Swati Tirunal's compositions and why do they plagiarize
Rema Hariharan
I was listening to this CD by K.V.Narayanaswamy where the first song
is in the raga Huseni (listed as Useni) "Pahimam Bruhannayike". As it
turns out this song was not composed by Swati Tirunal. It was composed
by a Devadasi in Pudukkottai. I have heard my mother sing this song
and her Guru (Late Jayarama Sir, as she refers to him) had taught it to
them saying that this is a composition by such and such Devadasi (I wish
I could remember her name as I am typing this mail!). Moreover, the song
refers to the Goddess as "Shri Gokarneshwara Sahite" and Gokarneshwara
temple is in Pudukkottai. Apparently most people from Pudukkottai know
about this composition and the composer.
I did talk to my mother about this song and she mentioned to me that
the Tiruvananthapuram Academy folks have been doing this to many other
songs, for which the composer is not known and the word "Padmanabha"
figures somewhere. While there is so much controversy floating around
about whether Swati Tirunal was indeed the composer of all the songs that
indeed display all his mastery over all languages etc. (it is always a
problem I guess if you are the king!), I wonder why people like KVN have
been worsening it by "stealing" songs by these unknown composers and
attributing them to Swati Tirunal?
Chodavarapu Sri Ramarao
In article <4qhd2b$3...@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net>
Rema Hariharan <re...@worldnet.att.net> writes:
> While there is so much controversy floating around
> about whether Swati Tirunal was indeed the composer of all the songs that
> indeed display all his mastery over all languages etc. (it is always a
> problem I guess if you are the king!), I wonder why people like KVN have
> been worsening it by "stealing" songs by these unknown composers and
> attributing them to Swati Tirunal
Not only swAti tiruNAL. Plagiarisms abound with other composers also.
Prof. Tr subrahmaNyam told me recently that 'gnAnamosagarAda' the
composition by tyagaraja in pUrvIkalyANi is not -in the professor's
opinion- tyAgarAjA's work at all, and hence he refuses to sing it in
concerts. I read that sItApatE in kamAs is also not written by but
attributed to tyAgarAja. My teacher once told me that dr. bAlamurali
is doing research into determining the originality of all the
compositions attributed to purandara dAsa.
As to why KVN sings a particular piece of doubtful antecedents- may be
he thinks its genuine?
Ramarao
Ram
Rema Hariharan <re...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>I was listening to this CD by K.V.Narayanaswamy where the first song
>is in the raga Huseni (listed as Useni) "Pahimam Bruhannayike". As it
>turns out this song was not composed by Swati Tirunal. It was composed
>by a Devadasi in Pudukkottai. I have heard my mother sing this song
>and her Guru (Late Jayarama Sir, as she refers to him) had taught it to
>them saying that this is a composition by such and such Devadasi (I wish
>I could remember her name as I am typing this mail!). Moreover, the song
>refers to the Goddess as "Shri Gokarneshwara Sahite" and Gokarneshwara
>temple is in Pudukkottai. Apparently most people from Pudukkottai know
>about this composition and the composer.
>I did talk to my mother about this song and she mentioned to me that
>the Tiruvananthapuram Academy folks have been doing this to many other
>songs, for which the composer is not known and the word "Padmanabha"
>figures somewhere. While there is so much controversy floating around
>about whether Swati Tirunal was indeed the composer of all the songs that
>indeed display all his mastery over all languages etc. (it is always a
>problem I guess if you are the king!), I wonder why people like KVN have
>been worsening it by "stealing" songs by these unknown composers and
>attributing them to Swati Tirunal?
Good argument! Any takers?
Todd Michel McComb
In article <4qk8g2$c...@news2.texas.net>, Ram <r...@texas.net> wrote:
>>I wonder why people like KVN have been worsening it by "stealing"
>>songs by these unknown composers and attributing them to Swati
>>Tirunal?
>Good argument! Any takers?
No argument, but I can offer a potentially interesting Western
parallel.
In the case of Alfonso X "El Sabio" (1221-1284), monarch of Castille
(in what is now Spain), the compilation of the "Cantigas de Santa
Maria" (one of the more famous Western manuscripts of the period) was
apparently undertaken by artists under his direction. Today, it seems
most scholars believe Alfonso probably wrote only a small minority of
these pieces, and then perhaps only the poetry.
Nonetheless, in the "popular" literature, one generally sees Alfonso
attributed as the composer for the entire cycle.
