The Archetypal Power of Tyagarajas Life and Lyrics

That which is night to all beings, in that the disciplined man

wakes; that in which all beings wake, is night to the Atmancognizing Muni. Bhagavad Gita II.69.1
The first time I ever heard the sound of Tyagarajas songs being sung I was
struck by a strangely familiar voice; it had an archetypal quality. It was profoundly
expressive, almost embarrassingly personal; it seemed ancient and primal, yet also
formal, though following rules I did not know.2 This study is a chance to go back to
those roots, so to speak. It is concerned with roots in more ways than one.
Since I first started studying Tyagaraja in the late 70s, I have studied other
singer-saints and also deepened my understanding of creativity, aesthetics and
psychology. In this paper I am exploring Tyagarajas life and work in relation to
psychological concepts from Indian traditions and from Western depth psychology. I
want to examine Tyagarajas life and work for elements that relate to such terms as the
unconscious or suprapersonal unconscious, and archetypes in this collective
unconscious.
This may seem a difficult endeavor-- to talk about obscured aspects of creative
life hidden from the conscious mind. It involves looking into texts for hints of places
where a deeper undercurrent or subtext is partly visible. To focus on aspects of
Tyagarajas life and works which reveal deeper dimensions of psyche,3 to make
ourselves more conscious of things usually left unexamined is rewarding. It takes
careful attention to find the right vocabulary. A term like the unconscious can be
confusing, because in ordinary unreflective parlance we use the word
unconsciousness for states of non-awareness, being comatose, passed out, or deep
sleep.4 But in yoga and depth psychology the unconscious means subconscious
activities of a persons mind, including dreams, fantasies, idea impulses, etc. And the
term collective unconscious used by Jung has very specific meanings, denoting the
shared images, the paradigmatic memories of the human race. Jung speaks of it like
this:
This unconscious, buried in the structure of the brain5 and disclosing its living presence only
through the medium of creative fantasy, is the suprapersonal unconscious [which I take to mean
the suprapersonal consciousness of which we are usually unconscious]. It comes alive in the
creative man, it reveals itself in the vision of the artist, in the inspiration of the thinker, in the inner
experience of the mystic. The suprapersonal unconscious, being distributed throughout the brainstructure, is like an all-pervading, omnipresent, omniscient spirit. It knows man as he always was,
and not as he is at this moment; it knows him as myth. For this reason, also, the connection with
the suprapersonal or collective unconscious means an extension of man beyond himself; it means
death for his personal being and a rebirth in a new dimension, as was literally enacted in certain of
the ancient mysteries. It is certainly true that without the sacrifice of man as he is, man as he was-and always will be-- cannot be attained. And it is the artist who can tell us most about this
sacrifice of the personal man...6

In this view creative persons -- a poet composing, a composer discovering a

melody, an artist catching a wave of creativity-- forget themselves, immersed in the
realm of archetypal images.7 The suprapersonal unconscious in this sense gives rise to
creativity; the religious imagination phantasizes about the archetypes of the divine. Put
in another way Phantasy [is] the clearest activity whence issue the solutions to all
answerable questions; it is the mother of all possibilities, in which too the inner and the
outer worlds, like all psychological antitheses, are joined in living union.
(Abhinavagupta similarly states that the imagination (pratibha) is the source of all
creative work.)8 Imagination is highly valued; it creatively turns the chaotic flux of life
and impressions into stories, meanings involving compelling images, shaping jangling
noise into melodies.9
I believe these concepts can help us appreciate the creative life of Tyagaraja in
ways that do not diminish the religious dimension of his art. I will leave the subject of
archetypal musical associations of melodies and rhythms, etc., to musicologists who
have the necessary expertise in matters of musical dhvani.10 I have always found that
listening to Tyagarajas music puts me in a contemplative mood or state of mind, but as
a student of comparative religion I am better prepared to explore aspects of the deep
images in Tyagarajas lyrics, and in his lifestory, rather than the music. In my previous
works on Tyagaraja this was an implicit theme, here I am focusing on it more directly.11
Speaking about Tyagaraja a rasika said: The greatness of great people is that
they reflect truths [which are] in us. By suggestion, they enable us to see within
ourselves. The object ceases to be Tyagaraja, [it becomes] us. How does that
response happen? How do certain aspects of his life and work resonate in us? There is
something hidden and something shared in the unknown realm of the unconscious.
How are we to inquire into the secrets of this long-enduring resonance between the
saintly composer and the little-known depths within us? How does a great singer-saint
such as Tyagaraja make such a strong and long-lasting impression on so many
psyches?12
As we discuss Tyagarajas power it will be useful to consider some of the main
qualities associated with the terms subconscious or unconscious, collective
unconscious and archetypes and see what they may reveal about Tyagarajas
experiences and artistic expressions still vital in South India today. What do the stories
of Tyagaraja and his songs (usually taken at face value) reveal when we focus on them
in light of the psychological insights of India and the West13 regarding the nature of the
basic and elusive collective (or suprapersonal) unconscious?

1.Fancies, Reveries, Dreams and Visions

A key term in Patanjalis Yogasutras is chitta, mind-stuff, both conscious and
unconscious. In yoga the subconscious is made up of chittavritti the whirlwinds of
consciousness, and these states of mind are said to be of three types: confused,
restrained, and mixed. Yogas practices are meant to remove the confusion. A yogi

uses various means to work with the vritti, the mindwhirls. Through samadhi the yogi is
said to go beyond human conditioning, from suffering to freedom. Enchained in
samsara human beings seek deliverance, through yogic disciplines such as meditation
and devotional music. Another way to say this is that if the unconscious is made up of
memories, then memories are conditionings which are transcended in processes
involving forgetting, eliminating, purifying, calming the whirling, awakening to the
clarity of samadhi.14
Here are some lines from Patanjali on yogic ways of transcending mental
agitations: Mind attains peace, when meditation produces extra-ordinary senseperceptions; or by meditation on the inner light that leads beyond sorrow; or by
meditation on saints who have attained desirelessness; or by meditation on the
knowledge gained through dream or sleep.15 Thus, though it is a mystery, the
subconscious can partially be discussed by conscious minds, and the mind can be
pacified by powerful experiences, including glimpses which come unsubmerged in
meditation and dreams.16
Even in Tyagarajas earliest biographies dreams play a significant role. His
parents dreams announced his birth, and his fathers dream led to the location where
the family would settle, in Tiruvaiyaru. It is said that as a baby Tyagaraja dreamily
stopped nursing whenever he heard music being played. It is said that while playing
with children in the street the child Tyagaraja daydreamed about Rama.17 Bhakti is a
path of befriending the subconscious with the help of mantra, music and meditation on
the beloved. The bhakti practice of repeating the name of ones istadevata, culminates
in dreams or visions of ones favorite form of the deity. In Tyagarajas case twenty years
of repeating the Rama taraka mantra 960 million times led to his seeing Rama in dream
or vision and receiving inspiration. Perhaps we can say this spiritual exercise of japa
with a target number to precipitate a vision is a conscious experiment performed to
know in vision the transcendent in the form of the istadevata in the depths of the
suprapersonal unconscious.18
It is believed by many that Tyagaraja composed songs while immersed in a
deeper state of consciousness, and that his pupils wrote and learned what he sang
spontaneously in that state. A dreamlike state is not always used to describe this, but
sometimes it is trance or samadhi, or some higher consciousness beyond the
mundane.19 Traditions seem to imply that immersed in bhakti with music as second
nature to him, he sang his compositions only semi-aware of the world around him.
Indian artists traditionally have a yogic practice in their artistic process, a way to know
directly the divine images they are supposed to depict, deriving them from ideal forms
or archetypes. So too, from all accounts Tyagaraja sang out of directly experienced
moods the taste of the emotional flavors, conveying them musically by becoming an
instrument of bhakti experiences. He was in harmony with the tradition but was carrying
the tradition forward rather than merely using conscious musical technique to maniplate
the response of listeners.

