The legend Thyagaraja

 THE LEGEND THYAGARAJA

  

                          The great Thyagaraja was one of the trinity in Carnatic music. He has written over 24,000 hymns, of which only 500 hymns have been performed by Carnatic scholars to date.

                                                                    Ramakrishna yudhinder went to Thyagaraja to recite the “Rama”nama 96 crore times. he took it as a deity and completed the ritual in 21 years.on average, he recited the Ramanam 1,25,000 times a day

                                                                   Most of the songs sound simple to the listener. The kritis have one or two catchy lines that are repeated with different patterns. This kind of elaboration is referred to as a sangati. The credit of introducing sangati to Carnatic music goes purely Thyagaraja. His songs had simple rhythms which gave way to improvising to complex swara patterns. Thyagaraja elaborated several new raagas, which were then unknown to people.

Thyagaraja not only composed kritis but also composed utsava sampradaya keerthanas and bhakti sampradaya keerthana. An utsava sampradaya keerthana is sung during some kind of festival. It is a simple song, which is meant to involve the common man eg: Seetha Kalyana Vaibhoga Me. This is a wedding-related song, which in simple words talks about the wedding of Lord Rama and Seeta. In addition to nearly 600 songs(kritis).thyagaraja composed two musical plays(dramas) in Telugu, the prahalada bhakti vijayam and the Nauca Charitam.

   

                                                               Thyagaraja has performed only three times in his life.his fame was spread by his countless disciples. The tanpura used by Thyagaraja is still kept safely in his house.