Given the historical proximity of Swati Tirunal to us, I find the
parallels rather interesting.
Todd McComb
mcc...@best.com
Krishna Kunchithapadam
Rema Hariharan <re...@worldnet.att.net> writes:
:
: [...]
:
: I wonder why people like KVN have been worsening it by "stealing"
: songs by these unknown composers and attributing them to Swati Tirunal?
If you subscribe to the thesis of the late S.Balachander, Swati
Tirunal never existed (let alone the claim that he was a king who
supported the fine arts in his courts and attached his name to
other people's works).
The status of Swati Tirunal in the pantheon of Carnatic music is
one of _the_ most bitter debates ever (and there have been very
bitter ones in the past).
* Should Swati Tirunal's portrait be hung along with those of the
trinity in the main hall of the Music Academy (Madras) or not?
* Should "his" compositions be sung or not?
* Should works critical of his authorship be allowed into the
annual sessions or not?
With the death of Balachander, there is probably no one else
committed enough to continue the debate. The newspaper obits
said that Balachander was working on a book summarizing his
research on Swati Tirunal at the time of his death---chances are
that it may remain unpublished.
As C.S.Ramarao said in another post to this thread, we should not
be surprised that there is controversy on the authorship of some
kritis---this is one of the dangers of elevating composers to
godhood; in order to support and sustain their exalted status,
their fans are apt to indulge in some dishonesty (intentional or
otherwise).
A trivia question. Who is the composer of the Nasikabhushani
kriti _Maara vairi ramani manju bhashini_? Why?
--Krishna
P J Narayanan
In article <4qhd2b$3...@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net>,
Rema Hariharan <re...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>I was listening to this CD by K.V.Narayanaswamy where the first song
>is in the raga Huseni (listed as Useni) "Pahimam Bruhannayike". As it
>turns out this song was not composed by Swati Tirunal. It was composed
>by a Devadasi in Pudukkottai.
I too have heard this CD. It is a nice lively song in Huseni, well
rendered by KVN. It would help if you can dig up the information on
the Devadasi-composer to whom Jayaram-sir attributed this song. I
checked the 3-volume Swati Tirunal krti books brought out under the
guardianship of Semmangudi; this song does NOT appear in it.
>I did talk to my mother about this song and she mentioned to me that
>the Tiruvananthapuram Academy folks have been doing this to many other
>songs, for which the composer is not known and the word "Padmanabha"
>figures somewhere. While there is so much controversy floating around
>about whether Swati Tirunal was indeed the composer of all the songs that
>indeed display all his mastery over all languages etc. (it is always a
>problem I guess if you are the king!), I wonder why people like KVN have
>been worsening it by "stealing" songs by these unknown composers and
>attributing them to Swati Tirunal?
However, the above allegations about the Tiruvanathapuram academy and
about singers like KVN are too strongly worded. I don't know if there
is any such "academy" that has "claimed" this song and the reasons for
it, if they indeed "claimed" it. It is equally important to ask for
proofs of the Devadasi's composership too.
In any case, singers tend to echo the more prevalent opinion regarding
composership and, more often, the opinion handed to them by whoever
taught them the krtis, without much critical analysis on their own.
That doesn't warrant accusations of "stealing" and such, unless you
know KVN started attributing this song to STirunal, perhaps contrary
to the prevalent opinion.
The composership of songs is always a murky issue, be it Tyagaraja,
Deekshitar or Swati Tirunal. The situation is further complicated in
the case of Swati Tirunal being a king with many prominent musicians
enriching his court, including the Tanjavur Quartet. There are tens
if not hundreds of "suspect" Tyagaraja krtis; many believe all krtis
passing off as Deekshitar's today but not mentioned in the Sangita
Sampradaya Pradarshini are not really his.
The entire "controversy" or even the "question" of composership is
highly artificial in the Indian context. We have the greatest literary
and artistic tradition that has left the details of the authors
completely out, inspite of being meticulous in their own merit. Who
Kalidasa was and when he lived are questions not answered well today;
same holds for Bharatamuni, the author of Natyashastra and even Unnayi
Warrier or Kottayathu Tmapuran, authors of important attakkathas (for
Kathakali) who lived in early 18th and 19th centuries respectively.
(Not even to mention Vyasa, Valmiki and the sages to whom the
authorship of upanishads and other vedic literature is attributed.) I
am convinced they truly believed that the krti was important, not its
author.
