Muthuswamy Dikshitar

[Oldposts]

Topic started by Narayanan (lnana_2000@yahoo.com) on Thu Jan 13 07:51:54 .


He is indeed one of the Greatest Composers in Music History. I am in a process of collecting and learning his works (trying to !!!). This page is for posting information about references to audio clips of Dikshitar krithis so that it will be of much use to Dikshitar "fans" like myself.




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Home Page: www.guruguha.org

[Oldposts]

Old responses (http://forumhub.com/indcmusic/151.19637.07.51.54.html)

[Oldposts]

As for shodasha=16, in classical iconology texts, Ganesha is described in 32 standard forms of which 16 are famous. also 16 would be expected to hold special significance for M. Dikshitar -a shrividya upasaka as lalita tripurasundari is shodashAkshari[ 16 bIjAksharas as you can see from lalitA trishati- 15 being open and 1being turIya or secret

[Oldposts]

Dear nadopasaka
the rAgamudra is I think not in pAkaripu but in "chinmAtre sevita [ramAharIsha] vidhAtre" sorry I could not underline and hence am using brackets

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Yes, you are correct. It would be interesting to find out what is the Ganapatis status and role in Srividya ?

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dear nadopasaka
Ganapati is one of the dvAdaSapramukha upAsakas[ 12 foremost proponents/ practitioners] of SrIvidya as is mentioned in lalitOpAkhyAna[ and many other references]- the others being- sUrya, candra, Siva, viSNu, kubEra, agastya, skanda[muruga], manmatha, brahma, indra, agni . The same is also mentioned in the 97th pA of abhirAmi andAdi.

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Yes, of course. The Ganapati also resides in Chaturdala lotus cf. Saveri Krklbhmkm and also referred to in Hmsdhwni, shri. what is his status vis a vis a consort if given in the Srividya ?

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Indeed Ganapati is known to reside in the caturdala padma in the mUlAdhAra cakra. He is cnsidered to guard the cakra which is the entry point of the kundalini.As far as I am aware, he does not have a consort in this rUpa of his.Although the kundalini and the rise of the kundalini Sakti upwards from the mUlAdhAra through the othter 5 cakras into the sahasrAra is intimately connected with SrIvidyA, I am not sure how these cakras are connected structurally to the SrIcakra. If my understanding is right, the bindu and 9th Avarana[or is it the whole SrIcakra?] are in the sahasrAra.
However ganapati is described in the texts as having a consort in some of his various forms[ aka SODaSaganapati]-ucciStha, Sakti, mahA, Urdhwa etc. I think the mUlAdhAra ganapti does not fall in the realm of the 16 forms.I cannot offhand remember his physical place in the Sricakra. Iam not even sure he has one[ viSnu`s 10 incarnations do have a place as is clear from MD`s krtis.He is described aa trikOna madyagatam. Which trikOna is this? There is no caturala padma in the 9 Avaranas. And Ganapati is not mentioned in the text of the navAvarana kris but only in the dhyAna krti in gaula. any thoughts on this to throw further lght?

[Oldposts]

Cant comment on most of your post re chakras. But appearance of word Guruguha (cf. Guruguha jananyaam etc) in Kmlmba krities ...is this just MD mudra related or does this deity differ from the Ganapati in the appropriate chakra ?

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Guruguha means subrahmanya[muruga, the guha as the teacher]. It is of course the mudra as well

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Yes, but unlike Ganapati does the Srichakra admit this deity ?

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As I wrote earlier, Subrahmanya is one of the dvAdaSa upAsakas and also appears in his femainine form-kaumAri in the first cakra-trailokyamohana along wth the other seven mAtrkAs[ brAhmi, maheSvari, kaumAri, vaiShnavi, vArAhi, indrANi, cAmunDA & mahAlakSmi].
Going back to my own query earlier about the mUladhara et al, these cakras are mentioned in the 5th navAvarana krti in bhairavi[ mUlAdi navAdhAra vyAvrtta]. Going back to ganapati and the SrIcakra, i the dhyAna krti in gauLa, he is addressed as "kamalAlaya taTanivAsah" could it mean that he is on the periphery of SrIcakra aka kamalAlaya and not actually within?[ SrI means lotus also in samskrta also the SricakrA is depicted as a ltus and is lauded as the best temple in creation]

[Oldposts]

Visit http://carnatic.geetham.net/

or

http://www.geetham.net

It has lots of tamil & carnaic songs in mp3 format.

