The English language celebrates Shakespeare for introducing over 1,700 new words. Tyagaraja did the same by introducing or at least giving life to several unusual ragas in Carnatic music. Some he created; others he found as mere scales in books and infused musicality into them.
In his ‘Mucchata Brahmadulaku’ (Madhyamavati), which describes the Sapta Sthanam festival in Tiruvaiyaru, Tyagaraja has it that Siva, impressed with the manner in which musicians are doing alapanas in ‘vinta’ ragas and singing His glories, comes forth in procession to shower blessings on the devotees. The expression ‘vinta’ has been interpreted to mean ‘various’ by scholars such as C. Ramanujachari and T.S. Parthasarathy.
Prof P. Sambamurthy in his Great Composers , Book II, which is on Tyagaraja, however chooses to interpret the word to mean vichitra or unusual and goes on to substantiate his claim by listing 83 janya ragas and 22 melakarta ragas in which Tyagaraja was the first to compose. That is a large number, if you consider the corpus of ragas that can be described as current in the art form today. The exact figure is of course subject to debate, for there are some overlaps (at least 11) in Sambamurthy’s listing with the ragas that Muthuswami Dikshitar used. It is impossible to identify today as to which of the two made it first to a particular raga and so it would not be fair to credit all of the collection to Tyagaraja. But even if we were to discount the common ones, the bard of Tiruvaiyaru would be left with a substantial number to his account.
Some of his creations/finds have become popular on the concert platform today — Malayamarutam, Chittaranjani, Jayantasri, Saramati, Kalyanavasantam, Abhogi, Devamritavarshini, Nalinakanti, Kapi Narayani, Kuntalavarali, Chenchu Khambodi, Navarasa Kannada, Bahudari, Nagasvaravali, Janaranjani, Ranjani, Hamsanadam and Saraswati are a few examples. It is only when you peruse the list that you realise how incomplete our concert experience would have been had these ragas not been given form and structure by Tyagaraja. After him, many composers created songs in these and later, musicians began exploring their scope by way of alapanas, niravals and swaras. Some of the names listed above have since lent themselves to ragam tanam pallavis as well, thereby becoming major ragas in their own right.
Among those that we refer to as melakartas today, at least two owe their important status in Carnatic music entirely to him —Kharaharapriya and Harikhambodi. It is in a song in the former raga that Tyagaraja uses the word ‘vinta’ for a second time. The piece is ‘Mitri Bhagyame, which is about the good fortune of Lakshmana in being able to serve Rama in various ways. In the works of Tyagaraja, almost every personage is musical —thus Ganesha dances, the three Goddesses are experts in music as are sages, celestials and of course Rama. It is almost as though the composer saw the entire Hindu pantheon of Gods as a never-ending opera. Lakshmana therefore is no exception. In ‘Mitri Bhagyame’, after making Rama recline on a gem-studded swing that is Adi Sesha, Lakshmana performs alapanas in ‘vinta’ ragas, sings the glories of the Lord and gently rocks Him to His rest.
Going by Sambamurthy’s definition, the song itself was set in a vinta raga – Kharaharapriya – not heard before except as a reference in the Silappadikaram where it appears as Kodi Palai. As to where Tyagaraja got his idea for such a raga from is not recorded. He must have been inspired to (re)create it. Having done that, he composed several songs in that raga and its janyas. If at all he had left anything unsung in it, Papanasam Sivan went to complete and so between them, and what Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer sang on stage, we have the Kharaharapriya of today.
Harikhambodi on the other hand, was an ancient and important pann, going by the name of Sempaalai, a fundamental scale in Tamil Isai. Several Thevaram hymns were sung in this raga and given that the Panchanadiswara Temple of Tiruvaiyaru was a centre for the oduvar tradition, it is likely that Tyagaraja heard the scale and was inspired to fashion songs in it. In her monumental Ragalakshanasangaraha, Hema Ramanathan, writes: “It is with the spate of compositions by Tyagaraja, that this raga has become established in Karnataka music”.
Kharaharapriya and Harikhambodi also indicate that Tyagaraja was very open to the influence of Tamil music an aspect forgotten by most scholars. Lastly, there must have been critics who carped at his going after new-fangled notions even in his lifetime. Did he answer them with his ‘Vararagalaya’ in Chenchu Khambodi, another vinta raga? Who can forget GNB’s alapana followed by that song in his last concert at the Music Academy?
(This is part of the series on the Bard of Thiruvaiyaru)
