Sri Thyagaraja Swamy

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Sri Thyagaraja Swamy

 

Saint Purandaradas is considered as the grandfather of Carnatic Music.

Sri Tyagaraja, along with Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri are

considered as the " Trinity of Carnatic Music. " Sri Tyagaraja has

composed more than 800 songs in his long devoted life to Lord Rama,

most of them written in his Mother tongue Telegu, but a few in

Sanskrit, including the masterpiece " Jagadanandakaraka " composed of

108 names describing Lord Rama's attributes. But, his songs are well

loved in Tamil Nadu, the seat of South Indian (Carnatic) Music

scholarship and performance.

 

The life and work of Tyagaraja, the bard of Tiruvayyaru, is a miracle

of miracles. For no musician, with exception of Purandaradasa,

revolutionized and gave direction to Indian music as he did. So

creative a musician and saint was he that he has come to be known as

Sri Tyaga Brahmam, which is a reference not only to his creativity but

carries with it a part of his father's name, Ramabrahmam.

The bulwark of a great culture, the Vijayanagara Empire, with all its

glory, fell at the end of the 16th century. The invasion from the

North brought in its wake new, though not always commendable, trends

in living. Quite a few Hindu families had to flee to Southern areas

which were still peaceful. Many found shelter under the benign rule of

the Nayakas and the Maratha kings of Tamilnadu. Particularly, a number

of Telugu families went South and formed nuclei of art and culture and

Tyagaraja's ancestors belonged to one such stock, as he describes

himself as descending from the Kakarla family (Kakarla is a village in

the Kurnool District of Andhra).

Tiruvarur in the Tanjavur district of South India is a small hamlet;

it is small in size, but has great sanctity hallowed by the memory of

the three composers, the Trimoorty, of Karnatak music. In this village

lived one Girija Kavi, a poet-composer attached to the Court of

Tanjavur. His daughter and wife of Kakarla Ramabrahmam, Seetamma

(Santamma?), gave birth to a son on Sarvajit, Chaitra, 27th Soma,

Sukla saptami, Pushya (4th May, 1767). According to another tradition

the year of his birth was 1759. The boy was named Tyagaraja, after

Lord Tyagaraja, the presiding deity of Tiruvarur. In one of his songs,

Tyagaraja sings, " Seetamma mayamma, Sri Ramudu ma tandri " - Seeta is

my mother and Sri Rama my father - perhaps with a double meaning.

Ramabrahmam shifted to Tiruvayyaru, leaving Tiruvarur. The king of

Tanjavur had gifted a house to him in this village and here Tyagaraja

not only spent the major part of his life but also attained samadhi.

Tiruvayyaru, on the bank of the Kaveri and known as Panchanada

kshetra, was the abode of saints, poets and musicians; and of this

place Tyagayya sings, " ...the Panchanada kshetra in the beautiful

Chola country, nestling on the banks of the Kaveri over which blows

the gentle zephyr where holy brahmins chant the vedas...a town to be

coveted even by Lord Siva " .

Tyagabrahmam married, at the age of eighteen, a girl called Parvati

who died without leaving any children. He then married her sister,

Kanakamba. A daughter, Seetalakshmi, was born to them and she was

given in marriage to Kuppuswami. They begot a boy who was named

Tyagaraja (Panchapakesa?) who died issueless; thus came to an end the

direct lineage of the composer.

 

Born and bred in a highly cultured family, Tyagaraja was a profound

scholar and poet. He studied Sanskrit, astrology and was, of course,

well versed in his mother tongue, Telugu. Besides, he was a highly

trained musician, having been the disciple of Sonthi Venkataramanayya,

one of the foremost singers of the day. His genius is evident in every

song of his; but his immortal Pancha ratna kritis (the five gems)

reveal the mastery he had over musical technique. Apart from thousands

of songs of kriti type, he composed utsava sampradaya keertanas and

divya nama sankeertanas which are sung in devotional congregations He

has also created two operas: Prahlada Bhakti Vijayam and Nauka

charitram. While there are a number of songs in Sanskrit, the majority

of them, including the operas, are in Telugu.

