Anai Ayya brothers were two brothers, who lived in the 19th century in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. They were actually composers of Carnatic Music. Anai Iyer and Annavaiyyar composed both in Telugu language and Tamil language and also used the Mudra Umadasa.

The Anai Ayya brothers were close colleagues of the talented composer Tyagaraja and were related to Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer. They lived in Vaiyacheri and Tiruvaiyaru in the Thanjavur district. They were patronized by the king Serfoji II of Thanjavur. Together they wrote at least 26 Tamil language and 12 Telugu language compositions that are presently available. Their compositions had the theme of devotion sprinkled with philosophy. Their songs were in praise of Lord Shiva and his consort.

Some of their popular compositions are Ambanannu (Todi), Paruvam parkka (Dhanyasi) and Saranu saranu (Jhinjooti), Mahima teliya tara ma (Sankarabharanam). One of the last contributions that T. Sankaran and T. Viswanathan made to Carnatic music was to edit the compositions of the Anai Ayya brothers (published by Brihaddhvani).

This article is a stub. You can enrich by adding more information to it. Send your Write Up to content@indianetzone.com