P: veekṣhitōham dhanyōham
M K: vēgavara tanaya kamala nayanēna vidhi nuta hari pada vimala hrdayēna - iha (veekṣhitōham)

A: sākṣhi bhoota tapana sanga varēṇa
sarvadā shree rāma nāma smaraṇēna
MK: janaka sutā shishira vachana pātra chalita gagana vara sādhu mitrēṇa - iha (veekṣhitōham)

C: ātanka mukha vāli tanayādi atirava veeragaṇa ānata padēna
sādhaka viha sama tāraka pāṭhanēna dānava kula bheekara mukha varēṇa
M K: samudita madhuvana sanga tungēna dasharatha dvitanaya sankaṭa harēṇa
sumukha bhakti virachita vachanēna sulabha manōhara sukrta tapasēna - iha (veekṣhitōham)


1. vEga-vaha seems to be the more appropriate reading for the wind god, rather than vEga-vara. This is a [literal] synonym of Ashu-ga, another term for the wind [vide ghana-Agha-jImUta-Ashuga in tyagarAja's mALavi song]

2. It needn't be pAtrEna, which is also correct. A samAsa (compound) of two epithets is allowed, hence the whole phrase janaka-sutA...-mitrENa can be treated as one word, made up of two names.

3. It is a peculiarity of VenkaTasubba kavi that he has not always made a sandhi, when there is a samAsa, which is mandatory in classic sanskRt grammar. It may have been crafted that way by the vaggEyakAra for better comprehension, or the oral transmission may have been that way. The first line line of the carana has this feature in several places.

4. sādhaka viha sama tāraka pāṭhanēna - this is not clear.

5. Similarly - sanga-tungEna, which OVK seems to use a lot.

5. The usage of tApasEna is wrong. tapas is a sakArAnta noun and the third vibhakti/ instrumental case will be tapasA, either by itself, or in a compound.

Good analysis Keerthi!
I believe the sandhi was dissolved for the convenience of singing by those who took the notes. These lyrics have been retreived from the notes kept by the family over the years. Most certainly there will be transcription and grammatical errors.
I interpret
sākṣhi bhoota tapana sanga varēṇa
as by being the witness in the company of the blessed Sugriva (tapana = Sun clan)
Regarding 4, I read it as
sādhaka sama iha tāraka pāṭhanēna
Like the 'realized ones' expounding the glory of tAraka mantra (rAma naamam) in this world;
perhaps even referring to Hanuman expounding the greatness of Rama in the sadas right after the paTTabhishekam...

In regard to 5 we can interpret tapasaH as the sun though interrpretation is convoluted...

Yes, it is one of his typical usages.

tunga: prominent , chief, lofty etc.

samudita madhuvana sanga tungēna = prominent among those who revelled in madhuvana. After Seeta was located by Anjaneya in Lanka, the vanaras had a feast there before meeting Rama. (This may not necessarily be taken literally as Anjaneya was the most prominent reveller... The incident is merely being referred to in a poetic manner.)



Sadhaka: Effective, productive, energising, magical etc...

Viha: Sky

sādhaka viha sama tāraka pāṭhanēna = one who is intent on the taraka nama, whose effectiveness/magic is as immense as the sky.

Most sandhis, as CML says are other's interpretations - sometimes for musical convenience. [In fact, in some of NKB's books, they have even made sandhis out of Raga and Tala - Sahana - Adi has been written as SahanAdi].



I covered this earlier in post #96.
-------------------------------------------

P S: sandhi is a where most of us musicians tend to slip up. For instance, there are numerous sandhis in Tyagaraja swami's Jagadanandakaraka. But we singers have no qualms murdering it at will - so that we can continue to breath and survive. Even in aradhanas, we collectively draw our breath exactly at the wrong time... Just a few (out of several dozen) examples:

1. jagadA.....-------......nanda kAraka (Ananda)
2. paripUrNA.....-----.............nagha (anagha)
3. shubhakarA....--------....... nEka (anEka - jagadAnanda)

It is easier to educate smaller groups of artistes/students about not splitting phrases like this:
4. anurA .......---------......... garA garA jita (anurAga rAga rAjita)

I missed #96. Thanks for the clarifications.
Since these are written notes, are there more than one version of the same sahitya (probably in a different raga ?

