Tyagaraja composed Carnatic devotion across four Maratha reigns
Saint-composer Tyagaraja (1767–1847), born Kakarla Tyagabrahmam in Thiruvarur, wrote the Carnatic repertoire still central to South Indian classical performance. He lived through four Thanjavur Maratha kings yet refused court service, pouring Telugu Brahmin lineage into Rama-centered song.
Tyagaraja's paternal grandfather was the poet-musician Giriraja Kavi of Kakarla, in present-day Andhra. His father Ramabrahmam served at the Thanjavur court of Thuljaji, who gave the family a one-room house on Thirumanjana Veedhi in Thiruvaiyaru, where Tyagaraja lived most of his life; it has since been restored and opened to visitors. After his first wife Parvati died he married her sister Kamala.
He trained young under Sonthi Venkata Ramanayya, chief vidwan at Thuljaji's court, and revered the sage Narada, honouring him in the kriti Vara Nārada. When word of his gift reached King Serfoji II of Thanjavur, the king sent gifts and an invitation to court, but Tyagaraja declined, preferring a spartan life of devotion to Rama. He taught anyone who asked, including the Walajapet father and son Venkataramana and Krishnaswamy Bhagavathar.
Because disciples studied with him in different periods, nobody captured his full output, and about 720 compositions survive; claims that he wrote 24,000 lack biographical support. He also wrote two Telugu musical plays: Prahlada Bhakti Vijayam, in five acts with 45 kritis in 28 ragas, and the shorter, more popular Nauka Charitam. A. M. Chinnaswami Mudaliar printed early transcriptions in 1893 in Oriental Music in European Notation.
He took sanyasa and died a day later, on 6 January 1847, aged 79; his final piece was Giripai Nelakonna in raga Sahana. He was buried on the Kaveri bank at Thiruvaiyaru, where the week-long Tyagaraja Aradhana draws Carnatic musicians every January or February. V. Nagayya's 1946 film Tyagayya is counted a Telugu classic, and a crater on Mercury has carried his name since 1976.
Source: Tyagaraja
