Shadkala Govinda Marar
Encyclopedia
Carnatic music
Carnatic music is a system of music commonly associated with the southern part of the Indian subcontinent, with its area roughly confined to four modern states of India: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu...
from Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. He was a contemporary of Saint Tyāgarāja
Tyagaraja
Kakarla Tyagabrahmam , colloquially known as Tyāgarājar and Tyagayya was one of the greatest composers of Carnatic music or classical South Indian music. He, along with his contemporaries Muthuswami Dikshitar and Shyama Shastry, forms the Trinity of Carnatic music...
and Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma
Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma
Sri Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma was the Maharaja of the state of Travancore , in India. He reigned under the regency of his mother Maharani Gowri Lakshmi Bayi from 1813 till 1815 and henceforth under the regency of his aunt Maharani Gowri Parvati Bayi from 1815 till 1829...
. He was also adept in playing musical instruments like Chenda
Chenda
The Chenda is a cylindrical percussion instrument used widely in the state of Kerala, and Tulu Nadu of Karnataka State in India. In Tulu Nadu it is known as Chande....
, Edakka and Thimila
Timila
Timila is an hour-glass shaped percussion instrument used in Kerala, South India. It is made of polished jackwood, and the drumheads made of calfskin are held together by leather braces which are also twined round the waist of the drum...
. His expertise in singing in the six degrees of geometric speed earned him the title Ṣaṭkāla.
Early life
Govinda Marar was born in 1798 in Ramamangalam village in Kerala.His parents belonged to community of Marars who performed the traditional singing in the temples of Kerala. He took to singing from a very early age. He received his musical lessons from Haripad Ramaswamy Bhagavathar.He is said to have used a Tamburu having seven strings. At the age of 21, he left his home to begin a life of wandering. He is believed to have sung in many important temples all over Kerala.
Meeting with Saint Tyāgarāja
According to Mr. P.T. Narendramenon, the famous scholar from Kerala, "legend has it that while at Thiruvananthapuram, Marar had heard with deep admiration the kritis of TyagarajaTyagaraja
Kakarla Tyagabrahmam , colloquially known as Tyāgarājar and Tyagayya was one of the greatest composers of Carnatic music or classical South Indian music. He, along with his contemporaries Muthuswami Dikshitar and Shyama Shastry, forms the Trinity of Carnatic music...
, sung by Kanniah, a direct disciple of the saint. To him Tyagaraja became a holy beacon. One Haripad Ramaswamy Bhagavatar also had learnt those kritis. Marar learnt a few such kritis from him. Soon he was all agog to have darshan of the saint at Tiruvayyaru, and in 1837 he set forth on foot, and reached the house of Tyagaraja on an ekadeshi day.
The daily bhajan session led by Tyagaraja himself was on when the weary wayfarer reached the place.
When the first half of the bhajan session was over, the guest was invited to sing as was the custom. Marar had already been noticed by those assembled due to his glowingly ascetic appearance, and his unusual tambura, with the flag. Being ekadeshi, it was a day dear to Hari, and he chose his favourite Geet Govind song, 'Chandana charchitha neela kalebara', in Pantuvarali raga.
Prof.Sambamoorthy reconstructs the memorable scene from information gathered from the palm-leaf biography of the saint written by his direct disciples, Walajapet Venkitramana Bhagavathar and Tanjore Rama Rao, and from the notebook of another direct disciple, Krishnaswami Bhagavathar, thus:
"He (Marar) started singing in the ati ati vilambita kala (first degree of speed). People were wondering why he started at such a dead slow tempo, but they were struck by the precision in duration between count and count. Then he sang the chosen theme in ati vilambita kala (second degree) Vilambita (third degree), Madhyama kala (fourth degree), druta kala (fifth degree) and ati druta kala (sixth degree). As he approached the fifth degree of speed, the entire audience was spellbound, and when he sang in the sixth degree of speed, Tyagaraja himself was taken aback by his laya sampat. During the performance he was strumming the tambura with his right hand , and playing the ganjira with his left hand, holding the latter instrument in position between the toes of his right leg.
Tyagaraja immediately perceived in Marar a brilliant musician of rare genius. His spiritually evolved soul also recognised him as a mahanubhava (great soul), who like himself was seeking satchidananda, through Sangeetha. To pay tribute to the visitor, Tyagaraja asked his disciplies to sing his scintillating Pancharatna kriti 'Entharo mahanubhavulu' . The Walajapet disciples have used the word 'prasthutimpa' in Telugu, meaning 'in order to pour out praise'. The belief in Kerala is that Tyagaraja composed the kriti extempore in his spontaneous joy on hearing the spiritual and musically fantastic singing of Marar. But the version of the Walajapet disciples would have it that the kriti was already composed, and the disciples had learnt it before the arrival of Marar." This according to Mr. P.T.Narendra Menon was the legendary meeting between two great musicians.
Tyagaraja was 70 years old at that time and Marar was aged 39 years. The kriti 'Endharo mahanubhavalu' is said to have been composed by Tyagaraja at a young age. So it is possible that after hearing Marar sing and in appreciation of the greatness of Marar, Tyagaraja could have asked his disciples to sing the kriti, written by him earlier.
Death
After leading the life of a wandering for a long time, he reached the temple of Panduranga in PandharpurPandharpur
Pandharpur is an important pilgrimage city on the Bhimā river in Solāpur district, Maharashtra, India. The Vithoba temple attracts about half a million Hindu pilgrims during the major yātrā in the month of Ashadh ....
, Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
. He was revered as Paramahamsa Govinda Das. The temple records note that he attained Samadhi in 1843.