Nadabrahmam

Tyagaraja  “Naa jayammunu joochi nammare devuni”

Last August, senior musician O.S.Thyagarajan was performing at Mumbai’s Shanmukhananda Sabha. One after other Tyagaraja kirtanas flowed. It was blissful, but was a surprise as well. It was not specifically a Tyagaraja festival, but one was delighted. Just a few days before that an article appeared that tried to portray a composer, revered as a Saint by singers of many generations now not in the right spirit. The writer had tried to show Carnatic Music is inherently casteist and how it is proved from what Tyagaraja himself had written in his famous Gowlai Pancaratna Kriti, ‘Dudugukala’ in one of the Caranams. Coming soon after the publication of that article, perhaps many in the audience would have been grateful to OST for making his whole concert a homage to Tyagaraja. OST brought out the greatness of Tyagaraja in all his true colours.

When he sang ‘Sattaleni dinamulu vaccena’ in Naganandhini, Tyagarja’s lament on the nature of kaliyuga came as a reminder that denying bhakti and devotion is not just a 21st century phenomenon.
“Should one commit wicked deeds even in the first quarter of Kali, without devotion to one’s parents and preceptor? Are we in for days when there is absence of divine rule,” is how the song’s caranam goes.

Quoting one song out of hundreds he composed to mark him as casteist was indeed wicked. Was it timed just as his fans and followers would embark on celebrating his 250th anniversary in 2016? That was a really an assault on a composer, a vaggeyakara of great merit and beauty who was born on May 4, 1767 at Thiruvarur, whose 250th birth anniversary we are celebrating this year. 

Tyagaraja, was a yogi, a nada yogi and it is for everyone to see and experience as one hears his songs. Was he a great musicologist, who did wonders with the ragas and compositions, yes and no one doubts them.

But, can one separate Tyagaraja the musicologist, composer, poet, from Tyagaraja the nadopasaka? Were the seven notes, mere mathematical tools in his hands to come up with innumerable permutations and combinations that took form as various ragas that he handled?

Can there be any doubt as to how he looked at the notes, the music, it is “nada” with roots in the ultimate primordial sound. That is why he has given a highly layered and a complex composition that might sound a simple song while listening to without much attention to its meaning – Nadopasana in Begada.

It is not just that the mortal Tyagaraja is looking at devotion, bhakti, and expression of it through music to attain moksha, but in this kriti he says the trinity of Shankara, Narayana, Brahma have their exalted place among Gods because they are nadopasakas.

For Tyagaraja clearly nothing else can save one from the cycle of samsara except Nadopasana.
He concentrated on his favourite God, his ishta devata Rama and majority of his compositions are conversations he had with him, sometime begging him, sometimes chiding him, sometimes into a desperate dialogue, and finally sang of assurance from Rama of his salvation.

Who was that Rama – we have no room for doubt in the case of Tyagaraja unlike Kabir whose reference to Rama is being “clarified” by some of his followers as not the “Ayodhya Rama” but an abstract Supreme One.  Tyagaraja brilliantly paints a canvas of Ramayana, following Valmiki in so many of his kritis, and we have full Tyagaraja Ramayana being performed today as Harikatha and also as dance dramas.

In a line of Pallavi and one in Anupallavi he puts Rama in context, placed along with his wife, brother Bharata, Lakshmana, Shatrugna.

“Rama katha sudharasa panam oka rajyamu cesune
Bhamamani janaki saumitri bharatadulato bhumi velayu sita”

That Ayodya Rama : “Ramayani Brahmanuku peru” again fixing him as the ultimate and so to be one sought after for attaining moksha as described in  Telisi Rama Chintanato in Poornachandrika raga.

What does that Brahma swaroopa Rama do? He is the one who enjoys swara, laya and in whose bow strings the seven swaras hang as bells – Sri Raghuvaraprameya in Kambhoji.

“sarasa hita kulaabja bhranga
Sangita lola sri
Virocana kulesvara svara layaadi
Murchanollasita narada vinuta”

In the Yadhukula Kambhoji kriti Nidayce, Rama is inextricably linked to nada, the essence of nada itself, supreme bliss of nada, adorned with the sweet sapta swara and covered with the garment of words of Tyagaraja.