You will have to register in the site first. Its free.

Namakam and Chamakam will be update soon.

cheers,

[Oldposts]

Could someone happen to have the following stats?
IIRC it was listed in this forum long time ago.

1.List of krtis without raga mudra - A few that come to mind are darbar, toDi
2.Ragas in which there is only one krti of Dikshitar

[Oldposts]

The following statistics was possted by me two yera sback in this forum.
PPN


Statistical Analysis of Dikshitar Krithis
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Main sources:

1. Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar Keerthanaigal, Vainika Vidwan
A. Sundaram Iyer, Music Book Publishers, Madras (1989)

2. Dikshitar Keerthana mala (15 volumes)
Vina A. Sundaram Iyera (Madras)

3. Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini (5 volumes)
Subbarama Dikshitar (Music Academy) a(1961 to 1983)

A total of 479 Krithis have been used in this analysis.
Krithis of doubtful authorship, corrupt krithis, etc
have been omitted. The only telugu composition,
a daru " nI sATi daivamuendu" in s'rIra~njani rAgaM, has
been included, even though it is devoid of the signature
"guruguha" (since it appears in Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini,
as well as in Vina Sundaram Iyer's book,
and Subbarama Dikshitar attributes it to Dikshitar).

1. Total Number of Krithis: 479

2. Number of Melams (asampurnam) : 72
(sampoorna melam makes no sense here)

3. No. of krithis in Suddha Madyama melam: 423 = 88.3%
No. of krithis in Prati Madyama melam: 56 = 11.69%

4. Breakdown of Gods/Goddesses for these krithis:

Siva (including kalabhairava, virabhadra) 131 = 27.34%
devi 176 = 36.74%
(including lakshmi, minakshi, renuka devi, etc)
sarasvati 13 = 2.71%
Vishnu 41 = 8.55&
Rama 27 = 5.63%
krishna 14 = 2.92
Ganapathi 27 = 5.63%
Subrahmanya 36 = 7.51%
Navagraha 9 = 1.87%
Brahma 1 = 0.21%
Sasta 1 = 0.21%
Sandhya 1 = 0.21%
Ganga 1 = 0.21%
Maya (contemting, not praising) 1 = 0.21%

Krithis on dual deities: (included in the above)

Parvati + Parameswara 1 (included in siva)
Sankara + narayana 1 (included in siva)
Rama + Krishna 1 (included in rama)

5. Vaggeyakara Mudra featured in ALL 478 krithis, except the
telugu composition "nI sAti daivamendu"a in srIra~njani.

6. Raga Mudra (including suchitha (indicative) featured in 235 krithis
(99.79%). None of the sa.nkarAbharanaM and toDi krithis feature
raga mudra, except the former in one ragamalika line.

7. Krithis with Pallavi/Anupallavi/Charanam 280 = 58.46%
Krithis with Samashti Charanam 157 = 32.77%
(Most of the Vivadi mela krithis are of this type)
noTTU swara sahityams 37 = 7.72%
Krithis with Pallavi/Anupallavi/Muktayi swaram 1 = 0.21%

8. Ragamalika krithis 4 = 0.84%

9. Krithis in Upanga Ragams 102 = 21.29%
Krithis in Bhashanga ragams 179 = 37.37%
Krithis in Others 198 = 41.43%

10. Number of Ragams employed 193

10. Breakdown of numbers

1 krithi each in 97 ragams
2 44
3 14
4 15
5 8
6 6
7 3 (anandabhairavi, bhairavi, surati)
8 4 (athana, arabhi, kambhoji, todi)
11 1 (kalyani)
48 1 (sankarabharanam)

12. Maximum Number of songs in Sankarabharanam 48 = 10.02%
Maximum Number of songs in dhIraSankarabharanam melam: 96 = 20.04%

13. Krithis in major mela ragams:

todi 13 = 2.71%
mayamalavagauLa 51 = 10.64%
naTabhairavi 42 = 8.76%
Sri (~ Kharaharapriya) 57 = 11.89%
Harikedaragaula (Harikambhoji) 63 = 13.15%
dhIrasankarabharanam 96 = 20.04%
shantakalyani 27 = 5.63%

