In the court of the king of Tanjavur,Girija Kavi was a poet and composer.Tyagaraja composed thousands of devotional compositions, most of them in praise of Lord.His compositions remain very popular even today. Of special mention are five of his compositions called the 'Panchatantra Kritis'.

It is believed that he was an incarnation of Sage Valmiki, the composer of the great epic Ramayana.At a very early age,Tyagaraja got married to a Parvatamma,who died soon after her marriage.Later on,he got married to a lady named Kamalamba and the couple was blessed with a daughter named Seethalakshm and were a happy family.

Tyagaraja began his music career at a very small age.He was taking lessons from Sonty Venkatramanayya,who was a genius musician.Tyagaraja was learning music to get devotional pleasure.He had an apt for composing music, and in a tender age he composed his first song Namo Namo Raghavayya in the Desika Todi raga.He had his two co-musicians and formed the trinity,the other two were Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Shastri.

In a musical performance at the place of his guru he sang the Panchatantra Krtis and won the hearts of all present.Guru,Venkataramanayya was so much pleased,that he informed the King of Thanajavur about Tyagaraja's talent.Soon,The king of tanjavur sent many rich gifts to Tyagaraja and invited him to attend the royal court.However Tyagaraja was not interested in the proposal and rejected the invitation. His brother was very angry with Tyagaraja's decision and threw the statues of Lord Sri. Ram in the Kauveri River,which Tyagaraja used to worship.

Tyagaraja was very much upset with this and went on pigrimage to various temples in south India.He composed many 'Kritis' in praise of the temple deities.Tyagaraja's works are some of the best and most beautiful literary expressions in Telugu.Sage Valmiki composed 24000 verses of Ramayan and Tyagaraja also composed 24000 kritis in the praise of the lord K.V.Ramachandran.Tyagaraja left for his heavenly abode on 6th of January 1847 and his samadhi mandir is at Thiruvaiyyaru,Tanjuvar district in Tamilnadu,India.

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Tyagaraja has many compositions and plays to his credit.However some of the his compositions are mentioned here.