Another important term in yoga is vasanas, impressions from past experiences.

The term itself suggests subtlety perfumings of the mindfolds -- odors are invisible yet
precise, and they stir memories. (Samskara is another term for these lasting
impressions made in the past.) Hindu traditions try to come to terms with Tyagarajas
extraordinary musical abilities by thinking of him as an incarnation of a previous great
devotee, especially Valmiki, voicing Ramas story in a mode suitable to the times.
Purva janma vasana means impression from previous birth, memories and tendencies
carried over from past life. These are essential in the Hindu explanation for child
prodigies, latent talents, and a variety of predispositions and inexplicable abilities.
(Since our memories are colored by rasas, ourvasanas, the subtle hidden dimensions
of citta, are presumably inextricable from rasas.20) In the Hindu view each person has
different adhikaras, whether from past actions, or from grace or luck, as seen in the
common South Indian belief in headwriting, fate written at birth on the forehead. In the
text Sangita Ratnakara the lotus petals of the seven chakras situated along the spine
are open or closed to signify a persons karmic talents or disabilities. Obviously a saints
self-aware adhikaras are different from an ignorant criminals blindly unconscious drives
and impulses.The saints personal unconscious with its compassionate scenarioes
activated would be more benevolent than the more rebellious archetypes active in a
criminals unconscious.21 Understanding Tyagaraja in terms of a previous great
exponent of Rama devotion -- Valmiki-- conveys the peoples explanation of his
greatness, as do the legends that Narada gave Tyagaraja special musical knowledge.
In a Sanskrit account of a poignant moment in Tyagarajas life we can also see a
portrayal of how Tyagarajas intense personal experiences of Rama may have seemed
dreamlike to ordinary people: The scene depicts the culmination of years of devotion,
mantra and meditation. At milking time as Tyagaraja removed old flowers from his
home shrine, he was struck by the overwhelming beauty of the images of Rama and
Lakshmana, and he saw a blue river rising like the light of a beautiful blue moon. The
brothers seem to come to life as twelve year olds with mesmerizing features and
Tyagaraja stands transfixed as they look at him while a ray of light filled the four
directions with blue and golden beams. Realizing he is in the presence of Rama and
Lakshmana, Tyagaraja feels confused and starts to bow, and they disappear.
Tyagaraja covered with darkness now gets up and looks around bewildered, losing
consciousness. Very sad he searches everywhere in the darkened house and runs out
into neighbors courtyards, hurrying along streets calling their names. Not finding
them he keeps exerting himself, with a tearful look on his face.
Returning home he hurries in, frantically hoping theyre still there. Not finding
them he staggers out and asks his students Where is heroic Lord Rama, and where is
Lakshmana? They were just here. You must have seen them--answer me! Where are
they? Seeing him so beside himself with agitation the students were saddened. Others
seeing him in this mentally disturbed state laughed. His distressed students, unaware of
the reason for his bewilderment and anguish followed but couldnt ask him about it.
After a while, still unsuccessful, he returned home, exhausted.22

The experience thus depicted in these memorializing stories is dreamlike in that

Tyagaraja alone sees the two divine heroes with great splendor and strange lights,
while to everyone else he seems to be talking about and reacting to imaginary
phantoms. (As the Bhagavad Gita says, the yogi is awake in that which is night to all
beings; that in which all beings wake is night to the self-realized sage.) The scene has
pathos, and listeners react with karuna rasa, the emotional flavor of compassion.
Another, more mundane example of evidence that Tyagaraja was entranced, his
awareness immersed in the depths of the suprapersonal unconscious, is the fact that
he was known for his anger.23 Like Beethoven he is remembered for becoming irritated
or enraged when interrupted by intrusions into the process of composing. The episode
of a boy walking on drying sesame seeds causing his temper to flair up is an example
of this anger at the spell of enchantment being broken. The bhakta immersed in
devotions deeper aesthetic moods prefers inspirations flow to the rude disturbance of
the trivial mundane world making its demands on him.
The vivid enthusiasm of the enthralled bhaktas immersion in the religious
imagination, the archetypal unconscious makes an incongruous impression on others.
For example, Kulashekhara, an alvar (early South Indian Vaishnava saint) who was a
poet and king living in the 9th century, is remembered for listening so intently to, and
being so moved by, the story of Lord Rama, that at one point he jumped up and
exclaimed Come on! Lets go help him fight Ravana! How could his subjects tell him
that the war had been won many centuries before? The forgetfulness of self and
surroundings when the archetypal reality in stories and music stirs one dramatically
shows the power of images and scenarioes brought to life by bhakti arts using rhythmic
words.24
Jung wrote The borderline between conscious and unconscious is in large
measure determined by our view of the world.25 A Kulashekhara, a Chaitanya, or a
Tyagaraja seem to be able to experience the hidden realm of suprapersonal
consciousness as vividly as they do the obvious world.
In India the greatest kavis (poets) are thought of as transcending time-- they
have a timeless vision, an ever relevant expression of truth so they are placed beyond.
Jungs view of the collective unconscious is also outside the limits of the individual
person, and ordinary time. Not an ordinary composer, the hermit Valmiki heard the story
of Rama from rishi Narada. Brahma asked Valmiki to write Ramas story. Valmiki
through yoga attained deeper insight into the story, and saw Rama and Sita in action,
the whole story being visualized in his mind. It was after these experiences that he is
said to have shaped the great epic in shlokas.
2. The Archetype of the Mothers
Depth Psychology took up some of these issues regarding the hidden levels of
consciousness. Jung wrote: Our consciousness does not create itself-- it arises from
unknown depths. In childhood it awakens gradually, and all through life it wakes each