14. Number of talams employed 10

Breakdown

rupakam 138 = 28.81%
Adi 184 = 38.41%
triputa 17 = 3.54%
jhampa 11 = 2.29%
capu 60 (misra 54, khanda 6) = 12.52%
matyam 1 -
Ekam 56 (tisra 22, chaturasra 22, khanda 12) = 11.69%

15. Number of languages employed

Sanskrit 475 = 99.16%
Telugu 1 = 0.21%
Manipravalam 3 = 0.63%
(sanskrit+telugu+tamil)


16. Number of Temples featured 74

17. Other types of compositions : none

18. Notable omissions Kharaharapriya, but substituted by Rudrapriya
Diskhitar uses "srI" as the asampoorna melam 22.

19. Group Krithis on the following: (refer to an earlier Keerthana
article by the authors):

shodasa ganapathi
navagraha
kamalamba
abhaymba
nIlothpalamba
tyagaraja
guruguha
madhuramba
rama
nottu svara sahityams
vivadi mela groups on Tanjore brhadiswara/brihannayaki

20. Bhakti/Vibhakti series

kamalamba
abhaymba
nIlothpalamba
tyagaraja
guruguha
madhuramba
rama
***********************************

[Oldposts]

Thanks PPN for the info.

The ragas that I can immediately think of which have only one krti of Dikshitar( I did not mean ekaika krti ragas but rather eka krti ragas) are:
kumudakriya, sAlakabhairavi, margadeshi , some of the mela ragas like kanakambari, ganasamavarali etc

Also Ragas without raga mudra include :
darbar , todi etc

I guess we have to discount Shankarabharanam as the mudra occurs in sadAsivam upAsmahe iirc

[Oldposts]

Devaraanji Nste Prdvte also ?
Unlike Ramaswamy D is MD credited with any new raagas ?
Also guruguha mudra appears twice in one of the ragamaalikas.
Nabhomani kriti doesnt have guruguha mudra.

I'm thinking 'Ahantaadi vihitam" in Mhgnptim Vande (Hanumat)-Todi is as close as you can get to Todi mudra. Yadukula K is another debatable one for raga mudra. In this context, is there any kriti where taala mudra might appear, nt just for MD ?

[Oldposts]

I want the detailed meaning of HArihara puitram [vasantha].
Dikshitar says "Garvidha Dhaksha siksham"
What actually is the relation between Sastha and Dhaksha?
I dont think Dikshithar will use such a reference just like that.
Any one know any detail, story or purana regarding this?

[Oldposts]

Aravind,
There are several issues w.r.to this krti - other than the garvita daksha shiksham reference.There was a discussion on this in RMIC sometime ago.

Re: garvita daksha shiksham please find the relevant post c&ped from there.Though I still have'nt been able to come across any actual textual reference to this.
-------

In the "Garvita Daksha shiksham", it means one who punished the arrogant Daksha. In Aiyappa's story there is a reference to a Daksha
who offends Aiyappa in the forest when the latter ventures in for tiger milk for his foster mother's illness

-------
Another lyrical issue about this kriti is the controversy of the kshetra allocation of this krti.The icon at Shabari malai does not match the iconography in this krti though there is a reference to Pandya-Kerala.Some opine that this krti is actually in Ariyan kavu or some such place near Madurai.

Again I am not clear about the prasa structure of this krti too.The dvitiyaksara prasas (or etukais) are not so well-formed.

Lastly a musical issue about this krti is that while ramacandram bhAvayAmi (atleast in notation if not rendition) has some chyuta panchama usage this krti does not.


Hope this helps!

[Oldposts]

>In the "Garvita Daksha shiksham", it means one who punished the arrogant Daksha. In Aiyappa's story there is a reference to a Daksha
who offends Aiyappa in the forest when the latter ventures in for tiger milk for his foster mother's illness.
-------
I have various versions of Ayyapan's story.But I have not even heared the name of Daksha.
Please, can you explain this part of the story in detail.
[ie Daksha offending ayyappa ]

[Oldposts]

I too have'nt come across such a reference in any text - mythological or otherwise.
As I indicated in my earlier post I had merely cross-posted from a thread on authenticity of Dikshitar krtis in RMIC.