Only when the Western tradition bent on attributing a date and time to
every little event met with ours did these controversies spring up.
Steeped in the western thought imparted to us by our education, each
of us finds ourselves helpless facing the questions about authorship
and the times of our own works.
PJN
--
---
Robotics Institute, CMU p...@cs.cmu.edu
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
---
Srini Pichumani
In article <4qhd2b$3...@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net>,
Rema Hariharan <re...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>
Sangita Kalanidhi T.K.Jayarama Iyer, perhaps ?
>about whether Swati Tirunal was indeed the composer of
>all the songs that indeed display all his mastery over
>all languages etc.
Svati Tirunal was _at least_ very well versed in Sanskrit
and Malayalam, and probably in Tamil, Telugu... don't
know about his proficiency in Kannada... but if "rAjivAkSA
bArO", which is announced as his composition, is representative
of his Kannada proficiency, it can be entirely dismissed.
His proficiency in Sanskrit was quite high, which is entirely
in keeping with the tradition of Sanskrit learning in Kerala...
see K.Kunjunni Raja's "Contribution of Kerala to Sanskrit
Literature".
A Sanskrit treatise attributed to him, sans controversy,
is "muhanaprAsa-antyaprAsa-vyavastha" which outlines the
rules/methods for composing kritis in Sanskrit with illustrative
examples. In this treatise, he refers to s'ESa rAmAnuja kavi
aka Margadars'i s'ESa AyyangAr as his guiding light wrt Sanskrit
compositions in Carnatic music. His "bhOgIndra s'Ayinam" is an
adaptation of s'Esa ayyangar's kriti in DhanyAsi "s'rI ranga
s'Ayinam"... and was also "originally" set to DhanyAsi.
>(it is always a problem I guess if you are the king!),
To some extent, this is very true in the Indian context.
From late-16th/early-17th century Tanjore, we have an example
in Raghunatha Nayaka/Govinda Dikshitar. Raghunatha Nayaka
is supposed to have composed a musicological treatise in
Sanskrit called Sangita Sudha, but Venkatamakhi (GD's son)
pointedly says in his work "caturdaNDi prakAs'ikA" that
Sangita Sudha was composed by his father (he uses the phrase
"asmat tAta krte"). Similarly, Govinda Dikshitar is responsible
for the particular fretting/tuning of the veena which is
current to this day, yet it is known as the "Raghunatha mela
veena".
-Srini.
P J Narayanan
In article <4qmd8b$e...@news.eecs.umich.edu>,
Srini Pichumani <sr...@quip.eecs.umich.edu> wrote:
>Svati Tirunal was _at least_ very well versed in Sanskrit
>and Malayalam, and probably in Tamil, Telugu... don't
>know about his proficiency in Kannada... but if "rAjivAkSA
>bArO", which is announced as his composition, is representative
>of his Kannada proficiency, it can be entirely dismissed.
I suspect the "record-mongers" of the recent times are guilty of
attributing compositions in 7 languages to Swati Tirunal. His Kannada
composition(s) are limited to one "rAjIvAkSha bAro", the Kannada
content of which can be learned in a few minutes. Similarly his Telugu
compositions are limited to the popular "sAramaina mAtalanto" in Behag
(plus the few words in the varNams).
He has many compositions in Hindusthani/Hindi, but all of light
sAhityam, like "vishwEshwara darshan kar" or "rAmachandra prabho",
both in Sindhu Bhairavi. His Malayalam krti repetoire is limited to
many beautiful lilting padams (wonderful ones) and the utsava
prabandham describing the festival of Padmanbhaswamy temple. No real
"krtis." His musical (and literary?) merit is to be evaluated from
the corpus of his Sanskrit compositions such as the Navaratri krtis,
navaratna mAlika (on navavidha bhakti),
kuchElOpAkhyAnam/ajAMilOpAkhyAnam, various singular krtis and -- very
importantly IMHO -- his elegant rAgamAlikas. In true Kerala Sanskrit
tradition, he has composed several hundreds of bhakti-shlOkams, some
of which are true poetic gems. The literaray/music scholar Rallapalli
Anantakrishna Sharma thought Swati Tirunal's Sanskrit was at a level
above Deekshitar's, according to Prof. S. R. Janakiraman.
The historical Swati Tirunal was tutored in Sanskrit extensively. He
was taught Persian as was the custom in Travancore court those days.
