Pancharatna Kriti

The Pancharatna Kritis are: The melodic forms of these compositions (Nata, Goula, Arabhi, Varali, Sri) are the five Ghana ragas of Carnatic music, also called the ghanapanchaka.

Nata and Varali are the most ancient of the Carnatic ragas and date back to over a thousand years ago.

Tyagaraja has avoided the dhaivatam completely in the first Pancharatna Kriti without losing the swarupa, or character, of the ragam.

In this second Pancharatna Kriti composed in Telugu, Tyagaraja lists all the errors he has committed in his life and asks who but Rama could redeem such a sinner.

The sins described include: just wandering around as though being satisfied with a full meal, giving sermons to people who are not interested in listening or who do not have the capability to understand, self-styling oneself as a great person, and mistaking the dross for the real thing.

He lists four categories of people to whom he has made the claim of greatness; the ignorant, the riff-raff, the low social folk and women.

It is written in a playful tone, rich with metaphor and simile without a surfeit of adjectives - all the while arresting the attention of the singers.

Tyagaraja clearly delineates and lists the Mahanubhavalu, or great ones, in the kriti itself, mentioning the saints Narada and Saunaka, among others.

The belief in Kerala and Tamil Nadu is that Tyagaraja composed the kriti spontaneously in his joy upon hearing the divine music of the Malayali singer Shadkala Govinda Marar.