Re: reference to caste in tyAgAraja kIrtanalu
Prasad Chodavarapu (chprasad@hotmail.com)
Tue, 14 Apr 1998 16:53:04 PDT
narayans@post.drexel.edu wrote:
> In the same song, penultimate caraNam reads..
> ...modaTi kulajuDagucu bhuvini SUdrula panulu salpucunuNTini gAka..
> We may interpret such references as referring to the attributes of the
said
> caste, than to the caste itself. However, the fact remains that
tyAgarAja
used
> such words and phrases essentially in a derogatory sense. On the one
hand,
it
> may be naive to apply the current day political correctness to
writings of
> yesteryears. On the other, given the current social sensibilities and
the
> supposed sainthood of tyAgarAja, can we continue to sing these songs
as if
> they were gospel?
nAsy, you have captured the issue in four lines.
was there ever a popular singer who skipped these lines?
if not, that is a serious comment on today's practitioners of carnatic
music.
i do know that not all musicians understand telugu, still, how about
those who
do? esp., given the popularity of "duDuku gala.." as one of the panca
ratnAlu,
one would expect that atleast one artist would have shown the
sensibility to
skip these lines. we keep hearing these lines in every ArAdhana's
collective
rendition of panca ratnAs. still, not one who protested?
regards
prasad
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