Versatility of Tyagaraja - Part 2
I had earlier written about the various types of song structures given by Tyagaraja. Now let us examine the themes that were dealt with by Tyagaraja. Basically lot of people feel that Tyagaraja's krithis are mainly 'bhajanais' or that they have a pleading tone. 'Azhugai' as they call in Tamil. This has mainly to do with the fact that many people who listen to Carnatic music dont know Telugu. That Tyagaraja's krithis all portray a similar mood is far from truth. So let us examine the different themes that Tyagaraja dealt with. First lets look at the krithis of his in which portray the 'karunya rasa'. These are the ones wherein Tyagaraja asks Rama to come and save him, give him moksham etc. A lot of his followers, who became vaggeyakaras later, used this tone often. The beauty of Tyagaraja's krithis was that they were very poetic even when the tone was imploring. You just need to check out the meaning of the krithi 'Nagumomu' in Abheri to know ...