‘Nenarunci Yelukora’, an ata tala varnam that Venkatasubbayya composed in Bilahari on the ruler particularly pleased the latter. It has it that Venkataramanayya’s father Venkatasubbayya was a disciple of Tyagaraja’s maternal grandfather, Veena Kalahastiayya. Why Tyagaraja was apprenticed under Venkataramanayya is explained by Abraham Pandithar’s Karunamritha Sagaram. It goes on to state that the power of his music was such that even dead tree stumps would begin sprouting fresh shoots on hearing him. It speaks of Venkataramanayya as an Indra among singers and says that he was unparalleled in the rendition of tanam. The Sarva Deva Vilasa, the 19th century Sanskrit work on Madras, describes a get together of scholars, artists and patrons at Tirunirmalai where Sonti Venkataramanayya is brought in procession on an elephant by the dubash Venkatadri. The son of Sonti Venkatasubbayya, he was an acclaimed musician in his own right and adorned the court of Sarabhoji II. Who taught music to Tyagaraja? From the biography written by Walajahpet Venkataramana Bhagavatar even while the great composer was alive, we get to know that this was Sonti Venkataramanayya. Extract which describes Tyagaraja’s guru, from the Sarva Deva Vilasa
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