Indian music is vast and has its origin in the vedas themselves. Tyagaraja says, "Veda siromatruja saptaswara". The distinctive feature of Indian Music is that it is focussed towards enlightenment and realization rather than to mere entertainment. Indian composers are also distinct in that most of them are vaggeyakaras, that is both music and lyrics are composed by the composer himself.

 Several saints have used music as the medium to express their philosophy and bhakti rasas. The earliest compositions we have are that of the Alwars and Nayanmars and there are evidences that they were composed to definite musical patterns. Some of the puranic works like radha-krishna lila in Brahmavaivarta purana and Krishna lila of Srimad Bhagavatam were composed in musical forms by Jayadeva and Narayana Tirtha. The first major work to which modern carnatic music owes a lot is that of the Haridasas of Karnataka, the principal among them being Sangita Pitamaha, Sri Purandaradasa. Although devotion formed the most important aspect of their compositions, the musical value of these compositions is equally great. Today's carnatic music can be said to be a result of the yeomen work of Purandaradasa, who undoubtedly is the most prolific composer, with the number of his compositions running to an incredible 4,75,000!  Annamayya, Kshetrajna in Telugu and Muthuthandavar in Tamil gave us a new musical form called padam. Bhadrachala Ramadasa who sang several kirtanas in praise of Lord Rama is said to have influenced Tyagaraja in many of his compositions.

 Some general features about Pre-trinity composers may be noted. Most of the compositions were composed in rakti ragas and we do not find much evidence to their having used vivadi ragas. Their compositions served in the codification of music and in the development of musicology. The sahityas usually are packed with words and most of the pre-trinity composers had a deep knowledge of natya sastra also. Almost every expression of bhakti, including Ninda stuti is found in their compositions.

Here we present a brief write up about some of the pre-trinity composers (whose life period spans over 12 centuries, before trinity) and their compositions.

Pachimiriyam Adiyappa

 Period: 18th century

 Guru of Syama Sastry (eldest of the trinity)
 
 The famous "Viriboni" varnam in Bhairavi is his composition

 He is said to have created the musical form "tana varna" and hence called "Tanavarna margadarsi"

 We find dasa vidha gamakas used in the viriboni varnam

 He has also composed lot of kritis with ankita "Sri Venkataramana"

Purandaradasa

 Period: 1484-1564

 Disciple of Vyasaraja

 Considered Narada's incarnation and "Karnataka sangeeta pitamaha"

 Created swaravalis, alankaras, gitas for learning karnatic music and also mayamalavagowla as the scale for initial musical lessons

 The number of his compositions comes to an incredible 4,75,000!

 Ankita: Purandaravittala

Kshetrajna (also called Kshetrayya)

 Lived in the 17th century

 He is considered the father and architect of the musical form called 'padam' and he has no equal in the sphere of padams.

 Belonged to the tradition of "madhura bhakti"

 Composed a number of padams in rare ragas and in ragas of admittedly limited scope.

 Composed more than 4200 padams

 He used the ankita "muvva gopala" in his padams.

Jayadeva

 Lived during 11th-12th centuries

 Composed the famous opera, "Gita govinda", also called ashtapati (since the songs have eight stanzas each), based on the Radha-Krishna episode in the Brahmavaivartapurana.

 Jayadeva composed and sang Gita govinda at the Puri Jagannatha Temple and his wife Padmavati danced accordingly.

 Gitagovinda contains 12 sargas, fulfilling requirements of a kavya

 The greatness of Gitagovinda can be understood from the fact that there are as many as 67 commentaries for it in Sanskrit language.

 The 19th song is called "darsana ashtapati" since Lord Krishna appeared and approved Jayadeva's verse (7th stanza of the song).

Devotional songs in Tamil - Divyaprabandam and Thirumurai

 Devotional songs in Tamil were current even before this millennium.

 We find that these songs were set to "panns" (equivalent to ragas).

 In the 10th century, Nathamuni collected the works of vaishnavite devotees (Alwars) and called them as "Nalayira Divya prabandam". It is said that Haridasas were inspired by these works in their bhakti sahityas.

 The saivite composition (tevaram, tiruvasagam) of Nayanmars were collected by Nambiandar nambi.

 A legend involving Sambandar, one of the saivite devotees, mentions that he composed his first song (todudaiya seviyan) at the age of three - that would perhaps make him the youngest composer in the whole world.

Haridasas of Karnataka

 Saints lived during 16th and 18th centuries

 The foundation for the Haridasa movement was laid by Narahari Tirtha.

 Following his footsteps, several great saints like Sripadaraja, Vyasaraja and Vadiraja channelised music to convey their thoughts and propounded the right path to realize God. They fortified the Bhakti movement with dasa sahityas for community singing.

 Each haridasa has an ankita.