morning out of the depths of sleep, i.e., out of a unconscious condition... The world
begins to exist when the individual discovers it. He discovers it when he sacrifices the
mother, when he has freed himself from the mists of his unconscious condition within
the mother.26 We have already observed that Tyagaraja as a baby, becoming
conscious of music, would turn away from his mothers breasts. Tyagarajas mother
nurtured him not only with love and food, but also taught him Purandaradasa songs
while he was still a child. The mother-son relationship is the basic nexus and the
ultimate paradigm of social relationships in India, Ashis Nandy writes.27
In his life Tyagaraja followed his mothers inspiration, staying at home and
composing songs devoted to Rama rather than emulating his father who recited the
Ramayana in the kings court. He did not follow his music teacher Sonti Venkataraman
who played music at the court of the king. In the name of bhakti Tyagaraja scorned
worldly success, preferring to sing with eyes closed in his shrine room rather than
perform wide-eyed in court. To modern Hindus faced with the threat of forgetting their
roots, Tyagaraja stands as an image of the souls refusal to be colonized and
modernized too far, an assertion of the power of the ancient ways.28
Ashis Nandy, researching creative men in India, found that their creativity
typically involves identifying the cosmic feminine principle with ones own internal
concept of authority and defying this authority, and then making symbolic reparations
for this defiance.29 While not exactly following this pattern it is interesting that
Tyagarajas wife is remembered for urging Tyagaraja to compose songs in honor of the
Goddess celebrated at village festivals. At first, it is said, Tyagaraja was critical of
devotees of the Goddess Dharmasamvardhani in his village, Shivas consort, but due to
his wifes influence he composed festival songs to her.30 To do this Tyagaraja probably
had to defy some inner conservatism, going against some more rigid patriarchal
authority structure, both external and internal, expanding religious imagination to sing
for the Goddess. Regional folk devotion to local deities such as village Goddesses is
sometimes associated with an indifference to or protest against Vedic Hinduism and
Brahmin-centered religion. Perhaps it is a sign that Tyagaraja stepped further toward
fulfillment of his own destiny or individuation when he broke out of his narrow
presuppositions and composed songs to the village Goddess. (Also, Tyagaraja would
not teach his music to ordinary dancers or entertainers, but in one case he blessed a
devoted dancer.31)
Tyagaraja celebrated the feminine qualities of bhakti in his great poetic narrative
with twenty songs, the Nauka Charitram, which he says (early in the text) he wrote
unknowingly.32 This Boat Story is a celebration of archetypal images of feminine
devotion-- beauty, charms, pastimes, of the gopis, sometimes called little mothers,
enjoying being with Krishna. The gopi voices, the girlish excitement and the womens
sensibilities give the Nauka Charitram cheerful energies, lyrical feelings and mercurial
moods. The songs delight in natural beauty, and evoke of a sense of dependence on
divine providence. We will return to this topic later.

3. The Archetype of the Cosmic Hero Lord Rama as Ishtadevata

The traditional Indian conception of a work of art is to make something which is a
means of re-integration, a samskarana, something sacramental.33 Such art typically
presents archetypal images of the transcendent to which seekers can relate.34
Adarshamurti (ideal form) and drashtanta rupa (a type or pinnacle of personified
idea) are terms in Sanskrit with similar meanings to the term archetype,35 denoting a
symbolic image, representative likeness capable of multiple appearances. The
archetypal image is attractive, compelling.36 Through shared archetypes each life
participates in deeper patterns. According to this view humans are endowed with the
collective unconscious because (like the memories stored in DNA) it fits a person into
the world we all participate in, and it also relates the person to the transcendent.37
Much in bhakti depends upon activating the religious imagination.
The psyche is activated by strong images; archetypes are considered by Jung and
Hillman to be the deepest patterns of psychic functioning, the roots of the soul
governing perspectives we have of ourselves and the world. Archetypes are able to set
up inclusive patterns, organizing events from different areas of life in a comprehensive
world view.38 Thus archetypes are called systems of readiness for action, and at the
same time images and emotions. They are inherited with the brain-structure -- indeed,
they are its psychic aspect.39 Furthermore, all activity of the psyche is an image and
an imagining; otherwise no consciousness and no phenomenality of the process could
exist. Imagining is a psychic process.40 In this view soul and images are integral--one
and the same. (In the Hindu view the atman is transcendent and samadhi is a state
beyond images, of that ultimate formless consciousness.)
The archetype does not proceed from physical facts; it describes how the
psyche experiences the physical facts... and in so doing the psyche often behaves so
autocratically that it denies tangible reality or makes statements that fly in the face of
it.41 The central archetype of Lord Rama, Tyagarajas ishtadevata, described by
Valmiki in the first chapter of the first book of the Ramayana, powerfully embodies the
divine ideal of human life:
Rama is self-restrained, majestic, firm, wise, well behaved, eloquent, charming, able to
destroy opponents, with broad shoulders, long arms, expansive chest, a skillful archer,
with beautiful head and forehead and attractive stride. He has an agreeable blue color,
large eyes, prosperity and is replete with auspicious signs. He is righteous, true to his
promises, beloved, concerned for the welfare of his people, reknowned, endowed with
wisdom, having a holy radiance, dutiful, profound in his meditation. He is the guardian
of the worldsoul, endowed with Dharmas protection, knower of the truth of the Vedas
and branches of Vedic knowledge, having the meaning of the Shastras, having the
tradition (smriti). Beloved of all the world he has an undepressed spirit, is good, wise,
bright. Good people approach him as the bestower of blessings, as the ocean is
approached by the rivers. Honorable, treating all fairly, he is the one whose darshan is
always beloved. He is endowed with all good qualities, multiplies his mothers joy, he is
deep like the sea, and calm like a snow-crested mountain. His firmness is like Vishnus,

his anger is like Kalagnis (the fire at the end of the world), in endurance he is like the
earth. He is as great in his renunciation as Dhanada, in truth he is like the highest
Dharma, he is full of all the best virtues, and has the strength of Truth.42 Rama has all
the martial and ethical virtues a prince needs, knowledge of weapons, law, truth and
beauty, benevolence and honor. He always knows what he must do and is ready and
able to do it. He always puts the wishes of others before his own, he is loved by all who
know him, and only he can break the bow and win Sita, which enables the marriage of
heaven and earth. Rama linked to greatness and glory, vibhutis, he is divinely noble,
the epitome of masculine ideals, as Sita is the feminine ideal.
In some songs Tyagaraja emphasized that Rama is a rasika, a lover of music. By
constant devotion to his ishtadevata Rama, with mantra and music, meditation and
puja, Tyagaraja drew to himself experiences of this archetypal image of God.
Archetypes are complexes of experience that come upon us fatefully, their effects
being in our most personal life.43 By all accounts Rama was at the very heart of
Tyagarajas life. The world is beyond an individuals control, often even in simple
matters, let alone the catastophic famines and wars occurring during Tyagarajas times.
The focus on Rama as protector, and the bhakta seeking his protection, is found in the
refrain of many songs: Pahi mam-- please protect us. Bhakti faith can show a kind of
magical power in a changing unpredictable world. Tyagarajas lifelong devotion to
Rama gave him many roles to play and inspiration in the playing of them. There is an
innocent unselfconscious childlike quality in surrender to the divine king or in the
relationship of a son to a father. There is motivation, striving to live up to high standards
in the fulfilling of ones duties as a servant of Lord Rama. There are sublime
possibilities in being the musician praising Rama. There are deep feelings involved in
relating to Rama as the beloved-- longing, hope, disappointment, grief, exultation,
enthusiasm. Bhakti artists convey these: The creative process... consists in the
unconscious activation of an archetypal image, and in elaborating and shaping this
image into the finished work. By giving it shape, the artist translates it into the language
of the present, and so makes it possible for us to find our way back to the deepest
springs of life.44 The image of Rama, needless to say, filled Tyagaraja with finely
nuanced enthusiasm, and he sang of their unfolding bhakti relationship.
4. Archetype of the Waters
That Tyagaraja had a fondness for water images and the liquid element is
evident in a number of songs about the sea of bliss (ananda sagara) in which devoted
singers swim. Tyagarajas opera Prahlada Bhakti Vijaya is also largely set in the
presence of water and uses extensive water imagery. Song # 3 presents the sea
personified as a deity: Here comes Sagara, ocean god, Samudra Raja... and there is
a prayer (song #6) to Sagara, asking him to reveal the way to a vision of the Lord. The
ocean replies (song # 7) Only the prayers of true devotees win vision. In song # 18 it is
said that God appears like holy waters arriving where one has gone searching. The
Lord is called the Ocean of mercy (# 22) and is requested to Look on me with
affection as a fish looks to its child and feeds it. (# 24) The Lord is called a treasure
deep on the floor of the sea, which men must dive deeply to find, and a mystery hidden

