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PAPER 5

DANCE, POETS AND POETRY,

RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY AND INDIAN CLASSICAL DANCE

MODULE 18 THE MUSICAL TRINITY: MUTHU SWAMI DIKSHITAR

The Musical Trinity of the Carnatic music lived and composed in

an era when music was a way of life and inseparable from

religion, one of the most accepted means of devotion to the

Lord.

Muthuswamy Dikshitar / मुथुस्वामी दीक्षऺतार, one among the

celebrated Musical Trinity, was born in Tiruvarur. He was the eldest son of Subbamma and Ramaswami Dikshitar who was a

gifted composer and a descendent of Venkatamakhi / वेंकटमाखी. He was named after the temple deity,

Muthukumaraswamy. The boyhood of Muthuswamy was one of total dedication to studies. He acquired profound scholarship in the ancient sastras. Ramaswamy Dikshitar gave him intense

training in the 'lakshya / ऱक्ष्य' and 'lakshana / ऱऺण' aspects

of Carnatik music. The lakshana geethas and prabandhas of Venkatamaki formed an important part of the training. Since Muthuswamy had already taken to the veena, it was decided that Baluswamy, his younger brother should learn playing on the violin. When he was in his teens, his father sent him on a pilgrimage with Chidambaranatha Yogi, a wandering ascetic, to learn music and philosophy. His travels took him to several

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places in North India and he stayed in Kasi for several years. During his stay at Kasi, Muthuswamy Dikshitar had splendid opportunities of listening to Hindustani music in all its purity. This had a profound influence on his creative genius, which becomes apparent not only in his handling of the Hindustani ragas but in the portrayal of ragas in general as well. His guru

taught him mantra shastra, music, and Srividya upasana /

श्रीववद्या उपासना. He also presented him with a veena over

which Dikshitar soon gained mastery. According to legend, his guru asked Muthuswami to visit

Tiruttani. There, while he was immersed deep in meditation, an

old man appeared and asked him to open his mouth. He

dropped sugar candy into his mouth and disappeared. When

Dikshitar opened his mouth, he had a vision of Lord Muruga

and he composed his first kriti, Sri Nathadi Guruguho / श्री नाथदी गुरुगुहो in the raga Mayamalavagowla and adopted Guru

Guha / गुरुगुह as his mudra. It is this spiritual inspiration that

resulted in his becoming a musical genius and made him a

prolific composer.

Dikshitar is said to have composed around 1000 kritis of which only 450-500 have come down to us today. His compositions are noted for the depth and soulfulness of the melody and their musical brilliance. He also travelled extensively on pilgrimages and composed kritis about the deities of all the temples he visited. So exhaustive was his pilgrimage that he left no temple in his vicinity unvisited and no deity unsung. His compositions

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reveal his mastery of agama shastra, mantra shastra and the sthala visesha of the temples he visited. Dikshitar being a Devi upasaka in addition to being a bhakta placed greater emphasis on ritual and forms, which is reflected, in the level of detail as well as lesser spontaneity in his compositions. Unlike Tyagaraja's compositions, which are mostly akin to conversation, Dikshitar's kritis tend to be encyclopaedic in nature, with a wealth of information on the deity. His drive to include as many details about these shrines as possible in his kritis seems to have led to a larger number of compositions on each deity. He also had a deliberate approach to composition as compared to his peers, who seemed to have composed

spontaneously. Since he was not only a bhakta / भक्त but an

upasaka / उपासक as well, erudition, command over language

and mastery over disciplines like Tantra, Jyotisha, etc. gave Dikshitar a methodical and analytical approach to creating compositions. For example, he composed songs about all the Shodasha (16) Ganapatis, as well as kritis on all the Navagrahas

/ नवग्रह. According to legend, one of his disciples,

Tambiyappan, is said to have developed a serious ailment. His astrologer assured him of a cure if he worshipped the Navagrahas. But Tambiyappan could not worship as ordained in the Vedic tradition because he did not belong to the class of the twice-born. Touched by the plight of his disciple, Dikshitar found a way out. All the essentials and attributes of the grahas were moulded into musical compositions. This enabled Tambiyappan to propitiate the Navagraha with music. Thus Dikshitar has shown the way to earn the divine grace of the Navagrahas through music as an alternative to the age-old mode of tantric worship.

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Muthuswamy Dikshitar was a vainika-gayaka / वैननक-गायक.