 Narahari Tirtha  - narahari
 Sripadaraja  - rangavittala
 Vyasaraja - sri/siri krishna
 Vadiraja  - hayavadana
 Kanakadasa - adikesava
 Vijayadasa - vijayavittala
 Gopaladasa - gopalavittala
 Jagannathadasa - jagannatha

 The songs of Haridasas, though dominated by "bhakti", also revel in various techniques of pure classical music.

Annamacharya

 Period : 1424-1503

 At the age of 16, it is said that Annamayya has a vision of Lord Venkateswara and he spent the rest of his life composing kirtanas and padams on Him.

 Disciple of Shatakopayati of Ahobalam.

 Traditionally, his songs are classified into adhyatma and sringara sankirtanas

 He is the first to compose padams in Telugu and said to have composed 32,000 padams, out of which 14,358 are available.

Narayana Tirtha

 Lived in the early 17th century

 He became sanyasi early in his life.

 He is the illustrious author of the "Sri Krishna Lila Tarangini"

 Sri Krishna Lila Tarangini is the finest and longest Nritya Nataka of Sanskrit language and consists of 12 tarangas.

 The subject matter of the work relates to dasamaskandham of Srimad Bhagavatam.

 Sonti Venkatasubbaiya, Tyagaraja's guru, belongs to the sishya parampara of Narayana Tirtha.

Oothukkadu Venkatasubbaiyer

 Period: 17th century; Lived for just 32 years.

 The first to compose group kritis on a certain deity (e.g., Kamakshi Navavaranam).

 Composed numerous compositions on Lord Krishna in the Kaliya nartana pose.

 The terse jatis and madhyama kala sahityas in his compositions reflect his deep knowledge of natya sastra.

 Oothukkadu compositions are quite popular now, thanks to the efforts of Needamangalam Krishnamurthy Bhagavatar, who belonged to the same lineage as Sri Venkatasubbaiyer.

 A rare work, called Kalyana mala, describes the wedding of Lord Krishna.

 He composed both in Sanskrit and Tamil.

Bhadrachala Ramadasa

 Period: 1620-1688

 Ramadasa is the link between the kirtana composers of the earlier period and the kriti composers of the later period.

 From his work, "Dasarathi satakam", we find that his preceptor was Raghunatha Bhattacharya.

 Tradition has it that Kabir Das gave Ramadasa the Tarakamantropadesam.

 Ramadasa used the state revenue to renovate the Sri Rama temple in Bhadrachalam and was imprisoned for 12 years by the Nawab for this. He composed several songs on Sri Rama during this period. One night, the all merciful Lord Rama along with Lakshmana came in the guise of servants, paid the Nawab the six lakhs rupees owed by Ramadasa to the state. They obtained the release order from the Nawab, freed Ramadasa from prison life and disappeared. This episode has been referred to by Tyagaraja in his famous "Ksheerasagarasayana" as, "Dhirudau Ramadasuni bandhamu dirchinati vinnanura Rama".

 He has used Ramadasa, Bhadrachalavasa, Bhadradri, Bhadragiri, Bhadrasaila as his ankitas.

Sadasiva Brahmendra
 
 Lived during 17th century

 Initiated to sanyasashrama by Paramasivendra Saraswati of the Kamakoti pitha.

 23 songs (all in sanskrit) of him are available with their ragas and tunes through Bhajana sampradaya.

 The compositions address Sri Rama, Krishna as well as Nirguna Brahman.

 He used "Paramahamsa" as his ankita.

Arunagirinathar

 Lived in 16th century

 An ardent devotee of Sri Subrahmanya and propagator of Kaumara cult.

 He composed 16,000 hymns in praise of Lord Subrahmanya, collectively called Tiruppugazh, of which only 1307 are available now.

 Besides Tiruppugazh, he has written smaller works like Kandaranubhuti, Kandarantadi, Kandaralankaram and Tiruvaguppu.

 The distinctive feature of Tiruppugazh songs is the varied and intricate rhythmic patterns (sandam) and time measure (tala) and are a veritable treat to music lovers. Although sung in praise of Lord Subrahmanya, he narrates the stories of other Gods in an implicit way.

Pallavi Gopala Iyer

 Lived during the later part of 17th and early part of 18th centuries.

 Disciple of Pachimiriyam adiyappa.

 Gopala Iyer was the earliest vidwan to have been honoured with the title, "Pallavi", for his outstanding skill in the exposition of this branch of Manodharma sangeetam.

 He is author of three classical ata varnams (in Kalyani, Kambhoji and Todi).

 Apart from this, he has composed kritis with gamaka prayogas.
 
