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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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