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There is 'Daksha Shikshana' in the Sbharana akshylnvbhgo where too ratha-gaja-turaga are cited. If these are the same, attributes of the contributing deities to the Shaastaa, then the Vegavahini to Ganapati needs to be checked for its reference to Daksashishana.

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I rhink this has to be checked.
In one of the MD sites, the term was as "One who punishes the arrogant people immediately"

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How would you interpret the following "mudra" line in the ghanta krti , shrI mangalAmbikAm, ie
"manana dhyana nirata mahapurusha guruguha vinutAm"

Somehow the epithet mahapurusha doesnt quite fit a deity, does it.Seems to me like an autobiographical referencer.

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vidya
in"manana dhyAna nirata mahApuruSha guruguha vinutAm" mahApuruSha could be taken to mean all those great men yOgis, munis etc] who are steeped in manana and dhyAna. So the sentnce could be taken to mean "one worshipped by yOgis and guruguha"[with all its myriad interpretations]. It could also have an autobiographical connotation as u have mentioned
Dr.Shrikaanth K.Murthy

[Oldposts]

In a few places e.g Sama, mukhari, the Dikshita uses 'prasiddha guruguha nutena etc' I doubt this usage or 'mahapurusha guruguha' are autobiographical. That being said, I think this word 'Maha-purusha' does not appear elsewhere in the MD krities.

[Oldposts]

Nado
it s very difficult to be categorical about interpretations in certain places. Given the ingenuity of dIkSitar in bringing out various meanings, it shhould not be surprising to see an autobiographical connotation apart from the meaning relevant to the main context. Nothing precludes dIkSitar from making autobiographical references.
For e.g "vaNika gAyaka guruguhanuta" in the bhairavi krti 'bAlagOplala' seems an obvious autoniographical reference. It can be interpreted in other ways but I feel that would be missing the boat entirely
Dr.Shrikaanth K.Murthy

[Oldposts]

Hello, Although most composers, including the self-realized ones unfailingly use a mudra, I think Dikshita further referring to himself as prasiddha or mahaa-purusha is quite doubtful.
Perhaps if MD was invited to a shrine, then commissioned with substantial fanfare to produce a kriti, then maybe he uses this kind of (autobigrphcl) reference. Is this what you have in mind ?

However your example Vainika gaayaka is entirely possible since it is describes his musical background. Incidentally, there are not too many such references.

[Oldposts]

Parvathi is Daksha's daughter and Daksha insulted Shiva by not inviting him to a big yaga he had.As Shiva's son, Aiyappan wanted to punish him. Also, Ariyan Kavu is on the way to Trivandrum, past Shenkotta (Chenkottai). It is in Kerala, not anywhere near Madurai,as I remember. Could someone clear that for me?

[Oldposts]

The "magnum opus", Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini of Subbarama Dikshitar is celebrating 100 years of its publication.

To commemorate the event,for the benefit of Rasikas and students of Carnatic Music, we (Dr.P.P.Narayanaswami and myself) have attempted to generate an English Version of this great work. We have carefully tried to incorporate all the Gamaka symbols and Svara notations as given in the original Edition. We have just
completed typesetting Volume I consisting of Melams 1 to 15 inclusive, and some of the material is at the proof-reading stage.

We are now uploading the first cakram (Indu cakram - consisting of Melams 1 to 6) both clickable and nonclickable versions.

http://sky.prohosting.com/~guruguha/ssp_cakramoneclick.pdf (http://sky.prohosting.com/~guruguha/ssp_cakramoneclick.pdf
)

http://sky.prohosting.com/~guruguha/ssp_cakramone.pdf (http://sky.prohosting.com/~guruguha/ssp_cakramone.pdf
)


We have provided two versions of the PDF file, one of which is in color with clickable (bookmark) features. These PDF files were generated by LaTeX, and pdfLaTeX programs with hyperref, and other user-defined style files.

We humbly request all rasikas to browse the PDF file. We would appreciate receiving your valuable comments, and suggestions
for improvement. Please bring to our attention any typos or other errors
that might have crept in during our typesetting process. We would like to hear from you.We would also like to thank all those who have helped us and continue to help us in this work.