He sang to the accompaniment of the veena. It is this combination that distinguishes Dikshitar's compositions from those of others. His kirtanas are in slow tempo, ideally suited for the portrayal of ragas in all their beauty. The veena is the best suited to bring out the gamakas. Accordingly, rich gamaka

prayogas / गमकप्र योग are another outstanding feature of

Dikshitar's compositions. Though he did not compose kritis set entirely in madhyama kala, one of his greatest contributions was introducing variety in kalapramanam in each kriti with madhyama kala sahitya. Almost all his kritis have a portion of the charanam and sometimes of the anupallavi and occasionally the pallavi as well, set to madhyamakala. This could potentially be attributed to the influence of Dhrupad singing on his style of composition, since he had spent a significant amount of time in Varanasi.

In addition, his mastery of Sanskrit enabled him to express

himself through additional Vibhakti kritis / ववभक्क्त कृनत –

where he composed a set of kritis on a deity each beginning

with a different declension of the deity's name. Other group

kritis of Dikshitar include the Navavarana kritis on Goddess

Kamalamba / कमऱाम्बा, Vibhakti kritis on Goddess Abhayamba

/ अभयाम्बा, Vibhakti kritis on Lord Rama, the Gaula series on

Goddess Nilotpalambika / ननऱोत्पऱाक्म्बका and the Panchalinga

Sthala / पॊचलऱॊग स्थऱ kritis. The latter are eight Vibhakti kritis

in widely different ragas, with the sole common feature being

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the name Gaula. Dikshtar has composed in all the vivadiswara / वववादीस्वर melas as well as many janya ragas of such melas.

Dikshitar preferred ragas in which he could bring out vakra

sancharas / वक्र सॊचर, which add beauty to vivadiswara mela

ragas. Looking at Dikshitar's body of compositions it seems

likely that he attempted to methodically work his way through

the 72 melakarta ragas but some of them are not available.

Given the vast store of musical ideas he had, it is not surprising

that he has composed a large number of kritis and explored

many popular as well as rare ragas. Some rare ragas he

composed in include Jaganmohanam / जगनमोहनम (‘Srividya

Rajagopalam’), Santanamanjari / सॊतानमॊजरी (‘Santana

Manjari’), Mahuri / माहुरी (‘Mamava Raghuvira’) and Tarangini / तरॊगगणी (‘Maye tvam’). Though Dikshitar did not create as

many new ragas as Tyagaraja did, his kritis in rare ragas like

Mahuri, Saranganata, Chhayagaula, Kumudakriya, etc. are the

only lakshyas available for these ragas and serve as the

definition of the forms of these ragas in Carnatic music.

Muthuswamy Dikshitar has composed a number of kirtanas in

Yamuna Kalyani (Yaman of Hindustani music) and among them

special mention is to be made of Jambupathe mam pahi / जम्बूपाठे माम ्पाहह, which stands unrivalled with regard to the

richness of ragabhava and grandeur of style. Parimala

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Ranganatham / पररमऱ रॊगनाथम in Hamir Kalyani is again a

brilliant composition that brings out the salient features of the

raga as delineated in Hindustani music. Chetha Sri

Balakrishnam in Dwijavanthi is a magnificent edifice portraying

the evocative raga in all its varied hues. He also composed

western tunes called nottuswaras / नोत्तुस्वर. Dikshitar

composed 40 short simple songs in the Western style on

various deities in the Raga Dheera Sankarabharanam, which is

equivalent to the C major scale in western classical music.

Some rare ragas in which Dikshitar has composed include Tarangini, Manorajani, Lalita panchamam, Mela panchamam, Devarangi, Navaratna vilasam, Mangala Kaisiki,among others. However the scholarly nature of Dikshitar's compositions, the usage of the lesser known naming scheme as well as the higher levels of difficulty in rendering Dikshitar Kritis have probably contributed to these being more rarely used compared to the overwhelming popularity of Tyagaraja's compositions. Even though Dikshitar's kritis are all highly respected as classical compositions, many of them have remained in books and manuscripts or are performed only as exhibition pieces rather than as compositions that are used for niraval etc. Only a highly skilled artiste can try niraval in a Dikshitar kriti and many of his kritis do not give scope for niraval at any place,like in ‘Dakhshinamurti’ (Sankarabharanam) or ‘Sri Kantimatim’ (Hemavati). Dikshitar has used a wide range of talas in his Kritis – much more than Tyagaraja and Syama Sastri. In a move typical of his methodical approach, he set the first seven of his Navagraha