(I guess Persian had its days as the diplomatic language). He
certainly know Malayalam and Tamil, his kingdom being spread upto
Kanyakumari. His aunt the regent rANi who was in charge of his
upbringing insisted on an English education for the young Rama Varma,
assessing the political changes correctly. He is supposed to have
impressed a couple of British visitors with this knowledge of the
language. That might not have been much in terms of proficiency, but
he established the first English school in what is now Kerala and the
first public school for the real public, sowing the seeds of the
progressive education policies that has brought Kerala where it is
today.
>-Srini.
swami
In article <4qkeg8$b...@spool.cs.wisc.edu>,
kri...@mary-ann.cs.wisc.edu (Krishna Kunchithapadam) wrote:
d
>
>With the death of Balachander, there is probably no one else
>committed enough to continue the debate. The newspaper obits
>said that Balachander was working on a book summarizing his
>research on Swati Tirunal at the time of his death---chances are
>that it may remain unpublished.
>
>
The book was entitled "Ezhudinaar Puthakathai Kilappinaar boothathai" meaning
" He wrote a book and kindled a genie" which is an obvious reference to
Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer's book on Swati Tirunal . In the book Balachander
has mentioned people like Palghat Parameshwara Bhagavathar and if I remember
correctly, the Tanjore quartet as people whose compositions have been
"plagiarised" by Swati Tirunal.
Balachander presents a lot of interesting and "well researched"
arguments in that book but digresses a lot into egocentric ramblings. He even
calls himself "The Alfred Hitchcock of South India" .
swami
Srini Pichumani
>
>If you subscribe to the thesis of the late S.Balachander, Swati
>Tirunal never existed (let alone the claim that he was a king who
>supported the fine arts in his courts and attached his name to
>other people's works).
Krishna, as much as I admire his music and brilliance in other
endeavors, I also think that Balachander was at his cynical best/
incorrigible worst on this specific point in this whole brouhaha.
He hung onto this contention foolishly, while ignoring pervertedly
the hard facts of Travancore general/cultural history.
If ever the question "what's in a name ?" made perfect sense,
I would think this is the occasion.
From 1729, the period of "modern" Travancore, the rulers of
Travancore were also referred to by the star of their birth...
as in Kartika Tirunal, Aswathi Tirunal, Swati Tirunal, Ayilyam
Tirunal etc. It seems that this name was informal in a strict
sense i.e. it was not used in officially addressing the Maharaja,
but over time it has become part of the name.
The exact order of these rulers, and their "star" names are given
in various historical textbooks, state manuals, and ancillary works
like Kunjunni Raja's book on the Kerala Sanskrit tradition.
During 1829-1847 there was a Maharaja by name Rama Varma (aka
Swati Tirunal as per the star of his birth) who patronized
various C and H musicians such as Parames'vara Bhagavatar,
the Tanjavur Quartet, MerusvAmi or Meru Gosanwi, etc.
These people were formally addressed in Hanuman-tail-esque manner ;-)
as His Highness, Padmanabha Dasa, Vanci pAla, Kulasekhara, Kirtipati,
Mane Sultan, Samsher Jang, Maharaja of Travancore etc to which their
particular name of Rama Varma or whatever was attached. It is possible
that the differentation based on "star" started since these names
like Rama Varma/Kerala Varma etc were so generic...
Outside Travancore and in TN in particular, this _historical_
Rama Varma was known merely by his title of Kulasekhara Maharaja...
in the Sampradaya Pradars'ini (Tamil ed.), Subbarama Dikshitar
calls him "malayALam (svAti tirunAL) Kulasekhara Maharaja"...
Veena Dhanammal apparently referred to him as Kulasekhara
Maharaja of Travancore... the 1882 questionnaire of the Madras
Gayana Samaja to the visiting Maharaja of Travancore refers
to Svati Tirunal as simply "Maharaja Kulasekhara" to which
the Maharaja responds "The note Sarasa Samanaka was composed
by Vanchi Bala Ramavarma Kulasekhara Permal Maharaja, who
reigned between 1829-30 and 1846-47."
>A trivia question. Who is the composer of the Nasikabhushani
>kriti _Maara vairi ramani manju bhashini_? Why?
M.V.Ramana aka Ramana Mani, fess up... I can see the ingenious way
in which you have introduced your initials and name in this kriti ;-)
-Srini.
M V Ramana
>
> >A trivia question. Who is the composer of the Nasikabhushani
> >kriti _Maara vairi ramani manju bhashini_? Why?