Not to the best of my knowledge!

Here is another composition on Anjaneya in Madhyamavati. They may have to be checkedc for typos...

Madhyamavati Adi

P: bhakta bhAgadhEyA AnjanEyA
M K: bhAvita rAghava jAnaki dhoota pAvana tAraka nAma sannAda
pAlayamAm AnjanEyA

A: mukti sukha nAma lOla ati dheera
mOhana rAma pada sArasa vihAra
M K: mudita sadA hrdaya sadaya kAya jita sakala mAya sukrta anapAya (pAlayamAm)

C: naigama sArAmrta vachana - nata
shubhakara bhoosura hrdi ramaNa
ayi karuNArasa poorita nayana
alalita durjana bheekarAnana
M K: ati dhrtakara vara putra sucharitra amala pavitra raghurAma mitra (pAlayamAm)

Again, he uses a different name for the God of Wind - ati dhrtakara . Every section leads to the last line of the Pallavi. The MK in Pallavi has been inserted between two slower lines, which makes the musical movement colourful.

I feel vEga vara is not inappropriate either.

vEga meaning rapidity, quickness

vara meaning the best, valuable

The son who was very valuable and rapid/quick.

Come to think of it, sAkSI-bhUta-tapana-sanga-varENa , seems to point to how hanumAn made rAma and sugrIva take vows of lifelong friendship, in the presence of fire.

tatO hanUmAn samtyajya bhikSu-rUpam arindamaH || 4-5-13
kASThayOH svena rUpENa janayAmAsa pAvakam |
dIpyamAnam tatO vahnim puSpaiH abhyarcya satkRtam || 4-5-14
tayor madhyE tu suprItO nidadhau susamAhitaH |

Then the destroyer of enemies - Hanuman, discarding the guise of ascetic assumed his original monkey form, and on producing fire with two sticks then made it to glow. decorated, worshipped with flowers, then gladly and devoutly placed that fire in between Rama and Sugreeva.





While the plasticity of sanskRt allows for a lot of interpretation, I think there are satisfactory and not-so-satisfactory ones. If we're content with our attempt to try and explain away whatever lyric is available, no problem; but if we spend some time examining it critically, we can occasionally hit upon the more correct lyric.

There are other synonyms of vAyu like sadAgati, Ashuga that seem to support vEga-vaha-tanaya as a more natural reading, than 'the fast excellent son'.

sandhi - shubhakarA - nEka and -nurA gara gara jita aren't cases of disjointed sandhi. These are cases of padacchEda.

Examples like vraja-sundari-pada-pankaja-sama-anukampita from the nAttai song bhajanAmRta, are what I'm referring to. This sandhi-separation is again something that Venkatakavi has used a lot, and we must treat it as a particularity of the poet's version of the language.

Sorry, I should have typed it as: madahara+anuraga (in fact, the 1st and 5th charanams are replete with deergha sandhi).

shubhakara+anEka is a sandhi.



I have noticed examples where this happens but in this case, sama+anukampita can be rendered as samAnukampita without affecting the tala/meter. But I often split many savarna deergha sandhis in songs of other composers too to:

(1) project each word since I relish the combination of words as much as the meaning (b) ensure that my disciples do not split words wrong (c) facilitate listeners follow meanings quicker even as they listen.

Again, those capable of projecting longer words clearly and those capable of holding breath longer don't have to split. I have told some of them to practice singing whole charanas in Pancharatna/Saptaratna in one breath. Even though they don't have to do it in concerts, it will give them good breath control to be able to choose the right time to breath.



Is not appropriate. vEga vaha is not incorrect. But vEga vara, as an equivalent of sadAgati is not inapt - just as ati dhrta kara putra in the Madhyamavati song I have posted. OVK and Trinity were creative in coming up with such synonyms, which may not exactly be in the rule book.