One can speak of Tyagabrahmam's music only in superlatives and even

these adjectives are pitifully inadequate to convey the exquisite

beauty of his art. There is no hitch, there is no unwanted phrase,

there is no laboured juxtaposition of word, music and feeling. To him

music was so creative that he could not be bound in mere traditional

grammar. He saw the potentiality in new melodies and from them gave

forms to ragas like Kharaharapriya, Harikambhoji and Deyagandhari; at

least he must have breathed life into such simple tunes to make them

into ragas, if not produced them de novo. The rhythms used by him are

also simple and are generally confined to talas such as Adi, Triputa,

and Roopaka. Complex temporal and melodic patterns would not have

expressed the lyricism of his mystic adoration. A beautiful

elaboration introduced by him was the sangati as a built-in part of

his kriti. These melodic variations convey so many shades of the main

mood that all the finer nuances of text and music find expanded

expression. It need not be offered as an excuse, but it is a fact that

he was also as much capable of technical musicality as any learned

grammarian. Tyagaraja's " five gems " in ragas Nata, Gaula, Arabhi,

Varali and Sri, his songs in slower tempos and his famous kriti,

Mariyada kadayya in Bhairavam wherein he, effortlessly, brings in a

shade of Yaman Kalyan - all these and many more show a mastery of

design and structure very much beyond the ordinary.

Tyagaraja's literary genius was as great as his musical genius. His

command over Telugu and Sanskrit lent not only an erudite dignity to

his songs but gave a rare felicity and homeliness to his diction. He

drives home great truths with unerring aim but with extreme simplicity

of simile. " What does it matter whether the fool, who does not, gain

punya (religious merit) when opportunity presents itself, lives or is

dead?...Of what avail is it whether blind eyes, however large, are

open or closed? " . Again, " The fault or goodness is not yours, Lord! It

is mine. (Why blame Thee?). If one's daughter is unable to bear the

labour-pains, why blame the son-in-law? " .

Spiritually he was one of the rare souls who gave up everything except

bhakti and cared for nothing else beyond the Grace of God. The early

influences on his life make this trend more pronounced. The Bhagavata

of Bammera Potana, the mystic poet of Andhra, was for him a book of

daily parayana (recitation). Indeed there is a close parallel between

the thoughts and lives of these two. The devaranamas of Purandaradasa

were fed to him as if they were his mother's milk. Such early

environments led to a positive direction by initiation into yoga. It

is supposed that he was given the Rama Taraka Mantra by one sanyasi,

Sri Ramakrishnananda. Tyagaraja's father's fellow scholar and a yogi,

Sri Upanishad Brahmendra of Kanchipuram, also exerted a great

influence on him. So also the works and per- sonality of Narayana

Teertha, the author of Krishnaleela Tarangini, had considerable effect

on the musician.

The only things that mattered to Tyagayya were music and bhakti - they

were synonymous. " Is there a sacred path than music and bhakti? " . " O

Mind, salute the gods of the seven notes " . " The knowledge of music, O

Mind, leads to bliss of Union with the Lord " . Music was to him the

meditation on the Primordial Sound: " I bow to Sankara, the embodiment

of Nada, with my body and mind. To Him, the essence of blissful

Samaveda, the best of the vedas, I bow. To Him who delights in the

seven swaras born of His five faces I bow " .

Tyagaraja was a great bhakta; the only meaningful act for him was

complete surrender to Him whom he called Rama. In the song Ika

gavalasina, he sings, " What more do you want, O Mind ! Why are you not

happy? When the Lord of the Universe has rested in your heart - what

more do you want, O Mind? "

There was not a moment of his life which was not filled with Rama. His

songs sing of Him who was a friend, a master, a father,- anything he

could conceive of. Hearing of Rama's name was to Tyagaraja like

" obtaining a large kingdom " . And how could he desist from singing His

praises - " Is there any bliss greater than this: to dance, to sing and

to pray for His presence. " " Did not the Lord incarnate wish to wear

the garland of ragas woven by Tyagaraja? "

 

The worship of His feet (padasevana) was a privilege; but to worship

his sandals, (padua) was indeed a fortune. " Rama, clear my doubt. Are

Your holy feet worshipped by Narada, great or Your sandals? The sages

who worshipped Your feet became equal to You; but Bharata worshipped

Your sandals and got Your very self " . Day in and day out His worship

became a matter of daily living to Tyagaraja. He sang songs to wake

the Lord, to bathe Him, to feed Him, to please Him and to put Him to

bed - " You are tired after wandering in the forest and conquering

Ravana; rest in the lotus of Tyagaraja's heart " . Of course, being

close to Rama he could chide Him. " If you present Yourself before me,

what wealth will You lose? Why this intractability? "

The word Rama (RA-MA) was to him a Numen that transcended all names.

