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.
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 very much and he became famous 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.
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 Siva 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 such as the `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`.
Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavatar was also proficient in Sanskrit. He wrote a Sanskrit poetical work named `Tyajjaraja Vijaya Kavya`. He was like so much that in the Music Academy, every conference was incomplete without any explanation on some aspect of musicology. There are many `firsts` to his credit. He opened a music school named the `Tyagaraja Sangita Vidyalaya` in Madurai in 1920. He had many disciples, who became stars in later period. One of them was Madurai Mani Iyer. The first doctorate degree in music in India was received by Muthiah Bhagavatar in 1943. The Kerala University honoured him with the D. Litt for his Tamil treatise. The `Swati Tirunal Academy of Music` established in 1939 at Trivandrum got him as the first principal. He also introduced first time the practice of playing of `nagasvara vidwans` during the puja at the Trivandrum temple.
The ruler of the Travancore court Maharajah Chitra Tirunal and Rani Sethu Parvati Bai recognised the musical merit of the Muthiah Bhagavatar. He was given the responsibility of reviving the forgotten kritis of Maharajah Swati Tirunal. He was honoured with many titles such as the `Sangita Kalanidhi`, the `Gayaka Sikhamani` and many others.
