Muthiah Bhagavatar Biography 
Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavatar, shortly called Muthiah Bhagavatar was a famous Carnatic musician and composer of 20th century. He is a composer of about 20 new ragas including Vijaysaraswathi, Karnaranjani, Budhamanohari, Niroshta and Hamsanandhi. He is also credited to popularizing ragas like Shanmukhapriya and Mohanakalyani. Post Tyagaraja’s period the Carnatic music witnessed the blooming of many eminent composers who have enriched Carnatic music. He is credited to almost 400 musical compositions, highest among the musicians of the 20th century. Muthiah Bhagavatar is one among those distinguished names of the 20th century who gave new dimensions to Carnatic music. He was the founder of Shri Thyagaraja Sangeetha Vidyalayam, a music school at Madurai.
He was born in Harikesanallur village of Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu. His father was a patron of musicians and for the same reason he was exposed to the world of music at the age of 6. But very soon he lost his father and later he was taken care of by his uncle who provided him better education and Vedic knowledge. But he loved music more than Sanskrit and Vedic studies and he started searching a new music teacher in his town at the age of 10. Later he became the disciple of Padinaindumandapa Sambasiva Iyer at Tiruvarur under whom he learnt Carnatic music for long 9 years.
Apart from gaining fame as a musician, he was also an expert of traditional music instruments like Chitraveena and Mridangam. His contributions also include some theoretic works on music. His treatise on musical theory, Sangita Kalpa Drumam is one of his significant contributions. He was the first Principal of Swati Tirunal Academy of music, Thiruvananthapuram. He founded the music school, Shri Thyagaraja Sangeetha Vidyalayam at Madurai and Madurai Mani Iyer was one of his earliest disciples.
Published: N/A
Updated: September 01, 2014
