Muthiah Bhagavathar's contributions

From the life history of Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar, covered in the earlier posts, it is very evident that he was a multi-faceted personality.

Additional information on his life history

Muthiah Bhagavathar was adept at playing both the Chitraveena and Mridangam. In 1934, he composed music for Tamilnadu Talkies then owned by S. Soundararaja for their 'Lavakusa', a film based on the Uttara Ramayana. He went to Bombay and composed 63 songs for the film resulting in the film being renamed as 'Sangeetha Lavakusa'. He had four special tamburas, viz., Rama, Lakshmana, Bharatha and Shatrughna. Once when GNB sang "Sarasamukhi" in the raga Gaudamalhar (created by Muthiah Bhagavathar), Muthiah Bhagavathar praised him and also presented him with one of his four tamburas (Bharatha).

Muthiah Bhagavathar's contributuion to the field of music is incomparable.

New Ragas
Vijayasaraswathi, Karnaranjani, Sumanapriya, Niroshta, Guha ranjani.... the list goes on. My guru has composed a song "Raaga brahmamaanar Harikesa naadhabrahmam" on Muthiah Bhagavathar which describes the greatness of his compositions and the rich quality of his music. The charanam of this beautiful song gives a list of ragas that he discovered and popularised. Many of you would have heard this in my guru's harikatha on Bhagavathar. The charanam goes like

"nijaguna Sumanapriya nija bhakthi Gurupriya
gananaya Alankari sukha mridu Kokilabhashini

Guharanjani Karnaranjani Budhamanohari Hamsagamani

Saranga Gauda malhar Chakrapradeepta Harinarayani
Hamsadeepakam Valaji Mayapradeepam Nagabhushani

Vijayanagari Vijayasaraswathi Veenadhari Niroshta aagiya"
(Raaga brahmam aanaar)

Hamsanandi: The story behind this ragam.
Unable to bear the sudden demise of his only girl child in 1928, he went to Benares for about six months, where he heard a good deal of classical Hindustani music. The Raag Sohini was so captivating that, he wished to adopt it to the Carnatic System. On omitting the occasional panchama prayoga, he found that its lakshana agreed with the traditional system of carnatic music. Thus was born Hamsanandi, which is now a very popular raga.

As a composer

Muthiah Bhagavathar imbibed the styles of the Trinities. His compositions include many varnams, krithis, thillanas, sivAshTOthra and chAmuNDAshTOthra krithis. Many of his songs composed during the initial stages are in madhyama kala which shows that he was greatly influenced by Saint Thyagaraja. Later he composed many vilamba kala krithis which had the style of Muthuswamy Dikshitar. Similar to the Navagraha krithis of Muthuswamy Dikshitar, he composed seven krithis called as Vaara krithis on the grahas except Rahu and Ketu. The famous English "Note" popularized by Madurai Mani Iyer, was composed by Muthiah Bhagavathar. The composition is similar to the "Nottuswara sahithyams" of Muthuswamy Dikshitar set in 3/4 time signature of western music. However, Bhagavathar's Note does not have sahithyam. He has composed on almost all the deities. His compositions cover a wide range of ragas. He added colour to his krithis by composing chittaswarams. In the first sivAshTOthra krithi 'Siva Siva Sambho' in Kalyani, the chittaswaram is without panchamam, which highlights the beauty of Kalyani. My guru says that his chittaswarams did not follow the pattern that existed in his period. The chittaswaram in "Giripriyam" is a typical example.

His Compositions
The daru varnam(Mathe) in Khamas, Siddhi Vinayakam in Mohanakalyani, Vanchathonuna in Karnaranjani, Valli Nayakani in Shanmukapriya, Jalanthara in Valaji, Needhu mahima in Hamsanandi, Sarasamukhi in Gaudamalhar and Himagiri thanaye in Sudha dhanyasi are some of his famous compositions. One can learn the complete raga bhava of khamas from the daru varnam (Mathe). He composed an ata tala varnam in the raga mohanam which is in praise of Muthuramalinga Sethupathy. He composed this for the arangetram of his disciple Ramanathapuram Shri C.S. Shankara Sivam. He has composed a thillana in the Hamsanandhi, which reminds us of the kathak style. Muthiah Bhagavathar created a raga called Niroshta, which means "lips not touching each other". This raga does not have the swaras ma and pa, which can be pronounced only by lips touching each other. He has also composed a krithi in this raga ('Rajaraja'), in which the sahityam does not have any syllables that requires the lips to touch each other.

As a musicologist

Muthiah Bhagavathar's scholarly treatise in Tamil titled, "SANGEETHA KALPADHRUMAM" earned him a Doctorate from Travancore University. Besides this, he is also the author of a highly poetical work in Sanskrit, "Thyagaraja Vijayam", comprising 487 slokams.

The above just captures a small fraction of Muthiah Bhagavathar's contributions to the field of Carnatic music, which are diverse and profound.

Coming soon...
Sishya parampara, Foremost disciple of Muthiah Bhagavathar, Ramanathapuram Shri C.S.Shankarasivam ...

[NOTE: The list of his compositions is available in http://www.geocities.com/harikesa/ and http://www.carnaticcorner.com/articles/hmb_comp.html
The vaara krithis are available in http://blip.tv/file/459907/ ]