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Kritis to the Suladi Sapta talas (Dhruva, Mattya, Jhampa, Triputa, Rupaka, Ata and Eka) for the seven grahas Surya, Chandra, Angaraka etc in that order. He also seems to have had a liking for Khanda jati Ata tala and Khanda jati Eka tala. Some

of his Kritis in the latter include ‘Hariharaputram’ / हररहरपुत्रम

(Vasanta) and ‘Sri Dun Durge / श्री दूॉ दगेु’ (Sriranjani). Though

Dikshitar's focus was bringing out the essence of different ragas through his compositions, he has also illustrated the usage of unfamiliar talas very well, balancing different parts of the sahitya in talas as rarely used as Dhruva tala. Other rare talas used by Dikshitar include Misra Jati Jhampa tala for ‘Kamalambayah’ (Bhairavi), ‘Dakshinamurte’ (Sankarabharanam) and ‘Veena Pustaka’ (Vega Vahini), Ata tala for ‘Aryam Abhayambam’ (Bhairavi), and ‘Sri Valmika lingam’ and ‘Kamalambikayai’, both in Kambhoji, as well as a few other compositions. Dikshitar specialised in using Rupaka tala (with the 3 aksharas) in double kalai which he has used for many of his Kritis such as in ‘Ramanatham bhajeham’ in Pantuvarali. He has also used the difficult pada pattern of 3 avartas in Kritis like ‘Manasa Guru guha’ (Anandabhairavi), ‘Jambupate’ (Yamunakalyani) and ‘Chintaya ma’ (Bhairavi), and varied the structure by reverting to the two avartas length in the madhyama kala sahitya. He has also composed Kritis such as ‘Neerajakshi’ (Hindolam) and ‘Ramachandram’ (Vasantha) in Rupaka tala with two avarta padas. As mentioned earlier, Dikshitar specialised in varying the speed in his kritis using madhyamakala sahitya. Varying the speed is done differently in different systems of music – in Hindusthani music this is done randomly, without any systematic arithmetic progression, but in Carnatic music, this is

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generally governed by the rules of geometric progression. In terms of themes, on account of his choice of language, Dikshitar's kritis are largely descriptive in nature, full of adjectives about the deity in the basic vibhakti connected with

verbs like Bhajami, Nammi, Karomi, Bhaja, and Bhaje / भजालम, नम्मी, करोलम, भज, भजे, etc. However, his command over the

language enabled him to employ many musical embellishments and his style was one of much erudition and knowledge. As a result, it was an extremely difficult one to follow and not even his disciples have been able to successfully compose in the same style – Dikshitar can truly be said to be one of a kind.

‘Tyagaraja yoga vaibhavam / त्यागराज योग वैभवम’ is a justly

famous Dikshitar kriti where his prosodic excellence reaches new heights. This kriti starts in adhara shadja and is set to Rupakam two kalai. It has a grand beginning with, sa, pa, ga. The raga’s beauty can be seen in each phrase. There is a raga mudra at the beginning of the madhyamakalam passage- ‘sri

guruguha gurum satchidananda bhairavisham / श्री गुरुगुह गरुुम सद्गचदानॊद भैरवीशम’. Dikshitar’s use of both gopuchchha

/ गोपुच्च and srotovaha yati / स्रोतोवाह यनत in this composition

is masterly. If Harikamboji is the territory of Tyagaraja, Mayamalavagowla is Dikshitar’ forte it is said. This is clearly brought out in his 47 and odd compositions in this raga & its derivatives including rare ragas like Saalanga Nata, Paadi and Mangala Kaishiki which would have been lost to posterity but for his compositions. Dikshitar’s music is rich in raga,bhava,tala and sahitya. The credit for breathing life into several musical scales and elevating them to the position of ragas goes to him. Dikshitar's

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kritis are a perfect blend of his musical skills and sharp intellect. They evoke mostly a feeling of serenity and poise. The raga and thala mudras woven skilfully into the kriti fabric are exclusive to the songs of Dikshitar. His remarkable intellect and skill in Sahitya were revealed in the Gopuchcha and Srotovaha types of yatis in his kritis. He has composed a Telugu padavarna ‘Rupamu juchi’ (Todi) and a daru 'Ni sati' (Sriranjani). Unlike other composers, he did not compose any kritis with multiple charanas, but stuck to the single charanam format. The only kritis of his with multiple charanas are ‘Maye tvam'(Tarangini) and his ragamalikas. Perhaps Dikshitar's most famous Ragamalika is his Chaturdasa

