Mumbai: The 178th Aradhana festival of Saint Thyagaraja, a historical musical event, was held recently at the Sri Shanmukhananda Fine Arts Sangeetha Sabha’s Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi Auditorium. The festival, with its rich history, is held every year to honour the saint and composer Thyagaraja.
The festival features Carnatic music performances, including the singing of Thyagaraja’s Pancharatna Kritis, also called “five gems”. These compositions, in the ragas Nattai, Gowlai, Arabhi, Varali and Sri, are sung in unison by music lovers from all over Mumbai. The five songs are ‘Jagadanandakaraka’ (Nata), ‘Dudukugala’ (Gaula), ‘Sadhinchene’(Arabhi) ‘, Kanakanaruchira’(Varali) and ‘Endaro Mahanubhavulu’(Sri), all in Adi tala. The Pancharatna Kritis are considered to be the pinnacle of Thyagaraja’s musical genius and are a significant part of the festival.
St. Thyagaraja was born in 1767 in Thiruvarur, Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu. He passed away in 1847, and this is also his 258th birth anniversary. The saint is considered to be one of the musical geniuses who laid the foundation of Carnatic music in India.
The musicians, deeply devoted to their craft, refer to this as Aradhana Day or when he attained Samadhi. Thyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri are the holy trinity of Carnatic music. Sri Thyagaraja was devoted to Lord Sri Ram. He wrote and composed more than 800 songs in his lifetime, mostly in his mother tongue, Telugu. However, a few are in Sanskrit, including the masterpiece Jagadanandakaraka, which narrates the 108 names of Lord Ram. Thyagaraja composed his first song on the deity, ‘Namo namo Raghavaya’, when he was merely 13 years old.