For example: brahmAnanda has been referred to as vAgIshAnanda by T (Ramaneepai - Kedaram) and as kamalajAnanda by MD (Kamalamba - Anandabhairavi) even though eternal bliss is considered by philosophers to be even beyond the 4-faced Brahma, Vishnu or Shiva.

Keerthi
That is a nice contextual explanation of the term sAkShibUta tapana sanga varENa.
The word tapana is doing double duty for fire as well as Sugriva (son of Surya)...

In the madhyamavati the words in pallavi should be 'AnjanEya' since they are in the vocative.
The long vowel is used in Tamil in the vocative but not in sanskrit. Perhaps some OVK songs in sanskrit have been influenced by Tamil grammar...

I am at a loss to see the similarity in meaning of vEga vara/vaha or Ashuga with ati dhrtakara.
Is it tvaritakara?

Sri MDR in one of his compositions refers to this incident as 'arkka vamshattAn avan arkkat-tanaiyanODum agni sAkSikamAgavE Aruyir naNbanAna en'

...beautiful alliteration too!

This is fascinating indeed. I had instinctively associated dhrta with vEga. But after you posted, I asked myself why had I done so... tvarita is the normal word in Sanskrit for quick, expeditious etc.

It then dawned on me that OVK has intentionally used ati dhrta here - which does mean fast. But is not generally known to scholars outside the music circle. The concept of laya in music is divided into vilamba, madhyama and dhrta (slow, medium, fast), with extremes known as ati-vilamba and ati-dhrta. HM continues to use this. So,

ati dhrta kara vara putra as son of vAyu (vEga vara) is an intentional usage.

Sanskrit scholars have noticed OVK's ability to extend the frontiers of the language and come up with novel usages such as radanAmbara (to mean lips). I addressed this briefly in my book too.

The sanskRt word for fast is druta and not dhRta.

This is seen in the music terminology of vilambit(a) and drut(a) passages/ compositions. [As RK points out]

This in Tamizh land has been transformed to durita kAla, which is funny since durita means sin in sanskRt.

dhRta come from the root dhR/dhar which is only used in the sense of 'borne'.


Again, shouldn't it be druta-gama or druta-gati or druta-vaha instead of druta-vara? Same applies for vEga. vEga-vara and druta vara need a precedent atleast in terms of an equivalent.

radanAmbara isn't particularly novel, the cognate word radanac-chada for lips is found in the kOsha-s and has been used before.

cml,
tapana, while listed in epithets for the sun [aditya hrdayam and other stOtra-s], is never used to address the sun, as it then confounds the meaning as fire. Here, while the episode involves sugrIva, I'm not sure if tapana-sanga can be interpreted as referring to him.

Perfectly correct. It should be written as druta - it is not dhrta (just an example of the kind of errors creeping in when one sees the words of a Sanskrit songs in Tamil and then re-writes in English). So the correct phrases in these two songs can be:

druta kara (not vara) - one who is very swift.
vEga vara - one of superior speed.

- the word is not exactly novel... There are others who have used danta-vastra as well. I meant that this particular combination is not often seen.

About sAkShi bhUta tapana: Surya is considered to be sarva sAkShi (MD also uses sarvasAkShiNe in the navagraha krti, Surya moorte). So, the combo of sAkShri bhUta tapana could be more a direct reference to the sun...?

There are many references to the sun god as jagat-sakSin or vishwa-sakSin, but I felt that sAkSi must bear more directly on hanumAn, after all, the song is about him.

We will never really know the poet's intention, and can only examine the plausibility of our surmises.

Is the audio of the madhyamavati avalable?