ragamalika ‘Sri Vishwanatham bhajeham / श्री ववश्वनाथम भजेहम’ which employs fourteen ragas and follows an intricate

pattern. The pallavi has two ragas, starting with Sri raga and each raga is encapsulated in two lines of one avarta, the second being in madhyama kala. Similarly, the anupallavi is set to four ragas Gauri, Nata, Gaula and Mohanam; but at the end, after Mohanam, a viloma passage takes us through the same four ragas of the anupallavi and the two of the pallavi in reverse order, back to Sri. The same pattern is followed in the charanam with eight ragas Sama, Lalita, Bhairavam, Saranga, Sankarabharanam, Kambhoji, Devakriya and Bhupala, and these are again taken in reverse order in a Madhyamakala sahitya, back to the pallavi in Sri. Dikshitar has followed a pattern not only in the order of the occurrence of the ragas, but also in terms of the lengths of the avartas for each raga. The fifth and sixth ragas – Gaula and Mohanam have been allotted 1 ½ avartas, all in madhyamakala, while the preceding ragas have been given 2 full avartas – one each in sama kala

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and madhyama kala. The same pattern has been followed in the first half and second half of the charanam of the Ragamalika. Another striking feature of the sahitya of this Ragamalika of Dikshitar is that the last part of the swara sahitya set to each raga is composed of the same words as of the last part of the preceding line of sahitya.

Much has been said of the miraculous powers of Dikshitar’s music. On his way to Ettayapuram in search of his brother, he halted at the drought -ridden village of Sattur. Greatly moved by the plight of its people, Dikshitar prayed to the Devi seeking her grace and beseeched her to put out the misery of the people there. Rain poured in the region as Dikshitar sang ‘Anandaamritakarshini’ in Amritavarshini. When the rains continued unabated and the village got flooded, he had then to plead ‘Sthambhaya Sthambhaya’, meaning ‘stop, stop’, to bring the torrential rain to a halt! This event stands as a testimony to the power of the musician and his music. Unlike his father, Dikshitar never courted patrons or praise. In Tiruvarur, his disciple Kamalam, moved by his poverty, offered to sell her jewels to help him. Dikshitar refused .With the unflinching faith of a child; he placed himself at the feet of the Divine Mother, shunning all human help and sympathy. “Hiranmayim lakshmim

ashrayami, hinamanavasayam tyajami / हहरॊमनयम ऱक्ष्मीम आश्रयामी हहनमनवासयम त्यजालम”, he declares boldly in one of

his kritis. It is said that Devi did not forsake him. She ensured he suffered from no need thereafter.

The year was 1834. In the month of Aswija, on the Chaturdashi preceding Deepavali, Muthuswamy Dikshitar woke up in the early hours, as was his practice, and after yogic practices went

to take his bath. He had a vision of Kasi Annapoorneswari /

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काशी अन्नपुनेश्वरी. Even as he was gazing on it, the vision

vanished. Dikshitar remembered that Chidambara yogi had told him at Kasi that she would not only feed him for life but would also give him moksha. Dikshitar felt his end was nearing. He performed Navavarna pooja to the Devi and sang the kriti Ehi Annapoorne. After the pooja, Dikshitar moved on to the drawing room where his disciples had assembled. "Today is Chaturdashi, a day sacred to the Devi. May you all sing kirtanas in her praise," said Dikshitar to disciples. They began singing

Meenakshi me mudam dehi / मीनाऺी मे मुदम देहह in raga

Gamakakriya. "It looks as though the Devi is liberating me from the bonds of this world. Sing the kriti again," said Dikshitar. They did so. Even as they were singing the sahitya of the

anupallavi, Meena lochani Pasha mochani / मीन ऱोचनी पाश मोचनी, he cast off his mortal coils.

Several of Dishitar’s kritis are used by dancers in Bharatanatyam. The Gurus of Sri Rajarajeswari Bharatnatya Kala Mandir have adapted Meenakshi me mudam dehi as a sabdam. Many others perform it as a salutation to Devi. Hiranmayim Lakshmim sada bhajami on Lakshmi in raga Lalitha is another favourite with dancers. Ananda natana prakasam in Kedaram , Akilandeswari in Dwijawanti, Sri Mahaganapathi ravatu mam in Gowla , Matangi in Rama Manohari, Kanjadalayatakshi in Kamala manohari, Sarasijanabha Sodari in Nagagandhari are some kritis that have been used by dancers.