Muthiah Bhagavatar

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Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavatar, commonly known as Muthiah Bhagavatar, is one of Carnatic classical music's famous twentieth century composers. Muthiah Bhagavatar composed almost 400 songs, the largest among the post-Trinity composers. The songs were on a number of Gods of the Hindu pantheon. He composed them in four languages - Telugu, Tamil, Sanskrit and Kannada. He also created almost 20 ragas.

[edit] Early life

Muthiah was born on November 15, 1877 into an affluent family. He was exposed to music from a very early age, as his father was a patron of musicians. He lost his father at the young age of six years, and his maternal uncle M. Lakshmana Suri took over the responsibility for his education, initiating Muthiah into Sanskrit and Vedic studies. However, the love of music that had been implanted in him led Muthiah to leave his hometown of Harikeshanallur, Tamil Nadu when he was only ten years in search of a teacher. He found the gifted teacher Sambasiva Iyer at Tiruvarur, who recognized Muthiah’s talent for music. During the nine years he spent with Sambasiva Iyer, Muthiah cultivated this talent and made his name as a Harikata Vidhwan. His rich voice and excellent tanam singing made him one of the era’s most highly coveted concert artists.

[edit] Awards and recognitions

Having impressed the Maharaja of Mysore, he was appointed court musician at Mysore. At Mysore he composed 115 kritis in Kannada in praise of Chamundi devi, the matron goddess of the Mysore dynasty. Later he was invited to the court of Travancore by the Maharaja Mulam Tirunal where he studied Swatitirunal kritis and wrote the book Sangeeta Kalpadruma, which won him an honorary doctorate. Other accolades included the Sangeeta Kalanidhi awarded to him by the Madras Music Academy in 1930.

When he died in 1945, Muthiah Bhagavatar had written over 400 kritis and changed the entire landscape of Carnatic music by introducing many Hindustani ragas (for example Sohani and Saarang Malhar) and creating many ragas of his own, such as the famous Mohana Kalyani. He ensured that his legacy would live on with such compositions as Bhuvanesvariya and also through his disciples, the most famous of which was Madurai Mani Iyer.