Gopalakrishna Bharathi

Who was Gopalakrishna Bharathi?

Gopalakrishna Bharati was a Tamil poet and a composer of Carnatic music. He wrote a kathakalatchepam, Nantanar Charittiram, two other works in this genre, and many independent kritis.

Bharati was a contemporary of Thyagaraja whom he is said to have met, and who asked him whether he had composed anything in the raga AbhOgi; Bharati subsequently composed one of his most popular kritis in rUpaka tALa, Sabhapatikku. The great Tamil literary figure, U. V. Swaminatha Iyer wrote two sources for Bharati's life: a biography of the composer and his own autobiography, which contains references to Bharati, who was his guru in music.