[Now they switch sides and Swami questions while Sri Vijay Shiva answers. The following is prone to a lot of errors because of my lack of knowledge in music, telugu, some terms.]
Swami: I have some questions also and I want to say that I know nothing about music. My father was a great singer and so was my entire family but somehow I could not learn it, I confess.
[Note - Here we have to be careful . When Swami says He knows nothing or when people like me say I know a lot - these two should be eyed with suspicion.]
Swami: Thyagarajar swami took birth and lived for Rama only. What has he told about Ramayana, the poem or about Rama in general?
Sri Vijay Shiva: Thyagarajar used to do Ramayana parayanam [Kacheri, music concert] daily. We have this belief that he was Valmiki's avataram. The sage Valmiki did not attain peace after singing 24000 verses as He wanted to do kirtan among general audience.
We have pramanas for this is in his kirtans. For e.g., in "SitamAmAyama" (???), he gives the list of all his relations - except valmiki. [Swami nods with interest and says: true true].
Like this we have many evidences. Each of his kirtan will indicate some incident in Valmiki Ramayana. [He gives an example in nAdOpasana: with a usage of "tantri laya svarou" (?) and enquires if this comes in Valmiki Ramayana and Swami nods in approval. He also gives examples from sabri moksha, Rama and Ravana war to illustrate the same. He also points out to kirtan which describes the incident when Rama tries to convince Ravana to return Sita using - Sama, dhana, bheda, danda. As Sama - advising kindly, danam - giving Ayodhya in return, Assuring moksham to him as he had given to his brother, Vibhishana and finally about punishing him.]
He has rendered all this into kirtans. And so, in each of his kirtans there is an exact reference to something in Valmiki Ramayana. His is a major contribution and that's why listening to his kirtan is same as listening to Valmiki Ramayana.
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