The great saint Thyagaraja lived most of his life in the holy town of Thiruvaiyaru (PanchaNadeshwaram)
near Thanjavur .Unlike Muthuswamy Dikshithar, Thyagaraja did not have the habit of making arduous pilgrimages to far away temple towns or purificatory rivers
near Thanjavur .Unlike Muthuswamy Dikshithar, Thyagaraja did not have the habit of making arduous pilgrimages to far away temple towns or purificatory rivers
Infact in the song Koti Nadulu(Todi), he seems to pour scorn on those who do so. Nevertheless we do know that Thyagaraja made one long pilgrimage to the great city of Kanchi upon the invitation of the seer Upanishad Brahmam who was also a devotee of lord Rama
Thyagaraja embarks on this journey in 1837, he first visits Lalgudi and pays his obeisance to Lord Saptharishishwara and pravrudha Shrimathi through five krithis. The songs are collectively called the Lalgudi Pancharathanm
The composer then goes to Sri Rangam and here he composes the well known song O Rangasayee in Kambhoji. Thyagaraja visited the shrine during the Vaikunta Ekadasi and stayed here for a reasonable amount of time composing four more songs on Ranganatha.
From Srirangam Thyagaraja reaches the then bustling colonial city of Madras where he stays with the Dubash, Kovur Sumdaresha Mudali at George town. Thyagaraja also visits his disciple Veenai Kuppayyar at Madras and visit the town of Thiruvottriyur along with him
At Thiruvottriyur Thyagaraja visits the hallowed shrine of Lord Thyagarajaswamy and composes another set of five songs on goddess Tripurasundari. He then visits the native village of his patron Sundaresa Mudali at Kovur.
The lord of Kovur is praised in five songs which are set in the ragas Pantuvarali,Shankarabharanam,Kharaharapriya,Kalyani and Sahana. Of these EeVasudha in Sahana has been the most popular in recent times.
Thyagarja then goes on to visit one of his premier disciples Walajahpet Venkataramana Bhagavathar before eventually reaching the town of Kanchi. At Kanchi he meets Upanishad Brahmam and composes a song on Rama in the rare raga of Jingala (Anathudhanu Ganu).
Amongst the songs Thyagaraja composed in Kanchi, the Song Varadaraja Ninnukori in Swarabhushani notes that Thyagarja sees the lord Varadaraja during the time of the famed annual Garuda Seva. Thyagaraja also calls Hasti saila, Vaikuntha in this song.
From Kanchi, Thyagaraja makes a short detour to Thirupati where two songs on the lord of Venkatadri are composed in the ragas Gaulipanthu and Madhyamavati. With this, Thyagaraja ends his pilgrimage and returns back to Thiruvaiyaru
Apart from this pilgrimage that he made at the age of seventy, Thyagaraja is also known to have made two additional pilgrimages to the holy towns of Nagapattinam and Sirkazhi.