in the ocean which has come to save Tyagaraja. (# 34) Later in the work Brahma
approaches the seashore drinking deeply of the fountain of the Lords name an
endless liquid refreshment. In song # 42 the gods on the beach worship with flowers,
and the narration ends with a glorious sunrise on the seashore after the nightlong
drama.
Similarly, in the Nauka Charitram, Tyagarajas other opera, significant water
imagery flows in and out of the story. The gopis at first sight of Krishna gaze entranced,
desiring his embrace, swimming in an ocean of ecstasy. Gesturing toward the river the
gopis sing Behold the River Goddess, whose sapphire blue is made deeper by white
sand dunes, enchanting with lotuses and bees. The little waves glide as if made of
bright diamonds -- see the stairway of diamonds, where wavelets swirl catching the
sunlight. (Nammalvar centuries before had called the Kaveri the river of diamonds and
the Tamil classic Cilapatikaram also celebrates the rivers beauty and motherlike
qualities.45) Rejoicing in the shimmering dazzling waters with wild geese and enchanting
breezes, fruits and birds and flowers, the gopis excitedly embark with Krishna in a silver
boat, unconscious of their pride, which is about to be broken. The gopis prideful egoes
are over-confident, and it is this gloating self-consciousness of their own glory which
precipitates the crisis.
Song # 12 reflects the other side of the waters --violent and uncontrollable. A
sudden storm frightens the gopis to sing to the Goddess Yamuna All has turned to
chaos of wild winds and rains and they admit whatever work women may do, it all
ends up in a deluge (pralaya). To plug a leak they shed their bright clothes at
mischievous Krishnas behest, and watch them swirl away. In this fullness of water
were drowning in shame they sing as the waters rise to their knees. In song #17 they
sing that they have removed the rest of their dresses because it was a scriptural
decree issued by Krishna; the water is up to their throats.46 After surrendering to
Krishna fully the gopis find relief as the rain subsides. At home again they create their
own gentle storm, spraying perfume, sprinkling rosewater, feeling tipsy in the presence
of Krishna, whose speech drips with nectar. After the horrific life-threatening storm
these pleasant fragrances and subtle mists are gently refreshing.47
Gaston Bachelard explored the poetic significance of water imagery in relation to
the processes of reverie, which can dissolve inner conflicts and complexes
(unfortunate concretions) with calm obscure waters which sleep at the bottom of
every life. Water, water always comes to calm us. In any event, the restful reveries must
find a substance of repose.48 In the Nauka Charitram which celebrates bhakti joy, water
is the source of natural beauty and delight which makes the boat ride possible, and it
also serves as the element which overwhelms. Once passed through, again a
comforting element, water offers peace and beauty. Thus, water is an ecompassing
archetypal image of life. Psychologists and literary critics have made a connection
between water and reverie, and water and anima (the soul, the feminine personality
components of the man and the image which he has of feminine nature in general -- the
archetype of the feminine.49) Bachelard explains the statement water is the most
mythological of the elements50 by saying water is the element of the gentle oneirism,

the fluid dreaming process all humans experience in sleep. The waters, with repose,
refresh and renew the anima in idealized reveries. ...pure reverie, filled with images, is
a manifestation of the anima, perhaps the most characteristic manifestation. Water
images give any dreamer ecstasies (ivresses) of femininity. Whoever is marked by
water remains faithful to his anima,51 his soul. In Hindu imagery Vak and Saraswati
embody the flow of grace and inspired eloquence associated with waters, from Vedic
times.
Reminiscent of some of the reflections of S.T. Coleridge,52 Bachelard speaks of
material imagination -- imagination based on actual experiences of waters fluidity.
The fluid imagination can dissolve and transform solid objects, giving a creative
freedom enabling a flow, a soulful boatride through the changeful world.
The music of Tyagaraja has often been likened to an ocean, a vast expanse of
many moods and bhakti expressions, and ragas. Karnatic music as whole is also
spoken of as an ocean.53 Ann Misch, an American student studying singing in Madurai
wrote that experiencing the ocean of traditional music vividly brings out the situation of
being in an unknown vastness. It involves not seeing the whole ocean which one swims
in, being aware of only the nearby currents. This blindness may be a response to our
own minuteness, our inability to imagine or cope with the enormity: What we are
learning is so large and deep. If the ocean were transparent and we could see the miles
of its volume beneath, filled with bands of different fish, living at different depths, would
we dare crawl across its surface? We risk falling for miles, running off the scale, past
the horizon where parallel lines converge into a dot that plugs the rush toward infinity. It
is a good thing, I feel, that I think it is only a nice metaphor when my music teacher says
Music is the ocean.54 The possibility of being swallowed, drowning in the
unfathomable depths, is fearful. Instead, modest steps of learning a little at a time,
making gradual progress, may be better than dwelling too much on the endless
expanse. Traditions are like an ocean of culture. The suprapersonal unconscious is an
inner realm that is vast and oceanlike also: a psychic depth dimension, a chaotic
process in which we may feel out of our depths; yet it is known to be full of treasures.
5.Archetypal Rasas and Bhavas: Tyagarajas Emotional Moods and Ours
Patanjali defined yoga as controlling the activities of mind; the aim of yoga is the
attainmant of illumination and destruction of afflictions.55 Jungs view of religions is
similarly psychotherapeutic. Religions express the scope of the souls problems in
mighty images. They are the acknowledgement and recognition of the soul, and at the
same time the revelation and manifestation of the soul.56 Involving the whole person,
religions include an emotional aspect. Emotions can help the conscious mind get
perspective on life, learn lessons, make decisions, and motivate actions. Religious
music stirs neural systems involved in responses of enjoyment, social rewards and
emotions.57
As a religious artist Tyagaraja succeeds in resonating in many lives today
because the listener is able to recreate his songs in themselves with an appreciative

