Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

MUSIC

TRINITY

Shyama Shastri, like Thyagaraja, was the offspring of ancestors who moved South after the fall of Vijayanagar. To Viswanatha Iyer, a priest in the service of Raja Tulajaji of Tiruvarur, was born in 1762 a son named Ve- nkata Subramania who later came to be known as Shyama Shastri. When he was 18, the family was shifted to Tanjavur. A holy man from Andhra, Sangeeta Swami, who visited the house saw the boy and sensed the musical talent he had in him. He requested the father to send his son to him for training in music. After initial training the Swami suggested that the boy should associate himself with Pac- chimiriyam Adiyappayya, the court musician of Tanjavur. Though Shyama Shastry was a great composer his works have not received as wide an acclaim as the other members of the Trin- ity. While Thyagaraja's music has an emo- tional appeal, Shyama Shastry's musical tech- nique is intricate and difficult. It is believed that it was he who initiated his contemporary Muthuswami Dikshitar, into Sri Vidya, a form of worship of the Goddess. By nature he was aloof and con- tented. He kept the company of scholars and musicians and amongst them was the immor- tal Thyagaraja whom he often visited at Tiruvaiyam. His defeating the redoubtable Kesavayya of Bobbili (in Andhra) is a much publicised legend. Kesavayya in one of his all conquer- ing musical contests came to Tanjavur. No musician of the town dared to meet him in a competition. Finally Shyama Sastry accepted the challenge. He sang a pallavi in sarabhanan- dana tala which had 79 aksaras to a cycle, with complicated internal divisions. Kesavayya could not match this performance and was declared defeated.

Thyagaraja's from Kurnool district of Andhra. Following the fall of the Vijayanagar empire at the end of the 16th century a number of Telugu families migrated to the South. Thyagaraja's ances- tors formed part of one such migration. Thyagaraja was bom in 1767, in Tiruvarur in the. Tanjavur district of Tamilnadu, to. Kakarla Ramabrahman and his wife, Seetamma, who was the daughter of Girija Kavi, a poet-composer attached to the Tanjavur court. Their son was named Thyaga- raja, after Lord Thyagaraja, the deity of Tiruvarur. Ramabrahman shifted to Tiruvayyuru from Tiruvarur. The king of Tanjore had gifted him a house in this village on the banks of the Cauvery where 1’hyagaraja spent the rest of his life. At the age of 18 he married a girl called Parvati who died without any children. He then married her sister Kanakamba. A daugh- ter, Seetalakshmi, was born to them. The majority of Thyagaraja's composi- tions are in Telugu, his mother tongue, al- though he composed a number of songs in Sanskrit. He was a highly trained musician having been the disciple of Sonthi Ve- nkataramanayya, one of the foremost singers of the day. Apart from thousands of songs of the kriti type he created two operas. Thyagaraja was a great Rama bhakta. There was not a moment of his life which was not filled with Rama. His songs are of Rama. Thyagaraja took sanyasa towards the end of his life and attained samadhi in 1847. After Purandaradasa ,he is the greatest figure in Kamatak music. He revolutionised and gave a new direction to Kamatak music. ancestors came

Muthuswami Dikshitar was born in 1775 in Tiruvarur to Ramaswami and his wife Subbammal. His ancestors had migrated to the South before the march of invading ar- mies. Ramaswami was a trained musician and it was under him that his son learnt his music. Ramaswami was patronised by Muthukrishna Mudaliar who made him a court musician. Ramaswami was asked by his guru Chidambaranatha Yogi to send his son with him on his pilgrimage.. Ramaswami re- luctantly agreed. Muthuswami was in Kasi for six years mastering Sanskrit literature and grammar, philosophy and tantra yoga. On the eve of his departure from Varanasi, Chidambaram Yogi told him, "Go and have a bath in the Ganga before you leave. You will be blessed." He complied. While in the Ganga a veena with the words "Rama" inscribed on it came to him from the waters. He took it to his guru who blessed him saying: "This is a divine gift. You will be a master of the veena and a great composer." Carrying the veena Muthuswami left Kasi for home. This veena is believed to be preserved till this day by his brother Baluswamy. After returning to Manali, he visited Tiru- tanni, Tiruvarur, Tanjavur and other places, finally reaching Ettiyapuram. At the request of the king he settled there and became his guru until his death in 1834. Muthuswami Dikshitar composed several hundreds of songs mainly kritis besides a few raga-malikas. Among the better known are his Tiruttani kritis, Navavarana kritis and Navgraha kritis. His disciple, Vadivelu was an adept at the violin at the court of Maharaja Swati Tirunal Rama Varma of Travancore. From then it became an accepted instrument in Kamatak music.