South-Indianisation of Telugu by Saint Tyagaraja

Saint Tyagaraja has erected twin towers of glorious lyrical language and compositions in Carnatic musical tradition, a couple of centuries back through hard work, discipline, devotion and determination. Observations of his two hundred fiftieth birth anniversary (1767 – 2017) year have begun in a splendiferous style, in all the Carnatic musical centres in all the four States of South India

In the colonial times when East India Company was slowly expanding across India, these small kingdoms survived for another century more. In the distant regions of Tanjavooru, and small towns like Tiruvayoor and Tiruvaaroor (the birthplace of Kakarla Tyagabrahamam, the original name Saint Tyagaraja) the changes were slow, and time moved at the speed of a bullock cart’s wheels.

Tanjavooru has a Telugu population since centuries, and in the absence of barriers, people moved and settled freely in the place of their choice, in their pursuit for greener pastures. According to biographers, in one such move, Tyagaraja’s ancestors came from Rayalaseema to this village.

Tyagaraja was the youngest brother in the family of three brothers, and the elder ones lead their lives in non-distinct professions. Tygaraja had a passion for writing lyrics, and composing the same in the local traditions of Carnatic music, and accepted “Umcha Vrutti” (seeking alms for living by going through the streets of the village as a wandering minstrel, in a typical attire of a Sadhu gayaka).

Leaving the mythical interlacing with divine interventions, those kick started his Vaggeyakaara lifestyle, in which he wrote lyrics, composed them, and also sang them, thus fulfilling the artistic requirements of a Vaggeyakaara that is three roles rolled in one – lyricist, composer, and singer.

His childhood was strongly influenced by a musical environ in the region. For the Thiruvaroor temple itself had annual temple ritual practices, which were seven distinct ways of music performances in honour of the presiding deity, all called by the same name Tyagaraja Swami.

“Namo Namo Raghavaaya” being his first lyrics, Tyagaraja made it a practice to end the song with a makuta, that addresses Lord Rama, as Tyagaraja nuta/ vinuta/ Tyagarajapta, etc. This placement of word “Tyagaraja” is often mistakenly treated as his own name, and some zealots have wondered how a lyric that propagates complete surrender, can have the signature of the composer in every lyric, bordering on boastful proclamation, by the bard?

Well, the matter fact is, Tyagaraja signed the songs in the name of presiding deity of the famous Tiruvaroor Temple Tyagarajesvara, a 30-acre sprawling complex located in their village, and is in the local records from the times of Chola Kings.

More so, this village and temple are located on the banks of Cauvery. Hence, the saint, in all his compositions meticulously mentioned that “O Lord praised by Siva” (in other words Tyagaraja, - which connotes to be a king among renouncers. Tyagaraja makes the lyrics apt and always point out at a local history of the several compositions.

The bard wrote most of the songs in chaste Telugu, and in some, he mixed the languages in a natural blend that people of the region spoke using Telugu and Sanskrit words. Making it an amalgam of Manipravalam, and also in some cases wrote straight Sanskrit lyrics (e.g. Samajavaragamanaa). It is said that Tyagaraja wrote around twenty-four thousand krithis and kirtanas.

The available number is around seven hundred only, which forms a core of the Carnatic musical tradition. Telugu being the principal language of times is also established by the fact that Muthusvami Dikshitar (1775-1835) and Syama Sastry (1767-1827), Mysore Vasudevachari (1865-1961) wrote their lyrical texts in Telugu and set them to Carnatic Music in 18th and 19th centuries.

Telugu words like Nenaru (affection) Duduku (indiscipline) Dora (lord) Chanuvu (intimacy) Chorava (initiative), and hundreds of such words those do not have a Sanskrit etymological root, and from the vast domain of Dravidian languages (retained in Telugu) were used by Saint Tyagaraja.

And this started the South-Indianisation of Telugu, as a musical language, since the lyricists, composers, and singers from Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam languages have endorsed it and expounded in their thousands of concerts through the immediate past of twenty decades of time, at least.

As a musical language of lyrics, Telugu has attained the status of a South Indian language, due to the dedicated efforts of Saint Tyagaraja. The Carnatic Music vocal exponents sing the compositions in Telugu, in entire South India, and they very well understand the words and meanings of the language medium.

The acceptance of Carnatic tradition and its principal hero, who built a Rama Bhakti Samrajya, (an empire of devotion to Lord Rama) did it in his mother tongue that is Telugu. Any language when used and spoken by other language communities can make a claim towards inter-regionalisation as a first step, and globalisation being the natural goal.

No other Telugu poet or lyricist has earned this distinction right from the first poet Nannayya (11th century), since, their lore is chiefly based on written text and for any non-Telugu person to go through them it is a minimum requirement that the person should learn the language. In the thousand year span of Telugu literature, only the lyricists Annamayya (1408-1503), Ramadasu (1620-1680), and Tyagaraju (1767-1847) have travelled on this path.

The former two savants being very spontaneous in their outpour, as South Indian Bauls or Annamayya being the wandering minstrels, and Ramadasu being an administrative member of the Tanisha Government at the local level. They never had the time and focus that Saint Tyagaraja had to develop his school of art as a strict measure of musical standardisation.

This standardisation has seen to that, his works are accepted as texts to be taught in musical universities worldwide. Particularly in South India, and thus, Saint Tyagaraja, is the first combination artist to start the true globalisation of Telugu as a literary language, embraced and practiced, by the people of at least four South Indian languages, and worldwide, by the exponents, and enthusiasts, who strive to express their musical eloquence through the lyrics of the Saint.

They are oblivious to the fact that their every effort gives a long lease of life to Telugu as a resourceful language that has the generative power strengthened by generation after generation of genius, in the last millennium. If Nicolo Di Conti (1395-1469), the European horse merchant, who visited South Indian Vijayanagar Hampi kingdom during the Saluva Kings reign, called Telugu, the Italian of the East, it is Saint Tyagaraja, the quintessential Indian, in his gems of sterling compositions made Telugu a South Indian audio-feast.

By: Rama Teertha