imagination; as Abhnavagupta suggested, this act of the rasika or connoisseur

corresponds to the creative imagination of the poet.58 Religious imagination and
aesthetics tap a variety of moods and emotional flavors and involve multitudes of
images. We can only briefly touch on a few emotional moods found in Tyagarajas
many songs.59
There are songs sung in moods of dejection, self-criticism, pleading, anger,
doubt, faith, playfulness -- light-hearted jestful treatment of the Lord. There are songs
making claims of having fulfilled ones obligations, songs of feeling tried and tired,
troubled, and also songs exhorting oneself. There are songs of blessing and praise,
and songs of heart-felt gratitude.
There is the often-sounded cry of the heart, the pull toward the all-attractive in
lyrics of yearning, like Sita longing for Lord Rama.60 And there are the rarer outbursts of
exultation expressing moments of reunions ecstasy.
There is outrage and indignant disgust. Like Purandaradasa Tyagaraja exercised
much scorn for false devotion. He released scathing criticism toward those seemingly
unconscious of their hypocrisy. In a succinct song summing up what is not bhajana
Tyagaraja says "It is one thing to think in the heart; it is another thing entirely (to think
about what is) in the upper cloth of the woman's dress. A passion for great status, thirst
for the affairs of rogues, putting on many clothes to get praises; thats not bhajana, o
my mind, no!"61
There is revulsion at the ignorance which delights in violence, as when external
rituals involving death to animals come in for Tyagaraja's censure: "O mind, are there
any ignoramuses to match those men who call animal sacrifices joyous? Their 'wise
traditions' are poverty-stricken!" Such men must have the hearts of demons, because
those sacrifices are full of cruelty to living beings, Tyagaraja declares. The charanam
contains a play on the words for "senses" and "venom." "These extroverts,62 drawn by
the senses -- which are the same as cobra venom, combined with past impressions
formed in many previous births, ignorant of Shri Rama, whom Tyagaraja worships-- O
mind, are there any ignoramuses to match these men who call sacrifices joyous?63
These songs and others use abrasive images to scrape ignorant corruption and to
strengthen conscience.
Weird music in Tyagarajas song Idi samayamura: suggests fear. He asks Isnt
this the time, star of the solar line, Elephant-gaited one, Lord who puts down the
madness of the Kali Yuga-- to make what you said come true?... The spirit of the Kali
Yuga came in person, he figured he would stage a drama, using humans as goats in a
sacrifice of weird cults...64
Such eerie music and lyrics form a critique of social ills and suggest the bhakti solution - worship and praying the sacred name.
Some of Tyagarajas songs celebrate the power of music itself. This goes well
with the sacred musician archetype, with its mystique of the dedicated, inspired

musician, powerful as an instrument of the realization granting art -- consciousnessraising liberating music -- nada yoga.
There is Vedanta wisdom in Tyagarajas last songs, such as Paramatmudu,
which involves praying for and celebrating transcendence: Paramatma is brightly
shining/ may this dawn upon you/ in all its beauty... Thus he sang a multitude of deep
feelings and moods, inner urges and hopes and musicians keep singing them, and
listeners hear in his songs echoes of their own inner lives.

Conclusion
I believe these explorations in traditional Hindu and modern psychology help us
understand the long staying power and deep appeal of Tyagarajas legacy. Is it a
paradox that it is especially reflections on the unconscious, the mysterious reservoir
shadowing our conscious minds, which helps explain the suprapersonal quality of
Tyagarajas music? Is it a paradox that the deepest faculty we bring to an artwork is our
own unconscious-- and that we are usually rather unconscious of that? However
puzzling, it is undeniable that the dialectic between our conscious and unconscious is
basic to all discovery. And is it ironical how much conscious art goes into what finally
appears as effortless and spontaneous, natural and unconscious-- and vice versa.65
Composers such as Tyagaraja have a great heritage to sing. They have a
reservoir of tradition, a depth background of collective memory, a symbol system used
by a network or community of previous voices.66 Sometimes this is taken for granted,
this context, this previous stream of singer-saints -- though Tyagaraja pays tribute to
predecessors in songs such as Endaro mahanubavulu. Tyagaraja was the latest wave
in his time of the great river of devotional music. By incarnating the power of the depths
relating to the highest, Tyagaraja brings the vision before us with immediacy, so we
forget ourselves and ignore the background. An artist such as Tyagaraja draws on
suprapersonal collective wisdom-impulses which help him find what is needed to solve
artistic problems in the patterns he makes, and the images that will suggest the truths
of life he portrays. The psyche seeks wholeness and has a sense of wholeness; it
comes up with images of the whole, and the artist gratefully uses this sensibility in his
work.
The lasting impression Tyagaraja made on the collective memory of South India
is one of conscientiousness and inspiration anchored to the highest.67 He combines
fidelity to tradition, carrying tradition forward and achieving individuation -- becoming the
unique undividual shaped by all the experiences and strivings in his life. He has been
seen as dynamically combining conservatism and progress. As T.V. Subba Rao wrote:
He united the apparently opposite qualities of conservatism and progress, of reverence
for antiquity and impatience of restraint, of the prejudices of the heart and the revolt of
intellect. He is a classic romanticist and a conservative radical. His life in ethics and
aesthetics is the evolution of perfect harmony and attunement from the discordant
principles of thought and action. Nothing short of the absolute universality of his mind

could have succeeded in saturating his songs with that spirit of sweetness, peace and
bliss which lingers in our soul long after the sounds have faded away.68
On the level of individual lives, the integrated personality is a great
accomplishment. Overall, Tyagaraja presents an image of dynamic wholeness.
Tyagarajas lasting impression as householder/sannyasin conveys the great Hindu ideal
of encompassing both dharmic life here, and formless consciousness beyond in
moksha. His practice of unchavritti (depending for alms while walking and singing) was
in the archetype of ideal brahmanic renunciation and shows he also had strong bonds
to the common people. He was the self-forgetful composer but also the conscious
careful teacher. (Teaching takes one out of oneself-- one must consciously organize
ones thought, lead and correct others.) Besides Tyagarajas experiences of being
immersed in the timeless, he had the experiences of the regular cycles of Ekadasi day
festivals and other religious events that punctuate time in Tamil Nadu. These
predictable cycles gave a rhythm to the vast flow of the unconscious, and offered
occasions for his inspiration to be heard.
Tyagarajas very name is archetypal,69 and he has become a symbol in which
opposites unite dynamically, an image and body of work full of lifegiving spiritual power.
Tyagaraja represents the maturity of the genius of Hinduism, externally accessible and
popular, and inwardly mystical or esoteric with the wisdom of self-realization. He is like
the muni who is awake to what most people ignore, as described by the Bhagavad Gita:
The muni becomes more conscious of the suprapersonal unconscious and becomes
more unconscious of the mundane wants of which ordinary people are most conscious.
His songs, which are seamless wholes of rasa-filled music and mellifluous lyrics, give
us access to his deeper awareness.
Octavio Paz told us that The Poet, by teaching us what our dreams are (and in
fact demonstrating that we have dreams), shows us at the same time that we are not
simply machines created for the purpose of following commands or spilling blood to
enrich the powerful or to maintain injustice in power. The poet shows us that we are
more than mere statistics or commodities. Poetry, in the way it evokes our dreams and
stirs our deeper awareness, invites us to rebellion, to live our dreams awake: to be no
longer the dreamers, but the dream itself.70 The art of making life from poetic vision or
religious imagination is the genius of bhakti. Bhakti seeks to live beyond history -beyond the trouble of samsara, the events of the Kali yuga, -- to exist in a timeless
always in archetypal relationship with Rama or Krishna or another ishtadevata.
Tyagarajas songs were his way of reaching the deeper springs of life, and they have
also become our way of finding inspiration.71 The suprapersonal hard-to-know
consciousness remains an open mystery; it is a hidden source accessible through the
work of spiritual artists such as Tyagaraja.
NOTES
1.The

Bhagavad Gita, tr. Swami Chidbhavananda, Madras: Sri Ramakrishna

Tapovanam, 1970, p. 203.

