Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavatar was a musician of South India. He was born in the early 20th century in Punaveli. But, later, after the death of his father, he had to shift to Harikesanallur. It was a small village in the Tirunelveli district. This little place became famous only for this great musician, who used perform Harikatha.

Early Life of Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavatar
After the death of Muthiah Bhagavatar`s father, his uncle, Lakshmana Suri, sent the young boy to Tiruvaiyaru to learn the Sastras. But the atmosphere of the place was filled with music and that made him learn the seven notes very early. His first music education started under Sambasiva Iyer, a sishya of Tyagaraja.

Harikesanallur Muthiah could not continue with this music for a long period and later, he shifted to perform Harikatha in 1904. His performance as a Harikatha artist was liked and appreciated by all and sundry and he became popular as Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavatar. His shifting to Harikatha from the hard-core music can be blamed to his unruly voice. But his brilliant performance in this difficult art of musical story-telling shows how well equipped he was to handle the art.

Life in Music for Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavatar
Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavatar also possessed a command in the Sastras along with expertise in music. The resonant voice of him used to captivate a huge number audience in those days when there were no mikes. He was a brilliant stage performer and the spectators used to enjoy all his performances. The most popular Harikathas performed by him were, `Sari Sulocbana`, `Valli Parinayam` and `Tyagaraja Charitram`.

After his meeting with Krishna Bhat, a Marathi kirtan artiste, Muthiah Bhagavatar started to incorporate Marathi musical forms like Saki, Dindi and Ovi into his presentation of Harikatha. He also composed his own `Nirupanams` i.e. `introductory and situation-linking musical passages` for all his stories except in case of `Tyagaraja Charitram`. Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavatar had composed total 400 songs in a variety of musical forms, which is largest among the post-Trinity composers. His `tana varnams`, `pada varnams`, `darn varnams` were the first of all his contemporary composers. He has also composed various `raga malikas`, individual and group kritis that include navavarana, navagraha, two sets of 108 songs, individually in praise of Lord Shiva and Chamundeswari, patriotic songs, tillanas, folk tunes and many more.

Most of the songs composed by Muthiah Bhagavatar were based on different Hindu gods and few of them were also on his patrons. Tamil, Telugu, Sanskrit and Kannada were the four languages of his composition. His 20 ragas can be found till today. Few of his famous ragas found present day include Karnaranjani, Budhamanohari, Niroshtha and Hamsanandi. But according to some research scholars, few of his ragas existed before he tried his hand on them but definitely he had given a new form to those ragas.

Muthiah Bhagavatar was also known as an `Asukavi`. This is a type of a poet, who could compose at will. Once someone approached Muthiah and asked for writing something, which would appeal to the Westerners. He instantly came up with an item, which is now well known as the `Madurai Mani notes`.

Muthiah Bhagavatar loved to experiment with his compositions. He adapted North Indian raga called `Sohini` and named it `Hamsanandi` and from a raga called `Durga`, he composed a new raga named `Pasupatipriya`. All his compositions were decorated with intellectual `chittasvarams`. Some ancient ragas, like `Shanmukapriya` and `Mohanakalyani` were made popular by him. He was also a good theoretician, who wrote a thesis on music in Tamil called `Sanjjita Kalpa Drumam`.

Composition by Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavatar
Varnams

Composition	Raga	Tala	Language
mAtE malaya dhwaja pAnDya sanjAtE	khamAs	Adi	Sanskrit

Chamundamba astottara Krithis
Other Krithis

Composition	Raga	Tala	Language
amba vANi nannu AdarimpavE	kIra vANi	Adi	Telugu
asTAdasha supIThasthE	simhEndra madhyamam	rUpaka	Sanskrit
gam gaNapatE namO namah	hamsa dhwani	rUpaka	Sanskrit
himagiri tanayE hEma latE	Shuddha dhanyAsi	Adi	Sanskrit
rAja rAjArAdhitE	nirOshTa		Sanskrit
sakti gaNapatim bhajEham	nATa	rUpaka	Sanskrit
siddhi vinAyakam sEvEham	mOhana kalyANi	Adi	Sanskrit
sudhAmayI sudhA nidhE	amRta varSiNi	rUpaka	Sanskrit
vijayAmbikE vimalAtmikE	vijaya nAgari	Adi	Sanskrit

Awards and Recognition for Muthiah Bhagavatar
He won a Doctorate degree for his field of study which was Swatitirunal kritis and wrote a book named Sangeeta Kalpadruma. He was also the first President of the Annual Conference at the Madras Music Academy and in 1930 he won Sangeetha Kalanidhi title, the most prestigious award in Carnatic music. He was also conferred with an honorary doctorate by University of Kerala in 1942. He opened a music school named the `Tyagaraja Sangita Vidyalaya` in Madurai District in 1920. He had many disciples, who became stars in later period. One of them was Madurai Mani Iyer. The `Swati Tirunal Academy of Music` established in 1939 at Thiruvananthapuram got him as the first principal.

Death of Muthiah Bhagavatar
Muthiah Bhagavatar, who wrote over 400 kritis died in the year 1945. Muthiah Bhagavatar`s legacy of music lives on in his granddaughter, veena expert Smt. Rugmini Gopalakrishnan.