TYĀGARĀJA

TYĀGARĀJA (1767–1847), poet-composer. The most influential poet-composer (vāggēyakāra) of South India, Tyāgarāja was born on 4 May 1767 in Tiruvārūr near Tanjāvūr, then a center of learning and culture. Between seven hundred and one thousand of his songs, mainly belonging to the genres known as kīrtana and kriti, have been preserved by several teacher-disciple lineages (guru shishya parampara). His Telugu lyrics are infused with Sanskrit and reveal a variety of literary and philosophical influences as well as a profound knowledge of music theory. Unlike his contemporaries, Muttusvāmi Dīkshitar and Shyāma Shāstri, with whom he forms the "Trinity" of South Indian music, Tyāgarāja often shares the joys and struggles of his personal life and worship with his public. Like Dīkshitar, he was an accomplished vina player (vainika) who succeeded in amalgamating the expressiveness (bhāva) of the voice and the aesthetic appeal (rasa) of instrumental music.

The fact that Tyāgarāja's father was an exponent of harikathā (musical discourse) explains the composer's aptitude for bringing the divine and heroic characters of the Rāmāyaṇa, the Purāṇas, and the Bhāgavatam to life. This art form has devotion (bhakti) for its subject, provides ample scope for variations on a given theme, and is based on India's ancient Hindu texts.

Tyāgarāja also composed two musical plays, titled Naukachāritramu (Boat story) and Prahlāda bhakti vijayamu (Victory of Prahlāda's devotion). These original versions of popular stories were told through the characters' singing as well as in narrative passages provided by a sūtradhāra, the conventional director of Indian drama. Both works have been adaptated for Bhāgavatamēlam drama as well as for Kuchipudi and Bharata Nātya dance-drama, although they were probably not written for the purpose of being so enacted. Similarly, some portions have long been included in musical concerts.

Tyāgarāja's fame spread during his lifetime and has steadily grown since his death in 1847, initially by way of harikathā performances. Since 1925, homage is annually paid to him at festivals known as Tyāgarāja ārādhana, primarily in Tiruvaiyāru, where he lived and where his samādhi (resting place) was erected, as well as in other locations. Some music societies (sabhā) maintain the tradition of reenacting Tyāgarāja's performance of unchavritti, the custom of collecting food alms while singing religious songs with his disciples, as he shunned the demands of worldly patrons. With the boldness of a creative genius and the authority of a sage advancing the art and science of music, he celebrates the very experience of music time and again in his songs.

Ludwig Pesch

See alsoMusic: South India