Introduction:

Dwadasha stotra is a group of 12 songs or poetry composed by Madhwacharya in praise of God to sing along with his disciples. Each stotra was composed at different instances. It is the first stotra in samskruta to be based on sangeetha and TaaLa. Prior to this there was no stotra in samskruta (apart from few verses by Jayadeva)  that was composed with rhythm. This makes Madhwacharyaru  pioneer (moola purshaa) of carnatic music. After him all Vaishanva sanyasis followed his style. Madhwacharyaru was well versed ( praveeNa) in all 64 artforms. According to Trivikramapanditacharya Acharyaru was “Gandharva vidya nipuna” (ref:tattva deepika,Vayustuthi) ie even Gandharvas would attain trans by listening to voice of acharyaru.

 Before the period of Madhwacharya sangeetha was not bifurcated ( akanda) and was called  Bharatiya sangeetha. Madhwacharya gave literature (saahitya) to Carnatic music, emphasized music has no language. For example “ananda mukunda arvinda nayana” has only god’s name without any grammatical syntax. This means that people of all language can sing it without any difficulty.

Dwadasha stotra is also inspiration (spoorthi) for evolution of daasasahitya.

When he was giving a discourse  in Pushape (goa- gowvyakke visheye) the audience was so captivated by his “Madhurya kanTa”( devadatta KaNta) and they asked him to sing songs and they dozed off, relaxing completely. It is the same when a mother sings lullaby to her child to make baby sleep.

 It is said that during PaTa, HrishikeshaTeertharu, disciple of Acharyaru used to recite bhagavatha shloKas and acharyaru used to explain the meaning, since both of them had same shruThi . This throws light upon the fact that acharyara knowledge about sangeetha was perfect. NaRayanapanditacharyaRu says in MAdhwaVijaya that when Madhwacharyaru sang infront of dried tree, it started flowering.

Yakshagana, a form of dance drama was also started by Acharyaru. Here too bhagavatharu (artistes who sing off stage) and the artists on stage (patradarigaLu)are required to have same shruthi, throwing light upon  immense  shruThi jNana Madhwacharyaru had. { bhagavathuru – one who sings praise of god}

HrishikeshaTeertha pata description:

According to HrishikeshaTeertha , a contemporary of Madhwacharya ,the order of dwadasha stotra is different . Also there are 11 stotras+Nakha stuthi, not 12. ( Total granthas written by Madhwacharya is 51, which is same as syllables. 37 popular+thithi nirayana+Nyasa padathi+ khanduka stuthi+nakha stuthi. Including nakha stuthi it is 52.)

Structure of Dwadasha stotra:

Stotras are divided by sriKara not by numbers or adhayaya. Collophone is present only in first shloka that is SrisTuti (VishwaSthithiPralaya….)

Madhwacharya is avatara of pranadevaru. Pranadevaru is adhikari of samaveda- he stays inside one who sings samaveda. Anjaneya was well versed in veena. There is no instance that says Bheema sang.