Krishnamoorthy points out, this may not be intentional in many cases. With most of us having godly names in our culture, this is bound to happen when a particular god is invoked in a song. As an aside, Spenser Venugopal and Brazil Subramanian (?) certainly did not weave their so called names into their songs!

A barely known composer I am, and my songs are without any mudrA. In the beginning, I had notebooks where I wrote: aruLpADi pADalgaL! Most of the songs had the word aruL in them...

Shankarank,
Isn't that ninnu jUci dhanyuDaiti? Very interesting post (prose--not poetry ) from you as always...

[shankarank]

tyAgaraja will go down in history as the composer who inspired tIrmanams such as this ( 23:10 minutes) as they play nada suda rasam : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLS23iMhAP8 - 20:00 minutes - they produce some effect with gap filled sollus!

tyAgaraja lives in their bones!

Even some apparent lack of alignment of the nayanakaras doesn't bother me!

[shankarank]

Arasi.. yes dhanyuDaiti - thanks for the correction - again got it wrong from a memory of hearing it wrong..