Establishing the authorship of Mārgadarśi Śēṣayyaṅgār’s compositions

Establishing the authorship of Mārgadarśi Śēṣayyaṅgār’s compositions

Dr. Srividhya R. S. Iyer

June 2021

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English

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Mārgadarśi Śēṣayyaṅgār or Śēṣarāmānuja Kavi, a 17th century pre-trinity composer, has been looked upon as a Mārgadarśi, by his peers. His compositions are in Sanskrit, and have served as models for the form kṛti, as pointed out by Maharaja Svati Tirunal in Muhanaprāsāntyaprāsa vyavastha. However, not many of his compositions are sung in today’s parlance. Of the fifty-six compositions obtained from various sources, fourteen songs are of doubtful authorship - some are without the vāggēyakāra mudra – ‘Kōsala’ and some have been wrongly attributed to other composers. After drawing parallels between these and other authentic compositions of the vāggēyakāra, the attribution of the above compositions shall
be determined.