>
> M.V.Ramana aka Ramana Mani, fess up... I can see the ingenious way
> in which you have introduced your initials and name in this kriti ;-)
>
Good work Holmes - you can also add kritis like the many that start with
Mari Ve Re gati (Anandabhairavi, Malavi,..) , Mari Ve Re dikkevvaru
(Shanmukhapriya, Lathangi..) and so on to this list... In some I decided
to skip my name out of modesty. :-)
On the subject of kritis wrongly ascribed to Thyagaraja, see the partial
list that I posted a while back on the net :
http://medb.physics.utoronto.ca/Web/ramana/archive/fraud.html
An addition to this list which was pointed to me was Saraseeruha in
Amritavarshini - this is listed in the second volume of kritimani malai
by Rangaramanuja Iyengar (song #347) as a composition of Thyagaraja.
Some compostions ascribed to Dikshitar that should be mentioned in this
context are :
Gananathaya - Gaula - a composition of Ambi Dikshitar, son of Subbarama
Dikshitar. He, infact, uses the guruguha mudra. There are another 12-14
songs of his mentioned in Sundaram Iyer's book.
The late Maharajapuram Santhanam used to sing a kriti in Kalyanavasantam
- Sri Venkata which is not mentioned in any book as far as I know. Other
kritis that are not mentioned in any book are Sri Ranganatham in
Purnachandrika and a song in Kharaharapriya that apparently was sung by
the late Thanjavur S. Kalyanaraman.
An interesting kriti in this regard is Gananayakam - most books mention
this as being set to Rudrapriya but everyone I have heard renders this
in Purnashadjam **and to exactly the same tune (mettu) as Sri Manini, a
composition of Thyagaraja in Purnashadjam**. Wonder what happened!
Another controversial composition is Rupamu Juchi - the Todi varnam.
This is believed to be the composition of Tiruvarur Muttuswami
Nattuvanar, a disciple of Ramaswami Dikshitar (source : B. M. Sundaram).
Sundaram also claims that among the navagraha kritis, Smaramyaham on
Rahu is a composition of Baluswami Dikshitar and Mahasuram on Ketu is
that of Tiruvarur Veeraswami Nattuvanar, a disciple of Muttuswami
Dikshitar.
Hope that this should enthuse the sleuths on RMIC...
Regards,
Ramana
Ranganathan Srikanth
>of which are true poetic gems. The literaray/music scholar Rallapalli
>Anantakrishna Sharma thought Swati Tirunal's Sanskrit was at a level
>above Deekshitar's, according to Prof. S. R. Janakiraman.
Dikshitar's lyrics are shlokic mostly. Except for a few pharses thrown in
like ...samrakshatu....mAm pahi.... it is mostly either point blank
description of the vigraha, purana or kshetra part of which itself would be
recited anyway at the temple by its patrons or by tradition/tantra.
There has never been (and IMHO would never for a thousand years)
in the past a personality who could weave
melody into these "musically limiting" hymns and give the glory of the dakshina
to the whole of India. If only he composed emotive stories like thyagaraja or
ramadasa can you compare the poetry. There is no comparison of poetry in the case of dikshitar as it doesn't exist.
Comparison of Jayadeva and swati thirunal makes more meaning.
Dikshitar's tradition has pretty much been obscure for the majority of
oldtimers except for a group or two.
srikanth
Shankar Iyer
SAIRAM, brothers and sisters. For several months I have been reading
postings to this newsgroup. The scholastic exchanges and views shared
here have been a very humbling experience for me...a novice with a love
for music.
In this process, it has been a bit disconcerting to see several voice
criticisms and make comments in tones which are not becoming scholars.
With all humility, and with my namskarams to all, may I share a few
thoughts - not for debate, but for reflection. My intent is not to
offend but to seek your understanding.
Humility is a major hallmark of scholars, in the Indian cultural
tradition (in Tamil we say 'Nirai kudam thathumbathu'). It saddens me
to see less-than-respectful comments about revered icons and musicians
of great accomplishments. Such a style may have been popularized by
Subbudu and Balachander, but even they have been charged with 'vidya
garvam' by others equally knowledgeable.
Recently, there has been a lot of vitriol spilled over Swati Tirunal's
abilities and Dikshitar's talents. Those that pen such words, may want
to ask themselves - 'How do we match up? Granting our God-given talents
surpass these composers, should we not show them some compassion? After
all, knowing a lot less than we do, they have enriched the lives of so
many for decades. Will our contributions stand such a test of time?
