The
Musical Heritage of Tyagaraja
T. S. PARTHASARATHY
The
most ancient musical system in
A
study of Indian music will show that the musical heritage all over
Early
Music
The
earliest music in all parts of the world was sacred music, which is centuries
older than secular music, and
Several
musical forms are mentioned in ancient works but most of them became obsolete
with the passage of time and a few underwent changes and are now known by other
names. Dhruvaa, Gitis and
different kinds of Prabandhas were among the early
musical compositions of
So
great was the popularity of Jayadeva’s classic that
in the centuries that followed the Ashtapadis came to be sung not only in the Jagannath
temple in his home state of Orissa but also in
More
than a dozen poets wrote Sanskrit works on the model of the Gita Govinda on parallel themes. The “Krishna Lila Tarangini” (River or Krishna’s Sports) written by Narayana Tirtha (16th century),
an Andhra composer, ranks in literary beauty and musical merit with Jayadeva’s work and its songs occupy an important place in
South Indian Bhajanas and in Kuchipudi dance performances.
A
close follower of Jayadeva was Mahakavi
Vidyapati Thakur (15th
century) who was known as the “Nightingale of Mithila.”
He was the court poet of Raja Siva Singh of Tirhut
and has composed in Sanskrit and two local dialects.
Radha and Krishna were the unfailing source of inspiration
to the Vaishnavite poets and singers of
Hindustani Music
The
two major areas of the present day Indian music are the Karnataka styles.
Before this cleavage, there was practically a single system of music followed
throughout the country with natural local variations. The division perhaps took
place after the advent of the
Muslims at
The
music of
Karnataka Music
The
seeds of Karnataka music are to be sought in the early Tevaram
music of the Tamil country. Even Sarngadeva appears to
have taken note of the forms of Tevaram music and
mentions some Ragas as “Tevara Vardhani”
in his treatise. According to Chatura Kallinatha, his commentator, the area lying between the Krishna
and Kaveri rivers was then known as “Karnataka Desa” and hence perhaps the name “Karnataka music.”
The
Kirtana in its embryonic form appeared in the 15th century
in the Kannada language composed by Vyasaraya, Purandara Dasa and others and was
called by the common name of “Pada.” Purandara Dasa (l484-1564) was
veritably the father of Karnataka music and blazed a trail which was eagerly followed
by many a later day camposer. This giant laid the foundation
for the existing system by composing thousands of songs ranging from Gitas for beginners to highly sophisticated compositions.
He also wrote Suladis, Ugabhogas
and Devarnamas in homely Kannada and projected Puranic lore in a form which could be assimilated by the
common folk. Tallapakkam Annamacharya
(1424-1503), a senior contemporary of the Dasa, is the earliest known composer of Kirtanas in Telugu. As in the case of the North, Sanskrit
made way for local languages like Kannada, Telugu and Tamil. A composer who
left his indelible imprint on Karnataka music was Kshetrajna
(17th century) who gave a new interpretation to the Pada
type of composition. He composed more than 8000 “Padams”
which are lilting melodies, replete with the mood of the Raga used. They have a
romantic theme as the motif which could be interpreted both as divine love and
as profane love. Kshetrajna was another composer,
like Tyagaraja, who achieved immortality by composing
only one type of composition viz., the Padam.
After
the fall of the Vijayanagar empire
in 1564, musicians and composers had to seek patronage from smaller states in
the South ruled by chieftains and among these, Thanjavur
became the brightest spot in the musical map of
Many
of the musicians patronized by the Thanjavur rulers
proved their mettle both as performing artistes and as composers. Karnataka
music became richer by the addition of new types of compositions like the Daru, Swarajati, Tillana and Ragamalika. Musical
plays called “Yakshaganas” and a large variety of compositions
intended for Bharata Natya
performances were also the products of this memorable era in the history of
Karnataka music. Some of the rulers were not only patrons and connoisseurs of
music but were themselves distinguished composers of several musical forms.
Tyagaraja
Tyagaraja (1767-1847) was the greatest among the music
composers of this age. He exerted the greatest influence upon musical art in
Tyagaraja was as much a product of the golden age of music as
he was one of its makers. Veterans like Virabhadrayya
of an earlier generation had already set up conventions and standards for the
systematic presentation of Karnataka music. Tyagaraja’s
formidable contemporaries included Adippiah, Pallavi Gopala Iyer and his own Gurus, not to speak of Dikshitar
and Syama Sastri who stood in a class of their own.
It was in the midst of these giants that young Tyagaraja
was called upon to prove his mettle as a composer. In his formative years he
had excellent opportunities of listening to a remarkably rich variety of
musical fare and imbibing its best elements. He must have not only drunk deep
at the fountain of Karnataka music but must have also heard Hindustani music
from the Bavas from
He
was thus fully exposed to the heritage of Indian music and its cultural and
integrating aspects. His genius lay in organising the
rich material before him for his own ends and conjuring up a world of ethereal
beauty. The secret of his art lay in producing something utterly new from Ragas
and Talas used over and over again in the past. The
one test of the supremacy of his music was that it swept the music world like a
deluge, throwing into the shade most of the compositions of the earlier
composers. From about the middle of the 19th century, Tyagaraja
begins to dominate the repertoire of our musicians and the preference of
listeners as no other single composer of the past had done.
A Musical
Empire
He
built a unique musical empire with only one type of composition, the Kriti, for which he himself spelt out the grammar in his
song “Sogasuga.” In fact, the Kriti
form seems to have been awaiting his coming for, in his hands, it was to grow
to grand proportions and to be filled with an in tenser life than before. His
musical instinct was unerring and it led him to choose the appropriate Ragas
and Talas and the form in which he should cast the compositions.
It was a challenge on his part to have attempted no less than 30 Kritis in a common Raga like Todi
in seven different Talas. Though primarily based on
vocal music, his compositions und equally communicative on instruments also and
have been the mainstay of flute and Nagaswaram
players ever since his time.
He
was fully conscious that he was the inheritor of a noble tradition and his
mission in life was to project it through his positions as great singers and
saints had done in the past. Saint composers before him were, in the main,
either devotees of Rama or Krishna, Ramanand, Kabir, Tulasidas and Bhadrachala Ramadasa had sung the glories of Rama while Jayadeva, Narayana Tirtha, Surdas and Mirabai had poured out their devotion to
In
the music of Tyagaraja tradition and invention find a
unique balance. He had studied, with loving reverence, the work of the great
master-composers of an earlier period. He mastered the theory of the art not
merely from books but from the practice of the virtuosi of his time. He made
endless experiments and always struck out along new lines. The precious
heritage left behind by him comprises about 700 songs composed in over 200 Ragas
falling under 45 of the 72 parent scales of Karnataka music and two operas in
Telugu.
He
was a great river into which the noblest Indian traditions of music, devotion
and renunciation flowed. A homely songfulness flowed
into his melody. No Raga current in his time is without a matchless composition
by him. He was one of the great integrators of the emotional and cultural life
of