Vaishnava Bard of Kavery-at-Tiruvaiyaru

[Guest guest]

The Bard of Kavery-at-Tiruvaiyaru

 

–(Oh, son of Dasharatha I owe you a debt and how can I ever repay

that?)

 

January 19, 2006, is an important day in the Carnatic music world.

This day (Pushya Bahula Panchami in the Hindu religious calendar)

marks the 159th anniversary of the attainment of mOksha by Saint

Thyagaraja, musician-composer par excellence, and a member of the

Carnatic music trinity. The musician-saint will be remembered once

again on this day when many Carnatic musicians assemble in

Tiruvaiyaru and sing his kritis. We cannot fathom the greatness of

such an eminent person in one article. Words fail miserably in

describing his greatness. Shakespeare said, "…music is the food of

love" (Twelfth Night). For Thyagaraja music was the food of his life.

It is difficult to separate his life from music and devotion. Let us

get a few glimpses into his life blended with music in this article.

Early life:

 

Thyagaraja was born in 1767 CE at Tiruvarur in Thamizhnadu as the

third son of Ramabrahmam (and Sitamma) whose grandfather moved from

the village of Kakarla in Andhra Pradesh in the early 1600s fleeing

the Mogul invasion. Ramabrahmam moved from Tiruvarur to Tiruvaiyaru,

near Thanjavur, to cater to the educational needs of his children.

The king of Thanjavur, Tulasing, ceded a house to Ramabrahmam in

Tiruvaiyaru as a token of appreciation for doing a discourse on

Ramayana in his court.

 

Thyagaraja, to the pleasure of his parents, showed much enthusiasm in

learning the scriptures right from his childhood. He also had a flair

for music even as a child. Accordingly his father arranged for his

musical instruction with Sonti Venkataramanaiah, a Thanjavur court

poet-scholar, who lived in the same street as Ramabrahmam did in

Tiruvaiyaru. Thyagaraja's father died when Thyagaraja was fourteen

and his mother died a year later.

 

Thyagaraja got married when he was eighteen to a girl named Parvati.

She died after five years. He then married her sister, Kamalambal.

Thyagaraja's immediate older brother died when he was young. The

oldest brother Japyesan and Thyagaraja lived together in a joint

family arrangement. While Japyesan worked in a modest job Thyagaraja

did not want to be subservient to anybody and hence didn't seek a

regular job. He would rather go house to house singing devotional

songs and accept whatever alms the folks gave him. He also got to

read lots of musical texts obtained from his maternal grandfather. He

was blessed to inherit lyrical (sAhityam) musical knowledge from his

paternal ancestry and melodic musical knowledge from his maternal

ancestry.

Ablution for the idol

 

 

Life of music: For Thyagaraja music was his life, especially music

that integrated devotion and philosophy. It appears that one day when

Thyagaraja was performing puja, Lord Rama and Lakshmana gave him an

exclusive darshan depicting the scene wherein both the brothers were

accompanying the sage Viswamitra to protect his yagna. He was

ecstatic at such a rare opportunity to see the Lord. That made him

sing spontaneously the kriti `Ela nI dayarAdu' (aTANA rAgam).

Thyagaraja's devotion to his favourite deity, Rama, his Vedic and

musical scholarship, the lyrical beauty of his compositions, and his

overall personal discipline gained widespread attention. Many would-

be musicians thronged Tiruvaiyaru to be his disciples. Noteworthy

among them were Ayya Bhagavathar, Walajapettai Venkataramana

Bhagavathar, Manambuchchavadi Venkatasubbaiyer, Neikkarappatti

Subbaiyer, Umaiyalpuram Krishna Bhagavathar, Veenai Kuppaiyer,

Subbaraya Sastry and Lalgudi Ganesaiyer.

 

Right from the beginning Thyagaraja did not have any longing for

material possessions. He used to spend whatever contributions he

received from people on pujas and religious celebrations. He was also

strongly against the concept of praising mortals. Once the Thanjavur

king, Serabhoji, sent his courtiers with expensive gifts to

Thyagaraja's house to get him to visit his court and sing. Thyagaraja

did not accept the gifts nor did he comply with the king's request.

At that time he composed the kriti (now famous) `nidi cAla sukhamA'

(in kalyANi rAgam) in which he asks, "What gives happiness - wealth

or the sight of Rama? Is it comforting to sing the praise of

mortals?" The king got annoyed and wanted to punish Thyagaraja for

insubordination. However, he got an incurable stomach ache (perhaps

on account of his evil thoughts). The courtiers thought it fit for

the king to approach Thyagaraja for a remedy. Thyagaraja performed a

puja and gave the prasadam to the king whose malady disappeared soon

thereafter. The king realised Thyagaraja's greatness.

Group singing at Aradhanai

 

 

Thyagaraja's older brother Japyesan was more earthly and wanted to

live a better material life using his brother's fame. Since

Thyagaraja would not comply, Japyesan, in a fit of anger, threw all

the puja idols of Thyagaraja in the river. Thyagaraja was heart-

broken and sang several kritis such as `Adaya sri raghuvara'

(Ahiri), `brOcEvArevarE' (sriranjani), and `E pApamu jEsitirA'

(aTANA). He went without food or sleep. Suddenly, while he was tired

and dozing off, Lord Rama appeared in his dream and identified the

location in the river where the idols were thrown. Thyagaraja ran to

the location and recovered the idols. He was overwhelmed with joy and

sang the kriti `kanu gontini rA rAma inTitaka' (bilahari). That

incident brought more fame to Thyagaraja identifying him as someone

very close to god.

 

Thyagaraja and his wife Kamalambal had one daughter named

Sitalakshmi. When she attained the marriageable age, Thyagaraja's

disciples celebrated the wedding with great pomp. At that time one of

his disciples, Walajapettai Venkataramana Bhagavatar got a portrait

of Lord Rama commissioned by one of his disciples and gave it as a

gift to Thyagaraja. Thyagaraja then composed the famous kriti `nanu

pAlimpa naDaci vaccitivO?' (Did you come walking to bless me?)

(mOhanam). He thought that Lord Rama came to his house walking just

to protect him when he saw his disciple walking with the portrait

towards him.

 

When other famous composers came to visit Thyagaraja to listen to his

music and to sing their own compositions and told him that they came

at the direction of Lord Rama in their dreams, Thyagaraja showed his

admiration and respect for them by singing, `endarO mahAnubhAvulu

andariki vandanamulu' (SrirAgam) (there are several great people and

I bow to them all) and was so gratified by Lord Rama's grace that he

sang `dAsharatE nI ruNamu dIrpa nA' (tODi) –(Oh, son of Dasharatha I

owe you a debt and how can I ever repay that?).

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