Further, do we really have to belittle them in order to establish our
scholastic worth? Can we possibly use our talents and energy to make
more positive contributions?'
As one with only a bit of exposure to Sanskrit, classical music and the
Hindu culture, my knowledge exemplifies - kattradu kaiman alavu..,
ananta param, bahu-veditavyam, alpascha buddhihi... and the comments
Sir Issac Newton made (as feeling like a child on the seashore,
contemplating the great ocean before him).
Should my words offend any one, my apologies. If they make you pause
before you criticize some one's accomplishments, my thanks to you.
SAIRAM. SAI.
Chodavarapu S. Ramarao
Excellent post, full of humility and sanity. My respect and namaskarms
to sri sankara iyer.
Sir please repost this at discrete intervals, lest people may forget.
regards,
rAmArAo
Rajan P. Parrikar
Humility is that which is never found in those talking
about it - Rajan P. Parrikar
r
i
Debanik
In article <parrikar....@spot.Colorado.EDU>,
parr...@spot.Colorado.EDU says...
OOh Yes, No doubt about that. Really proves the point
--
Debanik Chaudhuri
dc...@cornell.edu
(607)255-4292
swami
I was wondering if Vinayakuni valanu brova ve in madhyamavathi is one
of those "fraudulent" ones or not. Can anyone shed light on this
swami
A.Pavan
In article <parrikar....@spot.Colorado.EDU>,
Rajan P. Parrikar <parr...@spot.Colorado.EDU> wrote:
>
>Humility is that which is never found in those talking
>about it - Rajan P. Parrikar
>
>
>r
>i
Rajanji,
I think you prove the point amply above. Many thanks for being so
concise and to the point.
I was wondering - on the "Legacy" CD (a recent recording of Ustad Ali
Akbar Khan with Asha Bhonsle's voice, for those unfamiliar), your harmonium
accompaniment can barely be heard. Whatever happened ? Did Khan Saab shut off
your mike ? :-)
Humbly your's,
Pavan
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Senior Research Scientist Voice mail: (612)951-7142
Honeywell Technology Center Fax : (612)951-7438
3660 Technology Dr., Lab : (612)951-7606
Mail Stop MN65-2600 Home : (612)487-1966
Minneapolis, MN 55418 email : pa...@htc.honeywell.com
OR pa...@cs.umn.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Praseed Raja Rao Miyyapuram
(Disclaimer: Adiyen is just a 12 year old student who found this post while searching for Kuchelopakhyanam. Please excuse me for any mistakes in my post)
Sri Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma was the king of Thiruvananthapuram (Travancore, if you prefer) from 1813 to 1846. He was known for patronizing music. (Thanjavur Quartet were his court musicians) Some of his krithis were borrowed. As you all might be knowing there are many famous krithis like Bhavayami Raghuramam, 9 krithis on Bhakthi, Navarathri krithis, Ajamilopakhyanam, Kuchelopakhyanam, the list goes on. (There is a story that a court musician of Travancore Shatkala Govinda Marar came all the way to visit Sri Thyagaraja Swami, on which Swami sang 'Endaro Mahanubhaavulu') Apart from music, he was a wise administrator who introduced English medicine and education in modern-day Kerala. Perhaps that's why Kerala has the highest literacy rate in India.
Now coming to the issue of plagiarism: I don't understand why we should argue on which krithis were plagiarized. Some krithis that do not have the mudra are attributed to a composer or those which have the mudra are attributed to some other composer. Sri Swathi Thirunal's compositions were heavily influenced by many other composers of his time. (refer to this article https://www.karnatik.com/article013.shtml) But they weren't "copied". He himself composed many types of compositions like Krithis, Varnams, Javalis, Thillanas etc in Sanskrit, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi (Vraj Bhasha), mostly on Sri AnanthaPadmanabhaSwami of Thiruvananthapuram. His mudras included Padmanabha, Sarasijanabha and Kamalanabha.
For example, Sri Thyagaraja Swami's main disciple Manambuchavadi Venkatasubbayyar used the mudra "Venkatesha". His disciple Patnam Subbaiyar also used the same mudra. There is a controversy on who composed the Hamsadhwani varnam "Jalajaksha". I do not know why should we get into baseless controversies instead of listening, learning and appreciating the compositions. Let us all become good rasikas. Thank you
Om Namo Narayanaya
