Thanks for the feedback. We hope to cover the Surati varna on similar lines as a part of an upcoming blogpost on the Ettayapuram Rajah.

Keerthi,

1. Thanks for clarifying on the tirunelu/dhIrunelu sahitya ( Garavamu ganna) and its meaning.

2. The reference “srI-rAma-bhUpuni bAla sitA-rAma-bhUpAla” in the Veena Seshanna (1852-1926)’s Sankarabharana tillana must be to Maharaja Seetha Rama Bhupala a raja of the Gadwal samsthanam ( in modern day Andhrapradesh, famous for the Gadwal sarees). It was in this samasthanam that in 1919 Narada’s Sangita Makaranda was found.Incidentally he was also a patron of the Telugu poet duo of Tirupati Sastri and venkata Sastri. This is documented by Salva Krishnamurthi in his book. There was another Maharaja Ramabhupala of the samasthana of Atmakur during the period of 1888-1930.Not sure if he had a son named Seetha Rama Bhupala. So with the available facts I am inclined to believe that the Sankarabharana tillana refers to the Seetha Ramabhupala of Gadwal as the timelines too agree. It is certainly not on the Sethupathis.

3. As you mention, its recorded that Seshanna visited the Ramnad Court & Bhaskara had showered gifts on him. But we do not seem to have any reference to compositions if any he had created on Bhaskara.

4. On the Sindhubhairavi/Todi tillana- yes its indeed yet another perplexing question. As I mentioned in an earlier blogpost, we do have a version of the Pallavi Gopala Iyer Kambhoji varna “Intachalamu” with the poshaka mudra as “tulajendruni vara tanaya sarbhojendra”, while the standard version sports the ankita ” chamarenjundrini vara tanaya abhraraya chamdra”. Whose mischief it is we would never know for sure. And in the context of the Sindhubhairavi tillana ( One can speculate that the Todi morphed off to Desya Todi /Sindhubhairavi ),there it is for us, recorded as having been composed on Panditurai tevar. Was it really not Poochi’s or was it an act of plagiarism, one would never know. Anyways for those of us who would be interested to hear the composition- here is one rendered by Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer as he concludes a concert with this Sindhubhairavi piece.

http://guruguha.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/tillana-sindubhairavi.mp3

Here is the text of the tillana ( courtesy Sri Lakshman Ragde):

nAdhru dhru dhIm – rAgA: sindhubhairavi- Adi tALA – Composer: Poochi Iyengar

Pallavi : nAdhru dhru dhIm dhImta tana dhiranA tadara tAni tom dhru dhru dhIm dhIm tanana

Anupallavi : nAdhru tAni tomdhru tAni tanOm tanadhirana tadara tAni dhrudhru dhIm tananam jham tarikiTa takaNam tarikiTataka takaNaka takajhaNu dhimitari kiTataka ga rI ni dha ni ma gA ri sa ni pA dha ni

Carana : vitaraNa guNa shIla su-paNDita gAyaka samAja kavi janApta su-hrdaya vijayashrI ugra pANDya dhIrA kavita janAdhAra sukumAra
(sing the anupallavi and finally the pallavi)

If you do have the Todi version please do upload assuming it has no copyright issues.

Ravi Rajagopalan

1. the meaning of tirunElu – It is srI-bhAskara-dhIrunelu – a plea to rAjarAjEswari that she protect(Elu) the gallant (dhIru) by the name of bhAskara.

2.
- NadiridiridhImta, a tillAna in ‘Thodi’ sung by R.K.Srikantan for a radio programme on PaTnam.S.Iyer, which had a clip of vasudevAcharya’s voice (So, presumably the programme was made in his lifetime, and he approved the script.) has the following lyric for the caraNa –

vitaranaguna-shIla supandita-gayaka-samAja kavijanApta-suhrdaya
vijaya srI camarajEndra sritajanodAra sukumAra

- Then again RKS has sung the same tillAna in a CD of SheSaNNa’s compositions.
It has been published by SheSaNNa’s grandson Swaramurthy V.N.Rao, in his compilation of SheSaNNa’s songs.

- Salem.D. Chellam IyengAr’s book of (pUchi)Ramanathapuram SrInivAsa IyengAr’s songs, gives the same tillAna, as RSI’s composition, listing the rAga as Sindhubhairavi.

Of course he also attributes the padam maname bhUshanamu, and the javali JanarO I mOhamu to puchi IyengAr. This suggests that chellam iyengAr may have printed everything from his father’s notebooks, under the impression that they were PUchi’s songs, (while some might have just been pieces from his repertoire)

The lyric is as below –

vitaraNa guNashIla su-paNDita gAyaka samAja kavijanApta su-hrdaya
vijayashrI ugra pANDya dhIra shrta janAdhAra sukumara

The same tillana, now is found, attributed to SheSaNNa, PaTnam Subrahmanya Ayyar, and to PUchi (RAmanAthapuram) SrInivAsa ayyangAr. (A mAdhva, an Iyer and an AyyangAr!!)

There is evidence of Sheshanna having performed at RamnAd, and he has in the Sankarabharanam tillana referred to srI-rAma-bhUpuni bAla sitA-rAma-bhUpAla; who is most likely one of the setupati-s.