HomeTyagaraja Geeta
By Ch. Suryanarayana Rao and Ch. Mallikarjuna RaoTyagaraja and the Gita
By T. S. Parthasarathy
The Hindu
Tuesday, September 1, 1998
TYAGARAJA GEETA: Ch. Suryanarayana Rao and Ch. Mallikarjuna Rao; Published by All India Vishnu Sahasranama Federation, 158, R.M.K. Nagar, Vandalur, Chennai-600048. Rs. 35.
Tyagaraja will, perhaps, be remembered by posterity as a singer and music composer but on a closer analysis his greatness passes beyond the horizon of a mere singer and enters the domain of the seer and the mystic. His songs constitute his spiritual and literary heritage as well as a treatise on Bhakti. Great innovator as he was in music proper, Tyagaraja was not anxious to be original in his exposition of bhakti. Out of the common heritage of his people he took as much as he needed to body forth his immortal longings and deep intuition.
He churned the Valmiki Ramayana, Pothana Bhagavatam, Mukunda Mala, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita to produce his soul- stirring songs which are rightly described as ``Tyagopanishad''.
The book under notice is the first of its kind in which two erudite scholars have combined their skills to correlate 30 kirtanas of Tyagaraja with the teachings of the Gita.
Tyagaraja must have soaked himself in the teachings of the Gita and was himself a supreme example of the Sthitaprajna described in chapter II. He was also the torchbearer of the Bhakti yoga spelt out elsewhere in the classic. It is no wonder, therefore, that a number of his songs reflect the many yogas expounded in the Gita.
The authors must have taken enormous pains to locate the 30 kritis which have a direct bearing on the spiritual wisdom of the Gita. They have appropriately chosen Gitarthamu in Surati as the starting point. Apart from Arjuna, the only other person who personally heard the Gita from the lips of Krishna was Hanuman.
According to the Puranas Hanuman was the flag symbol of Arjuna and was sitting atop Arjuna's chariot throughout the 18 days of the Kurukshetra war. Hanuman was also a musicologist who propounded the Hanuman Mata. Strangely enough, he is supposed to have written a commentary on the Gita called Paisachika Bhashyam. Tyagaraja has combined both these qualities in Hanuman and written this beautiful kriti.
The other kriti in which Tyagaraja makes a direct reference to Gitopadesa is Bagayanayya in Chandrajyoti. Krishna tells Arjuna that no sin would be committed if he took up arms against the Kauravas.
All the kritis printed in the book are in the Roman script with a clear paraphrase in English which is a bonanza for readers not acquainted with Telugu. Against each kriti, the relevant slokas from the Gita have been given in Roman script, with a lucid translation and their bearing upon the contents of the songs. The book concludes with Makelara in Ravichandrika which stresses the devotee's total surrender to God. The notes below each chapter are illuminating.
The authors have adopted a peculiar kind of spelling for the Sanskrit and Telugu words and although a key to the transliteration has been provided, the spelling is likely to confuse readers accustomed to a particular way of spelling. For example, Saveri has been spelt as Saavaari, Devagandhari as Daayvagaandhaari and Athana as Attaana.
In some kritis, readings different from the common versions have been adopted. In the charanam of Gitarthamu, the line ``Harivara rupudu Harihaya vinutudu'' (with the excellent form of a monkey, worshipped by Indra) has been printed as ``Haravara rupudu Harihaya vinutudu'' and the meaning has been given as ``form of Siva, praised by the Sun God''. The words ``velige'', ``chede'' and ``ide'' have been given as ``veligedu'', ``chededi'' and ``idedi'', perhaps to make them sound more grammatical. But there are practical difficulties in singing them.
There is no tradition in Tamil Nadu that the saint was named at birth as Sri Tyagaraja by his parents.
The printing and get-up are excellent and the price is affordable.
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