Tyagaraja

Tyagaraja was a singer, poet and composer of devotional songs in Telugu.¹² He lived at Tiruvaiyaru, in the Thanjavur (then Tanjore) district of the Tamil country.³ His songs in praise of the god Rama are still sung all over South India.¹² P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao called him “the greatest gift of Tanjore to the Andhra literature”.²

Life

C. R. Day wrote a survey of South Indian music in 1891.³ He described “Tiagyaraj” as a native of “Trivadi” (Tiruvaiyaru) in Thanjavur district.³ Day wrote that he was a pupil of a musician called Venkatraman Iyer.³ H. A. Popley, in The Music of India (1921), gives the teacher’s name as Sunthi Venkataraman.¹ Popley names his father as Rama Brahman, “also a musical composer of some repute”.¹

Popley quotes “one who remembers him”, who described him as “a tall lean man with a brown complexion”.¹ He was “revered as a perfectly sincere and selfless man”.¹ Popley wrote that his songs were said to have been composed on Ekadasi days, when he fasted all day.¹ P. T. Raju, in 1944, wrote that he “shunned kings and their courts”.⁴

His songs

His songs are mostly kritis and kirtanas (devotional songs).³¹ Day wrote that many of them were “exceedingly popular all through India”.³ He found that Tyagaraja paid special attention to melody.³ Day printed in Western notation a song by one of his pupils, among other tunes.⁵

Popley called him “a creative musical genius”.¹ He wrote that Tyagaraja brought in sangatis, variations on a tune that grow more elaborate each time.¹ He gathered disciples, who carried on his tradition.¹ Day saw him as the last of a school of musicians at Thanjavur that changed and improved the art.⁶

The words matter as much as the music. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao wrote that his kirtanas “are of the highest spirituality”.⁷ They found in them “fervid devotion, simple faith and reliance on Providence”.⁷ Raju noted that the songs are in “popular everyday Telugu”, and that most are addressed to Rama.⁴ K. Sitaramaiya, writing in 1943, said that his songs were thought to number some thousands.⁸ In his view no singer in South India failed to sing them.⁸

A legend

Popley records a story that the sage Narada appeared to Tyagaraja.¹ In the story, Narada gave him a rare book on music, the Svararnava.¹ Popley tells it as something “said”, not as fact.¹

Where the sources disagree

• His dates. Day wrote that he “flourished from about 1820–1840”.³ Popley gave about 1800–1850.¹ Raju wrote that he “belongs to the eighteenth century”.⁴
• His father. Popley names his father as Rama Brahman.¹ Sitaramaiya, in a note, names “Tyagaraja’s father Girirajakavi”, whom he calls a poet of merit.⁸

See also Kshetrayya and Music & dance.

Footnotes

1. H. A. Popley, The Music of India (1921), p. 22 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶

2. P. Chenchiah and Raja M. Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 92 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. Day, Music of Southern India (1891), p. 155 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

4. P. T. Raju, Telugu Literature (1944), p. 49 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Day, Music of Southern India (1891), p. 77 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

6. C. R. Day, The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan (1891), p. 3 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

7. Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao, A History of Telugu Literature (1928), p. 100 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

8. K. Sitaramaiya, A Hand Book of Telugu Literature (1943), p. 56 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³