Syama Sastri

Syama Sastri, named Venkata Subrahmanya at birth, was born at Tiruvarur in 1762, the eldest of the three composers whom the Carnatic world calls the Trinity; Tyagaraja and Muthuswami Dikshitar were born in the same town within a few years of him. His family were the hereditary priests of Bangaru Kamakshi, an image of the Devi of Kanchi that their ancestors had carried south for safety in troubled times and that finally came to rest in a temple at Thanjavur.

He served the Devi as her priest all his life, and nearly every song he made is addressed to her as a child speaks to its mother: Kamakshi, Meenakshi, Brihannayaki, Dharmasamvardhani. He signed his songs Syama Krishna. The tradition says a wandering musician-sannyasi, Sangita Swami, saw the boy's gift, taught him the science of raga and tala, and told him to listen to the Thanjavur court singer Pachimiriyam Adiyappayya.

He is the master of rhythm among the three. He loved the uneven misra chapu tala and the hard viloma chapu, and the tradition tells how he defeated the boastful Bobbili Kesavayya at Thanjavur in a contest of laya. His three swarajatis, in Bhairavi, Yadukulakambhoji and Todi, and the Navaratnamalika, nine songs to Meenakshi of Madurai, are sung everywhere. Only a few hundred of his songs were ever counted, and fewer than a hundred survive. His Ananda Bhairavi became the raga of the Devi's tenderness. He died in 1827, a few days after his wife.