Editing Carnatic music (section)

==Prominent composers==

{{See also|List of Carnatic composers|List of composers who created ragas|Musicians of the Kingdom of Mysore}}

There are many composers in Carnatic music. [[Purandara Dasa]] (1484–1564) is referred to as the ''Pitamaha'' (the father or grandfather) of Carnatic music as he formulated the basic lessons in teaching Carnatic music, and in honour of his significant contribution to Carnatic music. He structured graded exercises known as ''Swaravalis'' and ''Alankaras'', and at the same time, introduced the ''[[Raga]]'' [[Mayamalavagowla]] as the first scale to be learnt by beginners. He also composed ''Gitas'' (simple songs) for novice students.

The contemporaries [[Tyagaraja]] (1767– 1847), [[Muthuswami Dikshitar]], (1776–1835) and [[Syama Sastri]], (1762–1827) are regarded as the [[Trinity of Carnatic music]] because of the quality of Syama Sastri's compositions, the varieties of compositions of Muthuswami Dikshitar, and Tyagaraja's prolific output in composing ''[[Kriti (music)|kriti]]s''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hindu.com/fr/2006/03/31/stories/2006033100510300.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060919223436/http://www.hindu.com/fr/2006/03/31/stories/2006033100510300.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=2006-09-19|work=[[The Hindu]]|title=The golden era}}</ref>

Prominent composers prior to the [[Trinity of Carnatic music]] include [[Sripadaraja]], [[Vyasatirtha]], [[Kanakadasa]], [[Vadiraja Tirtha]], [[Arunachala Kavi]], [[Annamacharya]], [[Narayana Teertha|Narayana Theertha]], [[Vijaya Dasa]], [[Jagannatha Dasa (Kannada poet)|Jagannatha Dasa]], [[Gopala Dasa]], [[Bhadrachala Ramadas]], [[Sadasiva Brahmendra]] and [[Oottukkadu Venkata Kavi]]. Other composers are [[Swathi Thirunal]], [[Gopalakrishna Bharathi]], [[Neelakanta Sivan]], [[Patnam Subramania Iyer]], [[Mysore Vasudevachar]], [[Koteeswara Iyer]], [[Muthiah Bhagavathar]], [[Subramania Bharathiyar]], [[Kalyani Varadarajan]], [[M. Balamuralikrishna]] and [[Papanasam Sivan]]. The compositions of these composers are rendered frequently by artists of today.

Composers of Carnatic music were often inspired by religious devotion and were usually scholars proficient in one or more of the languages [[Kannada]], [[Malayalam]], [[Sanskrit]], [[Tamil language|Tamil]], or [[Telugu language|Telugu]]. They usually included a signature, called a ''[[Mudras in Indian Music|mudra]]'', in their compositions. For example, all songs by Tyāgarāja (who composed in Sanskrit and Telugu) have the word ''Tyagaraja'' in them, all songs by Muttuswāmi Dīkṣitar (who composed in Sanskrit and Maṇipravāl̥am) have the words ''Guruguha'' in them; songs by Śyāma Śāstri (who composed in Sanskrit and Telugu) have the words Ś''yāma Kr̥ṣṇa'' in them; all songs by Purandaradasa (who composed in Kannada and Sanskrit) have the words ''Purandara Vitthala''; while Gopalakrishna Bharathi (who composed in Tamil) used the signature ''Gopalakrishnan'' in his compositions. Papanasam Sivan, who has been hailed as the ''Tamil Tyagaraja'' of Carnatic music,<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite web|url=http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fr/2002/01/04/stories/2002010401120600.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030627174438/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fr/2002/01/04/stories/2002010401120600.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=2003-06-27|work=[[The Hindu]]|title=Focus on veena's exalted status}}</ref> composed in Tamil and Sanskrit,<ref name="autogenerated1" /> and used the signature ''Ramadasan'' in his compositions.