Dear cml

The madhyamavati kriti, Bhakta Bhagadeya, has been featured as part of an album called "Divine Equations" that I got from Hema Rajagopalan, Chicago based dancer. You can contact them through this link

http://www.natya.com/contact

Thanks Hamsa
I'll try. The free availability of OVK kritis with audio is essential for it to be known well among the CM learners and practioners. At present OVK is still in the 'dark ages'. It is time to bring him into lime light through the concerted efforts of all CM afficianados. I find not too many good renderings at the sangitapriya site. The easy availability of the audio and the lyrics will encourage young CM learners to start rendering them in concerts for rasikas to appreciate OVK's greatness. Just a few only like
alaipAyuthe, thaaye yashoda, kuzhaloodi, asaindaaDum are known well among the rasika public but the rest are quite unknown let alone the sapta ratnas.. Perhaps a prominant site with lyrics and audios will help popularize OVK and may be we should strive for one under the leadership of RK....

Here is another short piece on Anjaneya. I have proofed it to an extent but please feel free to point out any other typos/etc.

The opening is striking and the while the first 2 sections contain dviteeyakshara, the charanam features antyakshara prasa.


Tōḍi Ādi

P. anjanānandāmbōdhi chandrā
anupama guṇavara jitēndra māmava
AP. sanjita bhava bhaya sāgara taraṇa
svāmi raghunātha charaṇa suramaṇa
C. shree karuṇālaya divya shareera
dēva tapana mukha sangāti shoora
āgama nava para vēdita veera
ānjanēya bhaktālankāra

jitEndra = conquered Indra does not fit him.
Is it jitEndriya = conquered passions
sangAti ???
Is it sanga + Adi = coflicts/battle etc,
Actually the composition appears like a sloppy patchwork of several disconnected adjectives.
There is no connective theme. Looks very pedestrian!
Is there a musically redeeming audio?
Is this really by OVK?

You are right, it should be jiTendriya.


I would imagine the correct spelling to be sangata ('an alliance') or sangati (coming together, meeting, association) with the hot Sun God... Pls feel to correct!


I am in the process of learning the piece and intend to present it sometime soon.


Most one-off devotional songs are with no particular theme. But looking at the theme of his other Anjaneya pieces, we do come across some of his usual references like the Sun God.


I got it along with his other Anjaneya compositions. The opening is original but the rest of the piece is definitely simpler than some of his other pieces. I will share a brilliant piece on Lord Shiva in my next post.

Kharaharapriya Adi

P: sundara naTarAjam shivakAma sundari hrdayEsham - santatam cintaya mAnasa rE

A: nandi dEva canDIshAdi nandita munijana hrdayOllAsam
indu shekhara kuTilAlaka vrta hayakara mukha para mandahAsam

MK: hiraNya maya nUpura pada kaTakArava maya kala kala nAda sahAsam
sharaNya jana manOlaya vilAsam sachidAnanda kanaka sabhEsham - sOma (sundara)

C: gnyAna bOdhana karAnguli gaNa nava nava calita vilAsam
nata patanjali pANini mana laharI krta suvilAsam
gAna maya gandharvAdi sEvita hAhAkAra naTanEsham
kaivalya vara dAyaka parama kAruNya chidambarEsham

MK: hara hara shankara gowrIsham dhrta kara mandAkini mouLIsham
sura vara sannuta lingEsham hrdi sundari chAyAnandEsham - niravadhika (sundara)

------------------
I have typed this from memory - so pls let me know if there are typos...

The treatment of Kharaharapriya by OVK is very bright and distinctive. He has composed other masterpieces such as Rasa keli vilasa and Champakaranya in this raga.

sangAdi shoora = expert in fights etc.,
sangata shoora = expert in making alliances
Later is good referring to his expert sponsoring the alliance between Rama and Surgriva.
Share wth us when you have mastered the kriti. Todi sounds good as a slow piece...

Will study the one on Siva with care...
So does this explode the myth that Kharaharapriya was unknown before Thyagaraja?
How does OVK handle the raga?

I am at loss interpreting
vRta hayakara mukha
I am sure it does not refer to hayagrIva
Does he refer to tumburu ?
Reference to pANini is intriguing. He is probably referring to PANini learning the Siva sutras!
mandAkini mouLIsham = ganga on the head
What is 'dhrta kara ' referring to?

Sounds quite OVK with unbeatable rhythmic sounds picturesquely describing the dance of Siva!The double MK is interesting...
Would love to hear the kharaharapriya rendering...