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/ ]

Gayaka Sikhamani - Life History

'Jagadguro Dayanidhe' in Atana composed by Harikesanallur Dr L.Muthiah Bhagavathar

Harikesanallur Dr.L.Muthiah Bhagavathar’s life history

Early life

‘Gayaka Shikamani’ Harikesanallur L.Muthiah Bhagavathar was born on November 15, 1877 at Punalveli village (near Srivilliputtur), to musician Lingam Ayyar and Anandam Ammal. Muthiah Bhagavathar’s grandfather was Muthu Subba Bharathi, a composer-musician and his maternal uncle was the scholar Mahamahopadhyaya K. Lakshmana Suri. When he was six years old, Muthiah lost his father and came under the tutelage of his maternal uncle. In 1886, he was put under Muthu Ganapadigal of Thiruvaiyar for learning Vedas. But the young Muthiah had his heart set on learning and mastering carnatic music. Even as a boy, his voice attracted many people and they encouraged him to learn carnatic music. He was greatly attracted by the music performances of great stalwarts of carnatic music such as Mahavaidyanatha Iyer and Patnam Subramanya Iyer. He left his uncle’s place and went in search of a guru to learn carnatic music. He met a well known vidwan in Thiruvaiyar, viz., Sambasiva Iyer, who was a disciple of Pallavi Duraisami Iyer, a direct disciple of Saint Thyagaraja. He took him as his student and trained him in both the grammar and practise of music. He was one of his favourite students. He studied under Sambasiva Iyer for 7 years (some sources say 10 years) and became highly proficient in his art.

Muthiah Bhagavathar and Sri T.S.Sabesa Iyer (son of Sambasiva Iyer) accompanied their guru to many concerts. When his guru had gone for a concert in Chennai with his son, young Muthiah happened to meet a cook who was impressed with Muthiah’s voice. The cook arranged a small concert in his rich master’s house. Everyone who attended the concert was impressed by his voice and the rich master presented a shawl and silver coins as a token of appreciation. This event separated him from his guru (for reasons not elaborated here).

Back to Harikesanallur

Muthiah Bhagavathar then visited many teachers who found him extraordinary and blessed him immensely. They said that he had learnt all that can be taught and advised him to develop himself through rigorous sadhana. Muthiah Bhagavatar returned to Harikesanallur (Tirunelveli district) in 1893 from Thiruvaiyar and completely devoted himself to music. He had a remarkably beautiful voice with a capacity to reach three octaves and to execute very fast passages with ease. He became a recognized performer of carnatic music within a short period of time, in Tirunelveli.

to be continued…

[Note: I happened to read a tamil book ‘L.Muthiah Bhagavathar Vazhkai varalaru’ which mentions about his practice routine. He woke up at 4:00 AM and practised for many hours everyday. It is important to note that his practice sessions included the basic lessons in carnatic music. My guru Shri TNS had also said the same in his Harikatha on Muthiah Bhagavathar. My guru insists all students to practise the basics saralivarisai, jantavarisai, etc. regularly. He teaches his unique way of merging all alankarams and janta varisais.

The slokam given at beginning is taken from Shankara digvijayam

www.geocities.com/snsastri/sankara-slokas.pdf]