 Ankita : Venkata

Muthuthandavar

 Trinity of Tamil Music - Muthuthandavar, Marimutha Pillai and Arunachala Kavirayar

 Muthuthandavar - lived during 1560-1640

 Very early in his life, Thandavan was afflicted by a dreadful disease and because of this, even his close relatives neglected him. He was living on the prasadam offered in the temple. Oneday, unable to bear the pangs of hunger, he prayed to God to come to his rescue. Goddess Uma appeared in the guise of the ten year old daughter of the temple priest and offered him food. She advised him Thandavan to go and worship Lord Nataraja in Chidambaram to get cured of his disease. She advised him to compose songs on Him using the first word heard by him in the temple as the opening word of his song. After he sung his first composition, "Bhooloka kailasagiri chidambaram" (using the above cue), Lord cured him of his dreaded disease.
 
 Once he was bitten by a poisonous snake. He immediately sang, "Aru marundoru thani marundu ambalaththe kandene". The effects of the poison vanished.

 Muthuthandavar composed numerous kritis and padams in popular ragas and talas, of which 84 are available. Perhaps he is the first to compose padams.

 While singing his last composition, "Manickavachagar per enakku thara vallayo ariyen", he became one with God.

Marimutha Pillai

 Period: 1712-1787

 Marimutha Pillai started composing even at a very early age.

 Worried over the insanity of his eldest son, he came to chidambaram, where Lord Nataraja commanded him to compose poems in praise of Him. When Pillai authored the "Puliyoor Venpa", his son's insanity vanished.

 Most of Pillai's compositions are on Nataraja and in the form of Nindastuti.

 He used "Thillai" as his mudra.

Arunachala Kavirayar

 Period: 1711-1778

 Having attained mastery over Kamba Ramayanam, Kavirayar composed his magnum opus, "Rama Nataka Keerthanaigal".

 Kavirayar wanted to present this opera in the shrine of Lord Ranganatha at Srirangam. The temple authorities said that he could do so if only the Lord permitted. At this, Kavirayar sung in praise of the deity the song, "En palli kondeerayya". At the behest of the Lord, the temple officials felt happy to arrange for the premiere.

 The songs in Ramanatakam are said to have been tuned by his disciples, Venkatarama Aiyar and Kodandarama Aiyar.

 Apart from Ramanatakam, he has authored several other literary works like, "Ajamukhi natakam", "Anumar Pillai Tamizh", Sirkazhi Sthala Puranam" and "Sirkazhi kovai".

Matrubhutayya
 
 Period: 18th century

 A native of Tiruchi, Matrubhutayya was an ardent devotee of Sugandhi Kundambika, presiding deity of the rock fort temple.

 His devotional songs are collectively known as, "Sugandhi Kundalambankita kirtanas" and "Trisiragiri padas" and dedicated to his Ishtadevatas.

 His composition, "Nimadi challaga" in Anandabhairavi is a kriti of distinction.

 This song represents one of the earliest kritis having a "chittaswara" appendage. The anandabhairavi used by him paved way to the later version of the raga

 He has also composed an opera, "Parijatapaharana nataka".

Margadarsi Sesha Iyengar

 Lived during the latter part of 17th century.

 Composed splendid compositions which have served as models and guides to later composers - hence the title "Margadarsi".

 His sahityas are rich in allusions and bhakti rasa is the dominant feature.

 Because of his long stay in Ayodhya, Sesha Iyengar used the mudra, "Kosala".

 Sixty songs of him, approved by Sri Ranganatha, are available.

Papavinasa Mudaliar

 Lived during the first half of 18th century.

 Details of his life are not known.

 According to Subbarama Dikshitar, author of Sangeeta Sampradaya Pradarsini, Papavinasa Mudaliar was patronised by Tulaja II.

 Kirtanas of Mudaliar are mostly in intricate talas.
 
 He was very fond of couching praise of Gods in the guise of "Nindastuti".

 Composed the opera, "Kumbhesar Kuravanji" in praise of the Lord in Kumbakonam.

 From his kritis, we find evidence that he lived for most part of his life in Kumbakonam and Tiruvarur. He had deep knowledge of music and Natya sastra also. He used manipravala style also.

 Ankita: papavinasa

Vijayagopalaswami

 Period: 18th century

 Not much is known about the life of Vijayagopalaswami.

 He has composed several kirtanas with the ankita, "Vijayagopala"

 His compositions are sung commonly in Bhajana sampradaya.

References

1. Carnatic music composers, ed. Dr. B. Dayananda Rao, The Triveni Foundation, Hyderabad, 1995.
2. Vaggeyakararkalin charitram, A. Sundaram Iyer, 1956.
3. Great Composers, Book I, Prof. P. Sambamurthy, The Indian Music Publishing house, Madras, 1994.
4. Gita Govindam, Dr. N. Gangadharan, The Little Flower Co., Madras, 1994.
5. Sri Krishnaganam, Needamangalam Krishnamurthy Bhagavatar.
6. Phoenix, August 1999.
7. INTERNET
 
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