Re: reference to caste in tyAgAraja kIrtanalu
Sitaramayya Ari (ari@Oakland.edu)
Wed, 15 Apr 1998 09:11:39 -0400 (EDT)
I don't have much else to say on the Krithi you mentioned. I was listening
to this at the Aradhana in Philadelphia and found it humourous because we
often talked about strategies of getting non-brahmins to attend the
Aradhana. Tyagaraja wasn't very helpful to our efforts.
Sitaramayya Ari.
On Tue, 14 Apr 1998, Nasy Sankagiri wrote:
> This was my response to Prasad's post on this topic which I wrote to RMIC.
> Prasad, I remember Sitaramayya gaaru talking about this topic some time
> ago, back in Phila, I guess. Sitaram, do you have anything to add?
>
> BTW, was any one of you at the Cleveland Aradhana this past weekend? If you
> were, please check out the 'Aradhana Top Ten list' I posted to RMIC.
> Nasy
>
>
> >
> >In article <6gvq18$lk$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>,
> > chprasad@hotmail.com wrote:
> >
> >> also, are there any more kIrtanalu where tyAgayya refers to castes?
> >>
> >> regards
> >> prasad
> >>
> >
> >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?
> >An aside: as far as I know, there is no evidence in tyAgarAja's writings that
> >he was a champion of the downtrodden - compared to, say annamayya's 'brahma
> >mokkaTE'. He was a stern and outspoken critic of brahmin bigotry - condemning
> >ostentatious religious practices in kRUtis like 'teliya lEru rAma'. However,
> >he seemed to have practiced all the prescribed brahmin rituals daily. He even
> >debates karma vs. bhakti philosophies (dwaitamu sukhamA)...all this still
> >doesn't make him a champion of the downtrodden.
> >
> >I wonder how a singer belonging to the said caste feels about such songs!
> >
> >Regards,
> >Nasy
> >
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> >
>
>
>