“Ni dayace rama nityanandudaiti
Nada brahmananda rasakriti gala
Varamrudu bhasha susvara maya bhusha
Vara tyagaraja vagceiavrta”

O Mind, do upasana through music, for that is dear to Vishnu, Sri’s consort, he commands in the Atana raga kriti Sripa priya sangita upasana ceyave o manasa.

“Ranjimpa jesedu ragambulu
Manjulamagu avataramulu etti
Manjilramu ghallani natincu
Mahima teliya tyagaraja nutudagu”

Worship him, by placing the supreme Lord on the bejewelled pedestal of Nada and Swara –

"Nadasvaramane vara navaratnapu vedikapai …
Paramatmuni Sri Ramuni padamulanu Tyagaraja hrd bushanuni”

Human life is the greatest gift (Nara janmame janmamu manasa), why because one can keep spending time happily with flawlessly tuned music, ceaselessly singing the Lord’s name

“Nityamaina susvarapu ganamuto, nirantaramu, Tyagarajanuta nama”, says Tyagaraja in Kanada kriti Sukhi evvaro.

SVK (S.V.Krishnamurthy) in his ‘Know Your Tyagaraja’ says “that sangita is moksha sadhana is well recognized. To Yagjnavalkya’s cryptic couplet Shri Thyagaraja almost gives a Bhashya in some songs. One of the most telling is the kirtana in Mukhari – “Sangita Shastra gnanamu saroopya sowkyadame manasa, Sangita Shastra can give sarupya on the musician”.

Along with Nadopasana kriti, Tyagaraja through Nada thanum anisam and Sobillu Sapta swara explained the inter relation between nada and Kundalini as invoked in the opening slokas of the foremost music treatise ‘Sangita Ratnakara’, says Dr.R.Krishnaswami in ‘Nadopasana and Salvation’. He says Tyagaraja took the first three slokas and composed Nada thanum anisam, Sobillu Saptaswara and Nadopasana.

After all this how does one deconstruct Tyagaraja to the last swara and say the swaras stand separate from the song? Academically it might yield a few Phds, but that is losing the essence of Tyagaraja.

Was he deliberately pushing music into religious web, enforcing his casteist beliefs? A complete understanding of Tyagaraja is what has earned him the status of a Saint, understanding that he lived and breathed Nada with great vairagya, caring less for wealth or other considerations. “Nidichala sukama”?

But, who is going to believe in "the bhakti" as Tyagaraja himself express this doubt through Prahlada in his opera Prahlada Bhakta Vijayam “Naa jayammunu joochi nammare devuni”.

It is just as incongruous as the crane and frog sitting on the lotus of supreme bliss that Tyagaraja refers to in the Shankarabharana kriti Swara raga sudha – “paramanandame kamalamupai baka bhekamu celagemi manasa”. How would those who want to make careers out of the sapta swaras know the lofty effects of the Nada?

Tyagaraja might have been a conformist to the extent of performing duties as per the varnashrama dharma he followed, doing Unchavriti despite having been materially comfortable and not poor. Yet, he hits out strongly against the hollow followers of rituals and mindless pilgrimages in several of his compositions.

Manasunilpa saktileka pothe, Dyaname varamaina ganga snanamu, Dwaitamu sukhama, 

Grahabalamemi are some of the famous examples.

What has he set out to compose – “Ragaratna malikache ranjillanuta” in Reethigowlai calls everyone to come and sing hundreds of Tyagaraja compositions, composed for the salvation of humanity. “Naigama shat Shastra purana agamartha sahitamata ….. Tyagaraju kadatera tarakamani chesina sata” – songs which contain the essence of Vedas, the six Shastra, Puranas and Agamas …. to attain the right path to salvation”.

Finally, how does one with a straight face say I dismiss all the philosophy, devotion, and spirituality of Tyagaraja for one mistakes them for religious imposition and still sing:

“Sangita jnanamu bhakti vina
Sanmargamu galade manasa”