2.When

I first heard a Tyagaraja kriti it was chanted without musical accompaniment. It

was an a formal setting at Harvard University, and was full of emotion, an ancient voice
in the modern world. It was in about 1978; C.V. Narasimhan was singing one night at
the Center for the Study of World Religions. Soon after that I heard M.S. Subbalakshmi
sing at MIT.
3.We have to admit that since Tyagaraja is not personally here to discuss his own life
and work we can only make educated guesses and speculate about some matters. But
a work of art is a reflection of the artist and of the artists visoon of the lifeworld he
inhabits. Only in the image which we create do we ourselves appear. Only in the image
which we create do we step fully into the light and become recognizable to ourselves as
a whole being. We never give the world any other face than our own, and this is just
why we have to do so, i.e., in order to discover ourselves. For above science and art as
an end in themselves stands man, the creator of his tools. Carl. G. Jung, Psychological
Reflections, Jolande Jacobi, ed. New York: Harper and Row, 1961, p. 248.
4.I have the sense that although the Unconscious is very important in Jungs view, to
Hindus it may sound like something anchored in the lowest, the hard to control vasanas
to which people are ordinarily blindly subject. Unconscious sounds like lack of higher
consciousness, the tamas or darkness referred to in the Shanti mantra (from darkness
lead me to the light), but to Jung it means a subtly hidden conscious activity of
primordial images. To many people of both East and West the unconscious may be
associated with shameful humiliation and confusion, though Jung argues for its great
importance as source of all inspiration. To Hindus the suprapersonal unconscious
might indicate some awareness anchored in the highest-- the ultimate saccidananda -the reflection of which makes intellect possible. The atman or spirit is trancendent, even
when sheathed in bliss, intellect, mind, body, etc., which entangle the soul.
5.James Hillman writes: Elusive, mercurial, the unconscious is not a place, not a state,
but a dark ironic brother, and echoing sister, reminding. The Unconscious, Eranos
Yearbook, vol. 54, 1985, p. 309.
6.Carl G. Jung, Civilization in Transition, Collected Works, vol. 10, p. 10.
7.Through the sacrifice of ourselves we gain ourselves, the Self; for we only have what
we give. Carl G. Jung, Psychological Reflections, p. 296.
8.C.G. Jung, Psychological Reflections, p. 12.
9.Abinavagupta similarly states that the imagination (pratibha) is the source of all
creative work, in Dhvanayaloka-lochana. Cited in V. Raghavan, and Nagendra, An
Introduction to Indian Poetics, Bombay: Macmillan, 1970, p. 64. Albert Einstein
famously said:Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited;
imagination can encircle the world.
10.Dhvani, a term used in Hindu aesthetics, means suggestion, overtone, reverberations
in the associative mind.
11.For example in the book Tyagaraja -- Life and Lyrics, I explored a series of
archetype-like episodes found in a number of South Indians singer-saints lives.
12.Even in our fast-paced and market-driven world Tyagaraja is important to many
people. He continues to resonate comfortably among people who are very careful in
discerning and appreciating music with spiritual power. Tyagaraja provides an example
of spiritual values and experiences powerful enough to communicate to many

succeeding generations of musicians and listeners. At the end of a thoughtful letter

Prabhakar Chitrapu of InterDigital Communications Corporation, in Philadelphia, raised
the question in quotation marks.
13.A Hindu response to this topic: Superconscious and unconscious and subconscious
need to be kept separate. Subconscious has a conglomeration of vasanas, desires for
satisfaction of cravings of the ten senses. Superconscious is close to the core of
individual-divinity, coiled in illusion of sensual cravings, delusion of doership and false
identification with limited self which includes chitta, besides body, mind and intellect.
The past samskaras are above vasanas, but closer to delusions [of] deluded perception
rather than conception. When one reaches superconsciousness ... one drops the coil
of delusion, gets transformed and eventually identifies with the Self. All the archetypes - of water, Rama, Beauty, Divinity etc., are but words used to describe one common
archetype of Self (which is an ocean of bliss, etc.) There are no adequate words to
describe the state of Self, but the yogi, bhakta, poet, musician try to portray the Self
with the help of words and images known to common people. It is a communication that
helps create communion-- one out of many. Dr. Chandrahas Shah, Arlington,
Massachusetts, Feb. 2002, in correspondence.
14.In this sense the unconscious relates to the concept of maya, as a veil of confusion
and allurement, clouding by attachments, forgetfulness of divine reality. The process of
realizing mayas meaning is like the Purusha seeing through Prakritis dance and
waking to clarity, consciousness.
15.Yogasutras I.35-38.Aphorisms of Yoga by Bhagwan Shree Patanjali, tr. Purohit
Swami, London: Faber & Faber, 1938, p. 42-3.
16.Hindu ideas about dreams are found in the Agni Purana, O thou Lord of all the gods,
teach me in dreams how to carry out all the work I have in my mind. (Chapter XLIII)
See also Patanjalis Yogasutras I.38, Katha Upanishad V.8, and Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad IV.3,9-18. Cited by A. K. Coomaraswamy, The Dance of Shiva, New York:
Noonday Press (Farrar Straus), 1963, pp. 27, 175.
17.William J. Jackson, Tyagaraja-- Life and Lyrics, New Delhi: Oxford University Press,
p. 4.
18.R.D. Ranade, Pathway to God in Kannada Literature, Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya
Bhavan, 1989, pp. 239ff, pp. 265ff, pp. 271ff. Jung writes Just as the love experience
is the real experience of a real fact, so is the vision. Whether its object be of a physical,
a psychic, or a metaphysical nature does not concern us. It is psychic reality, having the
same dignity as the physical. The experience of human passion stands within the
frontiers of unconsciousness; the object of the vision, however, lies beyond. In the
emotion we experience known things but intuition leads us to unknown and hidden
things, to things that are secret by nature, and which, if they are ever conscious, are
intentionally hidden and secreted away; for this reason there clings to them, from time
immemorial, mystery, strangeness, and illusion. Psychological Reflections, p. 178.
19.Paradoxically one of his breakthroughs in this otherworldly state was to perfect the
kriti form, known for its concise miniature make-every-note-and-syllable-count quality-as opposed to the hours of leisurely ragas in court music. There may be some who
would say Tyagaraja was in atman-consciousness only, beyond the influence of the
unconscious in which ordinary people are involved. But the idea that great art comes

