If there is one aradhana (sacred tribute) that the world of Carnatic Music has held on a pedestal, it is the Tyagaraja Aradhana at Thiruvaiyaru, Tamil Nadu. In 1941, one woman changed the way the Tyagaraja Aradhana was conducted.
Fondly called Bangalore Nagarathnamma, the classical singer and music prodigy, who was then in her 70s, built a mantapa around the Samadhi, led women singers to perform for the first time ever in the then male-dominated choral tribute, and most importantly brought in a formatted Pancharatna Kriti (the five gems of Tyagaraja) rendering. At 8.30 a.m on Thursday, Tyagaraja Aradhana will be hosted for the 75{+t}{+h}year.
She passed away in 1952, but to this day Ms. Nagarathnamma remains a beacon of female power. According to mridangist Srimushnam Raja Rao, secretary of Tyaga Brahma Mahotsava Sabha, Thiruvaiyaru, the number of women participating in the aradhana is five times the number of men now. “There are 500 women performing against 100 male performers,” he says.
This is a far cry from the first time women performed at the aradhana. According to the book Mysore Stalwarts by K. Srinivasa Iyengar (Rajashree), Ms. Nagarathnamma collected money from philanthropists in Madras, and sold her home and jewels to fashion a social revolution of sorts in January 1941. “The Pancharatna Kritis where selected by seniors, including Muthiah Bhagavathar, to help an organised collective rendering,” writes the author.
“Nagarathnammal’s approach, which marked a new chapter in gender equality, is an achievement, given the fact that none of the nearly 30 immediate male shishyas of Tyagaraja had earlier managed to do this,” says musician and composer Ashok Madhav in his essay on Ms. Nagarathnamma. Nevertheless, what remained a dream unrealised was her desire to build choultries (inns for travellers) for Kannadigas at Thiruvaiyaru, for “she could not collect more money from Kannadigas”. In his book Na Kanda Kalavidaru , renowned musician Mysore Vasudevachar says Ms. Nagarathnamma was also responsible for introducing well-known Kannada musicians to the public. “She introduced her guru Bidaram Krishnappa to the Madras audiences, just as she insisted on him taking up Kannada compositions to popularise them,” he writes.
Initial struggles
Ms. Nagarathnamma was born into the Devadasi clan to Puttalakshmma in 1872 at Nanjangud, near Mysuru. Because of her lineage, many scholars initially refused to teach her the high arts of Sanskrit, Kannada, music and dance. Eventually, her perseverance brought her to scholars such as Bangalore Kittanna in dance, Giribhattara Thammayya in literature, and violinist Muniswamappa, who was a student of Walajapet Krishnaswamy Bhagavatar of Tyagaraja lineage.
