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Saint Thyagaraja – A Great Composer
And A Trend-Setter
By T.M. Sivaraman
What more can a mere mortal like me have to say that has not
already been said by eminent musicians and musicologist on the
great Saint of Thiruvarur?
Enough has been written and spoken about his premier role in
promoting the bhakti cult in south India (particularly Rama
bhakti), his role in promoting "Naadopasana" as a
sure means of attaining Godhead, his path-breaking innovations
in Carnatic music ( he was the first composer in the post-Purandharadasa
era to compose krithis in hundreds of new ragas ( 212 ragas,
to be precise), in contrast to Purandharadasa, who handled only
about two dozen ragas to compose his songs. |
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Yet, since this forum has many new
fans to Carnatic music, who would like to get some information
on the great saint, I will make a humble attempt to give a brief
write-up on what are my perceptions about the great saint.
I will leave it to other eminent friends in the forum to write
more on his teachings on Naadopasana. I will only touch briefly
on his life and contributions to Carnatic music here.
Sri Thyagaraja was born in Tiruvaiyaru, near Thanjavur in Tamil
Nadu, on May 4, 1767. His parents were Smarta Telugu Brahmins,
who had moved to Tamil Country during the Vijayanagar period
(early 1600s).
Thyagaraja's father Rama Brahmam taught him to worship Rama
daily and initiated him in Rama taraka mantra. Even as a boy,
Thyagaraja composed his first song on Rama ``Namo Namo Raghavaya’’
when he was only 13 years old. Sri Thyagaraja continued to recite
the Rama nama every day and had many darsans of Sri Rama, which
inspired him to write songs on his beloved Lord Sri Rama.
At 18 years of age, Thyagaraja married Parvati, who died when
he was only 23. He then married Kamalamba (sister of Parvati).
They had a daughter named Sitamahalakshmi, through whom he had
a grandson, who died without progeny. Thus, we do not have any
descendant of Saint Thyagaraja. But, his tradition is kept alive
by his musical disciples and their followers.
The core of Thyagaraja's existence centred around Rama Bhakti,
the devotion to Lord Rama. And, Thyagaraja's prescription to
attain a union with the Lord was through the use of music (Nadopasana).
In his life span of 80 years (1767-1847), he composed nearly
800 songs, most of them devoted to Rama Bhakti.
Thyagaraja's chief contribution to Carnatic music was as a trend
setter for introducing the concept of sangati in Carnatic music.
Sangati is the exposition of a set of variations on a theme,
which unfolds gradually the melodic potential of the raga on
which the composition is based.
Majority of his compositions reveal this sangati structure and
are set in madhyama kala and are ideally suited to the current
Carnatic concert paddhathi. These madhyama kala compositions
create in both the singer and the listener total '' saukya sangeetam"
and "sukbanubhava", touching the soul with the bhava
and making us contemplate Lord Almighty through such soulful
renderings.
Thyagaraja also experimented on (along with the other two trinity
composers- Muthuswamy Dikshitar and Syama Sastri) the krithi
format of Carnatic music (pallavi/anupallavi/charanam), formulated
by the 16th century composers like Muthu Thandavar and Margadarshi
Sesha Iyengar, and perfected this format for posterity, which
has become the basic structure of Carnatic concerts to this
day.
Post- Venkatamahi, who laid down the structure of 72 melakarta
ragas with the publication of his famous book Chathurdhandi
Prakasika in 1660, the Carnatic music scene witnessed the virtual
explosion of hundreds of new ragas, unheard of till then. Govindacharya,
an eminent and path-breaking composer, published his famous
work "Sangraha Chudamani", laying down the" sampoorna
melakarta" scheme and structuring 294 janya ragas, unheard
till then.
These developments in the late 17th century enabled Thyagaraja
and the other two of the trinity- composers to experiment and
compose in hundreds of new ragas, while earlier pre-trinity
composers like Purandharadasa had only about 25 ragas in which
to compose their songs.
Indeed the hallmark of Thyagaraja's compositions is the use
of hundreds of new ragas .He used 212 ragas to compose his 700
odd songs- 121 of these krithis have only one song in them.
He also composed songs in 66 new ragas. In fact, he made it
one of the main aims of his musical career to compose in new
ragas. The evidence of his enthusiasm for new ragas can be seen
from the fact that, among the last few krithis he composed before
his death, three are in new ragas (`Paramathmudu’ in Vagadeeswari,
`Daya juchutakidi velara’ in Ganavaridhi and `Paritapamu
ganiyadina’ in Manohari).
Eminent musician and musicologist, Dr.S. Ramanathan, in one
his lecdems sang this Ganavaridhi krithi to illustrate how Thyagaraja
adapted and perfected the path laid out by Venkatamahi.
Thyagaraja's chief contribution to Carnatic music was the huge
repertoire of hundreds of krithis in hundreds of ragas, many
of them even minor ragas, which were found earlier only in text
books.
This huge repertoire of hundreds of krithis in numerous ragas
enabled post-trinity Carnatic musicians to adopt these krithis
in various ragas for concerts. Even his minor raga krithis have
become hugely popular in concerts and some of them are being
sung elaborately with alapana, neraval and swarams.
Minor ragas such as nalikanti (manavyala), suddha seemanthini
(janaki ramana), jayantasena (vinata sutavahana) and kapi narayani
(sarasa sama dana) have become quite popular with modern day
musicians.
To sum up, Thyagaraja's creativity and manodharma became the
fountain-head from which numerous concert musicians drew inspiration
to bring to the limelight these hundreds of minor ragas to the
concert platform.
Also, it is said that Thyagaraja was not only a great composer,
but also an eminent singer, who could sing his compositions
brilliantly. Prof. Sambamurthy narrated an episode of Thyagaraja,
where he visited Madras on his way to Thirupati and stayed with
a renowned patron of music, Kovur Sundara Mudaliar.
During his stay there, it is said that for six successive evenings
he sang one of his compositions
only in the raga Devagandhari, thus testifying to his great
prowess, creativity and manodharma, not only as a composer,
but also as an eminent musician.
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