only from above devalues the workings of the souls processes using hard-won lessons
of life on earth. For the purposes of exploration in this paper I am assuming that
Tyagaraja was not beyond the unconscious discussed by Hindu and modern
psychology. We have access to artistic creative processes, memories, dreams, myths,
etc., to explore the unconscious, but atman is beyond words, so what can be said of it
regarding creativity?
20.Mukundagiri Sadagopan, an organizer of the annual Chicago Tyagaraja Utsava
suggested this connection in email correspondence with me. July 5, 2001.
21.The saint has befriended his unconscious, and good works are produced from its
workings; the killer is driven blindly in compulsive passionate tragedy. D.T Suzuki has
written about the unconscious in Zen. Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings of D.T. Suzuki,
ed. William Barrett, Garden City: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1956. Zen and the
Unconscious pp. 157-226.
22.William J. Jackson, Tyagaraja and the Renewal of Tradition, New Delhi: Motolal
Banarsidas, 199 , pp. 104-106. The text, Shri Tyagaraja Charita, is by T. Sundaresa
Sharma, Tanjore: The General Stores, 1937. There is another Sanskrit biography as
well, by L. Muthia Bhagavatar, Srimat Tyagarajavijaya Kavya, Trivandrum: V.V. Press
Branch, 1941. The miracle stories told of Tyagaraja typically involve archetypal
themes: the power of inspired music to light dharmas flame; the power of music to
revive the dead; the power of Rama to guard his devotee from danger; the power of a
saint to know hidden secrets, etc. Like Ramadas Tyagaraja was protected by Rama
when in danger; like Kanakadasa his devotion opened the inner sanctum at Tirupati;
like Annamacharya he lost his sacred images and prayed to find them; like other singer
saints he was said to have revived a dead man and to have lit a lamp with his music.
23.See for example P. Sambamoorthy, Great Composers vol. II, p. 267, where
Tyagaraja is remembered as choleric and furious.
24.Kulashekhara was a 9th century king who wrote the Sanskrit text Sri Mukundamala.
Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1978. Another example is Chaitanya. Living 300 years
before Tyagaraja in Bengal he was known to have experienced confusion about the
world -- a hill seemed to be Govardhana, the sea seemed like Jumna river, a peacocks
blue neck is blue like Krishna. Living in the other world of moods and images
associated with Krishna, he experienced things his contemporaries could not see.
25.Carl G. Jung, Civilization in Transition, p. 28
26.Carl G. Jung, Psychological Reflections, p. 22.
27.Ashis Nandy, At the Edge of Psychology: Essays in Politics and Culture, Delhi:
Oxford University Press 1990, p. 37.
28....the artists relative lack of adaptation turns out to his advantage; it enables him to
follow his own yearnings far from the beaten path, and to discover what it is that would
meet the unconscious needs of his age. Thus, just as the one-sideeddness of the
individuals conscious attitude is corrected by reactions from the unconscious, so art
represents a process of self-regulation in the life of nations and epochs. C.G. Jung,
Collected Works, vol. 15, The Spirit in Man, Art, and Literature, p. 83.
29.Ashis Nandy, At the Edge of Psychology... p. 39. Nandy notes The isomorphism
between ones inner controls and societys concept of authority sharpens ones
sensitivity to the basic symbolic system of the culture and makes one more rooted in
the cultures style of self-expression. On the other hand, this defiance of ones final and

most intimate authority gives an edge to ones defiance of the shared concept of
authority outside. Clearly this defiance is one of the cornerstones of creative effort. p.
39
30.These Goddess songs are available in C. Ramanujachari and V. Raghavans The
Spiritual Heritage of Tyagaraja, Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1966, pp. 55-71. P.
Sambamoorthy lists Karuna judavama and nine other songs dedicated to
Dharmasamvardhani in Great Composers vol. II, pp. 83-4.
31.Sambamoorthy writes of this in Great Composers vol. II.
32.This may be a statement of humility, or of inspiration from the divine. The
uneduucated poet Atukuri Molla also said she wrote her Telugu Ramayana without
having conscious knowledge gained by study. (I lack a poets training... Just by the
grace of the renowned Lord... I find I am able to write verses. The hidden sources of
creativity are thus recognized by the conscious mind refusing to take credit for
something beyond itself.
33.Discussed by A.K. Coomaraswamy in Selected Papers, vol. I, p. 145. The term is
used in the Brahmanas, for example, Shatapatha Brahmana VI.1.2.29.
34.Jung writes that mental processes involving primordial images exist at a deeper level
than calculative logic. The deeper thinking involves symbols which are older than
historical man, which have been ingrained in him from earliest times, and, eternally
living, outlasting all generations, still make up the groundwork of the human psyche. It is
only possible to live the fullest life when we are in harmony with these symbols; wisdom
is a return to them. Carl G. Jung, Psychological Reflections, p. 42. The story and
image of Rama is such an archetypal symbol.
35.A likeness to archetypes is found in Book 10 of the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna
identifies with the most prominent or renowned of each class of things is held up as the
vibhutis or glorious attributes of God. There is an archetypal quality in being Rama
among weapons weilders, Narada among deva rishis, Meru among mountains, the
Ocean among bodies of water, Time among reckoners, the thunderbolt among
weapons, etc.
36.There are articles discussing archetypes as strange attractors, a term used in the
study of chaotic processes, in mental dynamics. For example, J.R. Van Eenwyk,
Archetypes: the strange attractors of the psyche, Journal of Analytical Psychology,
1991, vol. 36, pp. 1-25.
37.The terrestrial plane proceeds from and is explained by the intermediate, the
intermediate by the celestrial,a nd the celestial by the Infinite. Thus everything derives,
ultimately, from the Infinite. And since derives cannot in this last sace involve
separation--the Infinite is like a celestial void: nothing escapes from it-- everything
abides in the Infinites luster. Huston Smith, Forgotten Truth: The Primordial Tradition,
New York: Harper & Row, 1977, p. 42. Smith discusses archetypes (with their three
meanings of ancientness, higher rank and norm, and exemplary model) as creating the
terrestrial world and ordering it in ways that are partly beyond laws of causation on p.
39-40, 48..
38.James Hillman, Re-visioning Psychology. New York: Harper and Row, 1975.
39.C.G. Jung, Collected Works, vol. 10, Civilization in Transition, p. 31. Jung goes on to
say They represent, on the one hand, a very strong instinctive conservatism, while on

the other hand they are the most effective means conceivable of instinctive adaptation.
They are thus, essentially, the chthonic portion of the psyche... through which the
psyche is attached to nature, or in which its link with the earth and the world appears at
its most tangible...
40.C.G. Jung, Psychological Reflections, p. 12.
41.C.G. Jung, Psychological Reflections, p. 23.
42.Valmiki, Ramayana I.1 verses 7-18.
43.C.G. Jung, Psychological Reflections, p. 101.
44.Jung continues: Therein lies the social significance of art: it is constantly at work
educating the spirit of the age, conjuring up the forms in which the age is most lacking.
The unsatisfied yearning of the artist reaches back to the primordial image in the
unconscious which is best fitted to compensate the inadequacy and one-sidedness of
the present. The artist seizes on tis image, and in raising it from deepest
unconsciousness he brings it into relation with conscious values, thereby transforming it
until it can be accepted by the minds of his contemporaries according to their powers.
C.G. Jung, Collected Works, vol. 15, The Spirit in Man, Art, and Literature, pp. 82-3. A
singer is only a medium, like a radio set, to receive and transmit the waves of Nada to
the world at large... Svara jnana is the establishment of communion between Nada
manifested in the individual self and unmanifested Nada in the universe. S.K.
Thyagarajan, Nadhopasana, Palni: Sarada Publishing House, 1968, pp. 20-1.
45.Rivers are celebrated in verse by great Indian poets. I am told that in the North
Vallabhacharya wrote Yamunashtaka, and Jagannatha wrote Gangalahari, for example.
46.Song # 17 is in Mohana raga which is known for conveying the resolving of
complications. P. Sambamoorthy, Great Composers vol. II, p. 89.
47.Also, there are a number of references to the gopis breasts as milk-domes, also
suggestive of the theme of a feminine delight of fluid flow. These celebrations of the
gopis female charms show a youthful exuberant side of Tyagarajas personality. Too
often he is thought of as rather onesided-- austere and elderly. Breast imagery and
celebration is found in many South Indian poems and lyrics in pre-Victorian times.
48.Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Reverie, tr. D. Russell, Boston: Beacon Press,
1971, p. 126.
49.Emma Jung, Animus and Anima, New York: Spring Publications, 1957, 1969, p. 46.
50.The statement was made by Carl Kerenyi, cited in Emma Jungs Animus and Anima.
51.Gaston Bachelard, The Poetic of Reverie, p. 64.
52.S.T. Coleridges notion of imagination as a mental faculty that dissolves, diffuses,
dissipates, in order to recreate may have arisen from his personal experiences of
opium-induced alternate states of consciousness. The idea of a transforming
imagination became the model of artistic creativity in the West from 1815 onward. To
envision and create imaginatively the artist is free to use accident, improvisation and
the unconscious. As stated in Michael Pollan,The Botany of Desire. New York:
Random House, 2001, p. 146.
53.The classic music text Sangita Ratnakara literally means Ocean of Music.
54.Ann Misch, in a newsletter she wrote while studying abroad in a Wesleyan University
program, March 15, 1989. Wonder and Sensibility.
55.Patanjali, Yogasutras, I.2, and II.2.