It would be more than absurd to attribute any sectarian leanings to

Tyagaraja. He sings, " As what did they define You? How did they

worship You? - as Siva, as Madhava, as Brahma born of Lotus or as

Parabrahma, the Trans-Godhead? I prostrate myself before those who

know the secret of MA as the life of Siva-mantra and RA as the life of

Narayana-mantra " .

This complete surrender naturally made him live a life of detachment,

though he was a house holder. The first and foremost result was that

he refused to earn a livelihood. He had a house to live in and that

was enough shelter. For food, every morning he would go round the

village asking for alms - unchavritti, as it is called; and he would

not gather even alms more than his daily need.

A life which steadfastly was uncompromising was not at all to the

liking of his elder brother, Japesa, to put it mildly. Japesa fondly

hoped that the great art and learning of his younger brother could be

put to pecuniary uses, which the saint would not agree to. In

desperation, the brother not only partitioned the ancestral house but

went to the extent of throwing the Rama idol which Tyagayya worshipped

into the river. The sorrow of the devotee cannot even be imagined.

Many a song he sang begging the Lord to come back to him. In a dream

he is told where to find the idol and his life becomes full.

Honours and wealth could have been his, if only he had asked for them;

but he would not ask. He spurned an invitation of the King and sang,

" Is wealth (nidhi) the source of happiness or is the proximity

(sannidhi) of Rama? "

Tyagabrahma undertook an extensive pilgrimage of the sacred places of

South India. Wherever he went he sang of the deity of the place. There

is the famous incident of his visit to the Venkateswara temple at

Tirupati. He goes into the temple to have darsan (vision) of the Lord;

but the entrance of the sanctum sanctorum is covered with a curtain

which prevents him from seeing the idol. The priests refuse to part

the curtain. In great sorrow he sings, " Will you not remove the

curtain? " ...and characteristically adds, " the curtain of vanity and

jealousy in my mind " . The curtain miraculously slides aside by itself

and he is face to face with Him.

So much sincerity and surrender drew the ire of people around him and

he could not stand their hypocrisy either. He speaks out bluntly about

their pretences. " One who does not think of devotion to God, however

learned, will be a slave of the senses and not be free from coveting

others' women and wealth " . There is a vast difference between seeing

the Lord and going to the temple. " O Siva, is it possible for me to

have your darsan? I have seen the spires, the pillars, the idols, the

temple dancers, the rows of lights and made the due circumambulations.

My mind has turned towards things external. But it is no child's play

to instal Your glorious Form in the lotus of my heart! " Again, " Of

what use is the possession of scholarship, in purana, agama, shastra,

veda and the doing of japa to a deceitful mind? It is like dressing a

corpse with a lace turban and precious jewels. Oh, give me the alms of

highest (satvika) devotion " .

Tyagabrahmam took sanyasa towards the end of his life and attained

samadhi on Pusya Bahula Panchami in Prabhava (6th January, 1847).

There is a poignancy about his absorption into the Godhead. He says in

one of the most moving songs, " Unerringly I saw Sri Rama installed on

the hill...Thrilled with ecstasy, with tears of joy, I tried to speak.

He promised to bless me in five days. " And so it happened.

" Oh Rama, if I have the benefit of your Grace (anugraha), all the nine

planets (navagrahas) will be subject to me. "

 

Thyagaraja made an appeal to his mind, " Oh mind, think always about

Sri Rama. " (Bhagawan sang in His own mellifluous voice Thyagaraja's

song in which he said, " Oh Kausalya, what penance did you perform to

enjoy the privilege of calling Sri Rama affectionately, as a mother

and showering your kisses on the Divinely beautiful child Rama. What

penance did Dasaratha perform to call Sri Rama to come to him? " )

Thyagaraja declared that there can be no pleasure (soukhyam) without

peace (Shantham). How is peace to be secured? Only when desires are

reduced, will peace be secured. As desired grow, peace is lost.

When Thyagaraja passed away, his wife kept his head on her lap, and

when the saint was calling out, " Rama " , " Rama " ! in ecstatic agony

three hot tear-drops fell from her eyes, on the face of the dying

Thyagaraja. " O, I am the property of Rama! But, you are still the

property of Kama! " Thyagaraja exclaimed.

Devotion is complete surrender, not a part-time affair or something

taken on credit! Every bit has to be earned and deposited; there are

no overdrafts. Grace is won by Sadhana and Sath-Sheela. Sublimate the

love you have for the pleasure of the world, for the objects of the

world, cultivate love for God. Do not waste even a single second, in

idle scandal or hollow praise. Bend your head before God, welcoming

whatever be His will; then, you too can have the Lord as your guide

and guard.

 

 

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