Tyagaraja .....contd..

The Three Schools of Tyagaraja

During his life, Tyagaraja attracted many students and to each he imparted a “corpus of his compositions according to the student’s voice-quality and musical equipment”. It is to these students and in particular to three branches that we owe the legacy we now have.

The three branches, or schools that emerged are those associated with the places Umayalpuram, Tillaistanam, and Walajapet. Some disciples also took the trouble of documenting Tyagaraja’s life. The first two biographies were written by the father and son duo, Venkataramana Bhagavathar, and Krishnaswami Bhagavathar of Walajapet. Venkataramana Bhagavthar was born in 1781 and spent many years with Tyagaraja. He died in 1874. His son Krishnaswami was born in 1824, and he too spent some years with Tyagaraja. Both the father and the son wrote their biographical texts in Telugu, and all other accounts that were published subsequently have naturally relied a lot on these basic texts.

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