Dedicated to the ever living memory of Sri K. Muthuswamy , my co-brother

     Dedicated    to the ever living memory  of Sri K. Muthuswamy , my  co-brother

    Today I completed   another   project of mine  -The translation of all    the 675 available Krithis   contributed     by  Saint Thyagaraja . Though a Keralite by birth  I was brought up   in  Secunderabad  of Andhra Pradesh when I was a young boy. I also had the good fortune of living   in Rajamahendravaram   , the cultural cxapital of Andhra  . This helped   me to understand spoken Telugu.But    as fate would have it , I did not  learn how to   read or write  Telugu  . Inspite of this I had a great desire    to translate   all the Krithis  of Thyagaraja . With lot of effort    consulting   several books  I could translate    about 200   Thyagaraja Krithis . Possibly Rama wanted  me   to   do service to him   and due to that   for almost three  years  I was engaged in translation of three versions of  Ramayana written   in Malayalam, Sanskrit and Tamil in that order .When I was busy  doing that  , I had to attend a marriage  of a relation in Mumbai  . That marriage   was attended by  my sister in law Smt.Janaki Muthuswami     and her daughter  Meenakshi  Muthuswamy . They had come   to attend   the marriage    with a huge parcel .  When I met them , they told  me  that   they have brought me a present   which I would  like.  When I opened the parcel , my surprise knew no bounds  , Because I saw  few books on the translation   of Thyagaraja Krithis   in to Tamil.  The most comprehensive and authoritative   one was that   written by   the well known  musicologist Sri T.S.Parthasarathy . I felt   that  it was sent to me by my Lord  Rama and my  late  co brother Sri Muthuswamy,  for   realization of my dream  .

       I would like to dedicate   this great  work under the guidance  of my Lord Rama   to   late

                                                 Sri K. Muthuswamy ,

             Retired Director of  Office of Textile commissioner  , Mumbai ,

        He hailed from a very noble family  of Kumbhakonam . He had told me that  one of his forefathers    was honoured by   the  Tanjore king for his   scholarship  and that   the family   had its own private   temple  in Kumbhakonam .   He was a scholar in his own right   on subjects like Tamil, Religion, Politics  , Textile Technology   and Carnatic music. Every time  I used to meet him, I used   to come back enriched   with  his encyclopedic knowledge  He was a great devotee  of Maha Periyavaa   as well as   the present  Acharya  HH Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal  and possibly    due to this he was  an authority  on Tamil culture    and Carnatic Music. Today  After   completion   of the translation  of   the encyclopedia   on songs  praising Lord Rama, I feel  That I am indebted  to  my Lord Rama   and guidance of  the great soul Sri K.Muthuswami. You can find my  translations in my blog http://translationsofsomesongsofcarnticmusic.blogspot.in/

                                                     P.R.Ramachander