Since a work of this magnitude requires lots of tireless typing, and proof-reading with sharp eyes, we also request any volunteers
who can help us in typing/proof-reading the material, to get in touch with any one of us by email swami@math.mun.ca or vidyajayaram@yahoo.com.

- Vidya

[Oldposts]

Chakras 1 and 2 uploaded.Those interested may please check this out.

http://sky.prohosting.com/~guruguha/ssp_cakramtwoclick.pdf

http://sky.prohosting.com/~guruguha/ssp_cakramtwo.pdf

[Oldposts]

If you are incharge of the www.guruguha.org site, please read on.

I cannot listen to these songs in "Krithis of previous week"

1. Sri Venugopala-Kurinji-Smt M L Vasanthakumari
2. Mahaganapathim-Todi-G N Balasubramaniam
3. Balagopala-Bhairavi-T N Seshagopalan
4. Srivenkata-Surati-M L Vasanthakumari
5. Meenakshi-Gamakakriya-G N Balasubramanian
6. Srisubramanyo-Todi-D K Jayaraman
7. Ehiannaporne-PunnagaVarali-Vijay Siva
8. Balasubramanyam-Suruti-Mani Krishnaswamy
9. Neelothpala-ChayaGowla-Kalavathy Balakrishnan
10. Paradevatha-Dhanyasi-Vijay Siva

and several others.

The songs that I can listen to are superb and thanks for spreading the greatness of Muthuswamy Dikshitar.

As a side note, the emails I send to webmaster@guruguha.org are bouncing back for some reason.
<a name="last"></a>

[vidz]

Hi everyone,

How does one split the word maddishana in the krti
Bharati maddishana . The word mat(d) means mine and
what is the other constituent word.Am not able to find
the other half in any dictionary?

Thanks,

Vidya

[ts]

Welcome to the forum Vidya...

dhisaNa means Wise or Intelligent. Could it be split as bhArati-adhisana giving bhAratimaddishaNa.

TS

[vidz]

Thanks.You are right .

Dhishana means intelligence.I forgot about the h and was looking for dishana.

So It is bharati mat(d) dishaNa

Bharati, Remover (apahe) of lethargy(jADya) of my(mat(d)) mind (dhishaNa)

In the same krti there occurs another line vAdikshAntArNa yute.
It means the embodiment of aksharas from va thru ksha.
But Why va to ksha for Saraswati? Anything to do with the vAkdEvatAs?
- Vidya

[vidz]

An update of the online SSP - PDF.

We have now completed typesetting Melas 1 thru 24 and they are now uploaded here.Upto Mela 21 (except Bhairavi) has been proofread.This also marks another landmark - it completes Volume I of the Telugu SSP.So one half of the well has been crossed :)

http://sky.prohosting.com/~guruguha/ssp_one.pdf

(Clickable Version)
http://sky.prohosting.com/~guruguha/sspone_click.pdf


We have also made a couple of changes keeping in line with some of the technical inputs suggested by Dr. N.Ramanathan and Dr.R.S.Jayalakshmi ie

- The word lakshya gItam not existing in the Telugu version has been dispensed with and only the term gItam has been used in accordance to the Telugu SSP.

- The undefined symbol 'V' which was a printing error instead of '^' for ravai has been dispensed with and a footnote has been added at the first occurence of this ie at the phenadyuti kirttanam.

Since this is still a work-in-progress ,we request those interested to go through the work and point out any errors and also offer us any suggestions that you may have.
Thanks

Vidya (and Dr.P.P.Narayanaswami)

Btw the email webmaster@guruguha.org no longer works.So please use
guruguha@asia.com or guruguha@earthlink.net

[prithvi_krishna]

Does anyone have the translation for this composition:

Marakathavalleem - Kambhoji - Adi - Muthuswamy Dikshtar

[RR]

[tscii:0ef6a5c772]Evoking lovely visions

Composer A significant fact is that many descriptive phrases in Dikshitar’s lyrics will not lose their evocative quality even if they are lifted from the original songs and recited in a different order.

http://www.hindu.com/fr/2007/10/26/stories/2007102650090200.htm[/tscii:0ef6a5c772]