Musings on Music
a handy music diary for writing notation by S.Rajam
Text by S.Rajam, Text assisted by "Garland" Rajagopalan, Illustration by S.Rajam
Composers
KSHETRAJNA
- Poet of Divine Love: (1610-1685)
His music & lyric share the
honours equally & it is in padams, Kshetrjna excelled. There is enchanting
beauty & exquisite finesse in his songs of dignified sringara. A great
composer who excelled in bringing out diverse emotions.
Kshetrajna was born in the last
decade of the 16th century (round about 1595) in Movva. He was an ardent
admirer of beauty in nature & life, a great deovtee of the Lord &
a keen observer of human behaviour and excelled in portraying love-life
in its entirety.
His original name appears to be Varadayya,
on his own account. This prolific composer is supposed to have composed
about 4,500 songs, but in spite of great effort by many, only about 350
are known to us today.
His patrons, as mentioned in some
of his padams were Krishnappa Naik of Ginjee, Raghunatha Naik of Tanjavur
& his son Vijayaraghava Naik.
He has composed padams in over 40
ragas, such as Khamboji, Bhairavi, Kalyani, Todi, Saveri, Bilahari &
Sankarabharanam, as well as in rare ragas such as Ghantarava, Saindhavi,
Khande. Kshetrajna's padams are specially suited for abhinaya & natya.
Though he was great scholar in Telugu & Sanskrit, he often uses colloquial
expression.
From Musings on Music - a handy
music diary for writing notation by S.Rajam
Text by S.Rajam, Text assisted
by "Garland" Rajagopalan, Illustration by S.Rajam
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