Ardhanārīśwaram - Kumudakriyā - Rūpakam - Muttusvami Dīkṣitar

I have always felt this to be one of Dīkṣitar's more intriguing compositions, and one illustrating why David Shulman calls him 'a modernist shaman who detached Carnatic music from its earlier ritual contexts and transposed it into a new, highly personal, universalist-secular mode.' That, of course, is assuming it is a genuine Dīkṣitar composition. In the monumental and authoritative Sangīta Sampradāya Pradarśiṇi ('SSP') of Subbarāma Dīkṣita (1839-1906) - Subbarāma was the composer's younger brother's biological grandson and adopted son - there is a section on the rāga Kumudakriyā, where it is listed as a derivative or janya ('child') of the 51st Meḻa of Kāśirāmakriyā, which we would identify as Pantuvarāḻi. No one, as far as I know, has doubted the authenticity of this piece, but it is strange that Subbarāma Dīkṣita does not include it in the SSP. The ārohaṇa (ascending order) is S R G M D D S, while the avarohaṇa (descending order) is S N D M G R S. The SSP normally introduces each rāga with a lakṣaṇa śloka taken from the Caturdaṇḍiprakāśikā, a foundational 17th musicological text composed by his and Muttusvāmi's ancestor, Veñkaṭamakhin. No lakṣaṇa śloka is provided for Kumudakriyā, and the only mention of it I can find in my OCR copy of the Caturdaṇḍiprakāśikā is in verse 39 of the Anubandham ('appendix'): अथ रामक्रियामेले कुमुदक्रियदीपकौ । शान्तकल्याणिमेले तु यम्नाकल्याणिमोहने ॥ ३९ ॥ I can't make sense of this passage - google translate is not very helpful - other than that Kumudakriyā is a janya of Rāmakriyā, alongside 'Dīpakam'. The SSP mentions the existence of Dīpakam, but says it has been lost. One wonders if this was the same Dīpak that Tansen is supposed to have sung to light the lamps in the palace of Akbar. I cannot find any earlier mention of Kumudakriyā. The SSP remarks that it is suitable for singing at all times, but there is a tradition - again I don't know from where - that Kumudakriyā evokes the 'bhāva' (emotion) of 'adbhuta,' commonly described as 'awe', but in my opinion better translated as the 'sublime'; that is to say, the combination of beauty and terror. I have always found this rāga profoundly unsettling. The last line of the madhyamakāla passage in the caraṅam goes 'āraktavarṅam ṣobitam' - 'him who glows in red' - which is interesting because most depictions of Ardhanārīśwara display only his left, female side as red in colour, while the masculine right portion is pure white. It would be interesting to know where he got this. One suggestion is that it is a reference to the 92nd verse of the Saundaryalahari, which reads 'Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Rudra and Īśvara form four legs of your throne and Śiva who is like pure crystal form the seat for You to sit and He reflects Your deep red complexion.' The Saundaryalahari is of course a central text of the esoteric tradition of Śrīvidya, of which Dīkśitar was an adept, and whose teachings he was expounding through his music. It was also the book that my beloved grandmother would sit and read every day in her wheelchair, for the last four years of her life. A modernist shaman indeed.