56.Carl

G. Jung, Psychological Reflections, p. 298.

chemical terms rather than in terms of rasa researchers say that music activates
neural systems of reward and emotion. These brain circuits evolved to assess rewards
important to survival -- such as food and sex. These brain systems that detect and
evaluate such rewards generally operate outside of conscious awareness. We are
unconscious of our decisions often, and can become addicted to surprise in such
activities as gambling, games of chance, sports, etc., with neurons firing and dopamine
activated. Based on Hijacking the Brain Circuits with a Nickel Slot Machine, by Sandra
Blakeslee, The New York Times, February 19, 2002, pp. D1, D5.
58.This is discussed in V. Raghavans The Concept of the Beautiful in Sanskrit
Literature, Madras: The Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institure, 1988, p. 70. Compare
Jung: To understand [the poems] meaning, we must allow ourselves to be formed just
as it formed the poet. Carl G. Jung, Psychological Reflections, p. 175. Croce also
spoke of this in terms of the taste in the critic corresponding to the genius in the artist.
Benedetto Croce, tr. Ainslie, Aesthetic, p. 120-121.
59.There are eight basic emotions or rasas in traditional Indian esthetics: shringara
(loves passionate longing); hasya (comic mirthfulness); karuna (sorrowful pathos or
compassion); raudra (furious anger); vira (heroic energetic resolve); bhaya (fearful
terror); bibhatsa (disgust); adbhuta (wonder). There is also shanta rasa (serenity). S.N.
Dasgupta writes: In the subconscious and unconscious regions there are always lying
dormant various types of emotio-motive complexes. When through artistic creation a
purely universal emotional fear, amour, etc., are projected in the mind they become
affiliated to those types of emotio-motive complexes and this mutual affiliation or
apperception or implicit recognition of identity immediately transforms the presented
artistic universal into artistic joy or Rasa. It is for this reason that in experiencing artistic
joy there is a kinship and identity among all art-enjoyers. The Theory of Rasa, in V.
Raghavan and Nagendra, An Introduction to Indian Poetics, p. 39.
60.Shringara has been called the highest of all sentiments, and many of Tyagarajas
songs suggest he kept his yearning flowing like a wound. A problem of writing poetry is
that of continuously keeping the wound of the soul unhealed, thus of continuously
aggravating perception into expressing life. If the wound were healed there would be
no need to create poems. [One wonders if in our age Prozac has healed many poets.] If
one is open to experience one can go on approximating ones desire, which is to
express the uniqueness of our passage through time. No poet is like another, yet all
partake of mankind. Insofar as a poets words are like man himself men will listen to his
poetry for in the poets imagination they will discover their own. The compulsion to
create comes from awareness of being. It is ultimately a recognition of mans estate
and his fate, and ultimately poetry is praise. Richard Eberhart, Foreward to Selected
Poems.
61.Adi kadu bhajana, in C. Ramanujachari, Spiritual Heritage of Tyagaraja, p. 140.
62.Literally people facing outward, dominated by externals-- bahir anunalai.
63.Yajnadulu, in C. Ramanujachari, Spiritual Heritage of Tyagaraja, p. 151. T.S.
Parthasarathy in an interview commented on this song that though in the 11th century
Ramanujacarya successfully banned animal sacrifices among Vaishnavas, in
Tyagaraja's community 200 years ago sacrifices were being performed, and the
57.In

brahman musician was not supposed to oppose them so critically. Jayadeva also
disapproved of animal sacrifices; he praised Buddha (who condemned ritual slaughter),
as one of the ten avatars, just as Tyagaraja did. When T.S. Parthasarathy was a child
(in the 1920s), he witnessed one of these sacrifices in which the victim was a goat, in a
forest near Kumbakonam, but by then such rituals were not commonly performed in
public.
64.William J. Jackson, Tyagaraja --Life and Lyrics, p. 99.
65.The natural grace and colloquial lyricism Tyagaraja is well known for reminds me of a
point made by Coomaraswamy and Nivedita: A certain aroma of poetry there cannot
fail to be in productions that have engaged the noblest powers in man; but this in the
Indian seems to be unconscious, the result of beauty of thought and nobility of
significance, while in the Greek we are keenly aware of the desire of a supreme
craftsman for beauty as an end in itself. A.K. Coomaraswamy and Sister Nivedita,
Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists, New York: Dover Publications, 1967, p. 216.
66.See, for example, V. Raghavans article Forerunners of Tyagaraja in KirtanaComposition, Souvenir of the Rasika Tanjam Sabha, Madras, 1968-9, which cites
Sharngadeva, Kshetrajna, Narayana Tirtha, Melattur Venkatarama Sastri, Bhadrachala
Ramadas, and the Tallapakkam poets (Annamacharya family).
67.When we sound the archetype [in traditional works of art involving images for the
transcendent] then we find that it is anchored in the highest, not the lowest... He who
marvels that a formal symbol can remain alive... that it can spring to life again after an
interuption of thousands of years, should remind himself that the power from the
spiritual world which forms one part of the symbol, is eternal. W. Andrae, cited in A.K.
Coomaraswamy, Selected Papers, vol. I, p. 345. Adrae believed that we often harden
as we age and close the spiritual world so we no longer have access.
68.T.V. Subba Rao, The Universality of Tyagaraja, The Journal of the Music Academy
of Madras, Vol. XIV, parts I-iv, p. 85. Rao concludes No common mortal could create
such supreme excellence. It is nature herself that presents her treasures of sound and
sense in the person of Tyagaraja. His voice is the voice of eternity.
69.The Bhagavad Gita (XVIII.2) says that the wise define tyaga as not acting out of
desire, but renouncing the fruits of all works. Tyagaraja means King of renouncing.
70.Octavio Paz, Kosmos, p. 4. Gaston Bachelard calls poetry directed reverie.
Compare Robert Bly: ...a poem is a dream, a dream which you are willing to share with
the community... a writer often doesnt understand a poem until some months after hes
written it -- just as a dreamer doesntt understand a dream. And there are people who
believe that the purpose of a rhythm in a poem... is precisely to put you into a mood
which resembles the brain waves of dreams. Talking All Morning, p. 140.
71.Delving once more into the primal state of the soul is the secret of artistic creation
and the effect of art, for at this stage of experience it is no longer the individual but the
people who experience something; nor is any longer the welfare of the individual at
stake, but the life of the people itself... art is innate in the artist, like an instinct that
seizes and makes a tool out of the human being... As a person he may have caprices
and a will and his own aims, but as an artist he is in a higher sense man, he is the
collective man, the carrier and shaper of the unconsciously active soul of mankind...
The psychic need of the people is fulfilled in the work of the poet... Carl G. Jung,
Psychological Reflections, pp. 181, 183, 192.