Today is the Saint’s birthday, the first after two and a half centuries after he appeared on this planet, this sacred earth.

The most prolific composers among the Carnatic music trinity, Saint Tyagaraja was a great synthesis of many of the greats in Carnatic music who appeared long before him. There is every aspect of Carnatic music in the rich corpus that he has left behind for us. From music to literary value, from entertainment to devotion, from art to science of music, from enumeration to exhortation, and not to forget melody, which is the essence of any good music, there is much that a true artist can savour and give, and as much for a true connoisseur to listen and enjoy. All of this was possible because of the large number of eminent disciples that the Saint trained under his tutelage, who went on to train further disciples, and so it has continued.

If most of his music has come down to us from the Cauvery delta, a part of it, rather an important part of it, has come down to us from the Krishna basin as well. A number of the saint’s disciples were composers too, inspired by the work of the saint himself. That trait has continued in the lineage as it has come down, and has thus resulted in a richer corpus of gems for today’s music performers. That the firmament of Carnatic music in all its vastness today is due to the single minded devotion of Saint Tyagaraja to music and his chosen deity Sri Rama, is not an exaggeration at all.

His inspiration, his format of composition, his musical genius, and above all the elegance of a gamut of his compositions—short and simple, to long and profound, have been guiding musicians and composers for more than two centuries now.

In this offering is a composition, a riveting one, that eulogises the memory of the saint in truly glowing terms. It comes to us from the lineage of Saint Tyagaraja, his disciple Manambuchavadi Venkatasubbayya, his disciple Patnam Subramanya Iyer, whose disciple Ramanathapuram Srinivasa Iyengar composed this. He exhorts, in a devotional strain set to reetigaula, in the pallavi whose theme is, “Remember with exhilaration through praise, O mind, the fact there is no one equal to Tyagaraja.” This lineage is from the Cauvery delta.

The composition is rendered by Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna (BMK), in an equally riveting way. He comes from the lineage of Saint Tyagaraja too, as is well known, his disciple Manambuchavadi Venkatasubbayya, his disciple Susarla Dakshinamurthy Sastri, whose disciple was Parupalli Ramakrishnayya Pantulu, the guru of BMK. This is the lineage of Saint Tyagaraja from the Krishna basin.

The confluence of the profundity of the composition, the subject of the composition, the music of the composition, the delineation of reetigaula in all its prime hues and color, and the rendition proper of the composition, highlights the disciples’ devotion to the Saint—the grand disciple composer’s through the lyrics and the great grand disciple performer’s through his Muraliganam, to bring out the musical richness and the lyrical beauty.

The best way to celebrate the birthday of such a Saint is by listening and listening again with devotion to this song.

Just as an aside, two days prior to this concert I have had the privilege of meeting BMK and talk to him about the various aspects of music. He had promised to give a memorable concert at Seshadripuram, from where this offering is selected, which indeed turned out truly memorable in many ways. It was the first time I heard this composition. What a composition!!

Special Thanks & Acknowledgements:

My sincere thanks and appreciation to Sri. T K Ramkumar for the above narration and for his support in bringing out this excerpt from a live concert held on 21.04.1980.

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