Dikshitar Songs in Mannargudi

If I have to pick a favourite song by Dikshitar (out of the few I know), I would probably pick the songs Sri Rajagopala (saveri ragam) and Balagopala (bhairavi ragam). Now what do these songs have in common? They were both composed at the same ksethram: Mannargudi.

So I decided to dig a little deeper and see if there were any other songs composed at Mannargudi and it turns out that there are TONS of songs in praise of the deity (Sri Rajagopalaswamy): all ranging from varnams to tukkudas!

Before I continue ranting (I love ranting), here are some pictures. The first picture shows Sri Rajagopalaswamy wearing a half-dhoti and leaning on a cow.

In the pallavi of his magnum opus, Sri Rajagopala, Dikshitar refers to this statue and says:  

śrī rāja gōpāla bāla

M: O boy (bala) king (rāja) of the cowherds (gōpāla)!
  
The second picture shows him in the company of Sri Rukmini and Satyabhama.

 

In fact, Dikshitar also addresses Sri Rukmini and Satyabhama in the charanam of his song, Sri Rajagopala. He sings:

śrī rukmiṇī satya bhāmā śrita pārśva yugaḷa

M: O Krishna! You have Sri Rukmini and Satyabhama seated on either side of you (srita parsva yugala).

 

  The last picture is the exterior of the temple. 

This temple is often referred to as "dakshina dvārakā", because it is seen as the southern counterpart of Dvaraka, the birthplace of Lord Krishna.

When I first heard the words "dakshina dvārakā", it rang a bell in my head because these words appear in what is arguably one of the most famous varnams of all time: Viriboni (Bhairavi Varnam).

One can clearly see this in the anupallavi. The anupallavi of Viriboni goes as follows:

sarasuḍau dakṣiṇa dwāraka

sāmi śrī rājagōpāla dēva

BAM! The proof is in the pudding. As you can see, this varnam was obviously composed about this ksethram. In fact, most of the famous Oothukadu Venkata Kavi songs were also composed about the ksethram as well.

So what's so special about this specific kshetram that makes it stand out from all the others? The significance here is that the deity here is worshipped not just as Sri Rajagopalaswamy, but also worshipped as Sri Vidya Rajagopala (the unison of both Sri Lalita and Sri Rajagopala). You can see that this is reflected in the feminine posture of Krishna (look at the first picture) with an ear-ring on one ear and a kundalam on the other.

Dikshitar talks about this feminity/masculinity in the charanam of his song Sri Rajagopala:

nārīvēṣadhara vāmabhāga murārē śrī vidyā rāja harē

One whose left side (vāma bhāga) bears the disguise of a woman (nārī vēṣa dhara). One who is the supreme form of Sri Vidya (śrī vidyā rāja harē).

There are many stories (shtala purana) associated with this kshetram. Dikshitar also talks about these stories in his songs.

1. Lord Brahma

Lord Brahma once began very arrogant and fell from his position of high importance. The sages Suka and Sanaka advised him to come to the Mannargudi temple and meditate with the dvadashakshara mantra (om namo bhagavatē vāsudēvāya). He was then subsequently elevated back to his former position by Lord Vishnu.

Dikshitar mentions this in the charanam of his song Balagopala:

vāṇīśārcita pītāmbara dhara

One who is praised (arcita) by Brahma, the husband (īśa) of Saraswathi (vāṇī). One who wears (dhara) a yellow (pīta) garment (ambara)

2. Champaka Flower

Before the temple was built, there used to be forest of champaka flowers here. Goddess Lakshmi herself appeared at Mannargudi in the form of a fragrant champaka flower which is why she is sometimes also referred to as Shenbaghalakshmi.

In the anupallavi of Sri Rajagopala, Dikshitar sings:

dhīrāgragaṇya dīna śaraṇya cāru campakāraṇya

One who is the foremost among the brave (dhīrāgragaṇya)! One who is refuge for the weak (dīna śaraṇya)! One (who's temple) is a forest (āraṇya) of beautiful (cāru) campaka flowers! 

So that was just a little bit about Dikshitar in Mannargudi. Although I have only mentioned two songs, Dikshitar composed many other songs at this kshetram, such as Santhanagopala Krishnam, Sri Venugopala, Sarasa Dala Nayana, Rajagopalam, the list goes on. Feel free to take a listen to all of these great songs!

Until next time, no Dikshitar, no fun. Know Dikshitar, know fun!

The Genius of Dikshitar (Part 4)

This is my fourth post on the Genius of Dikshitar, my favourite composer of all time!

4) Laya 

Dikshitar was a master of talams.

Apart from composing songs in talams like Adi, Rupakam and the Chapu talams, Dikshitar also composed in weirder, more complex thalams like Dhruva talam and Matya talam. (Singing swarams in these weird thalams is really fun!) In fact, the first seven Navagraha Krithis (the krithis in praise of the nine planets: Surya, Chandra, Budhan, Shukra, Ankarakan, Guru, Shani, Rahu and Ketu) are composed in each of the sapta talams.

He composed in these weird talams with so much ease, as can be seen in the caranam of suryamurthe namosthuthe (Sourastram ragam). The song was composed in Kanda Druva talam (2 Kalai), which has a total of 28 beats. The words of the madhyama kalam go as follows: 

saurāśtrārna mantrātmane sauvarna svarūpātmane

bhāratīśa hariharātmane bhukti mukti vitaraṇātmane

Dikshitar comes to one avartanam (28 beats) by singing 7 x 4. However, anyone can do 7 x 4 = 28. It takes a true creative genius to make the pattern sound aesthetically appealing at the same time, which is exactly what Dikshitar did. (Gotta love Dikshitar!)

First of all, there is rhyming in the endings of each phrase: every sentence ends in the word "ātmane", which makes everything rhyme. There is also prasam in place because the first two lines both start with the sound "sau" and the next two start with "bh". And then, the composer brilliantly uses the word "saurāśtrārna" as a raga mudra, and does so without disrupting the overall meaning. Talk about killing two birds with one stone! 

I could just keep going on (I would actually love to!) but my typing fingers are getting tired!

So I hope you now know why I love Dikshitar so much. He was a genius, not only musically, but also rhythmically and lyrically.

I will finish this post with one last sentence:

No Carnatic Music, no fun.

Know Carnatic Music, know fun!

The Genius of Dikshitar (Part 3)

Welcome back! Here is the third post on why I love Dikshitar!

3) Lyrical prowess

Dikshitar was a master of rhyme and prasam.

In almost every song written by Dikshitar, there are rhymes that fill the song. For example, in the song Bālagopāla (Bhairavi ragam), Dikshitar ends every phrase/line in the charanam with the sound "ara" (or "ura"). The endings are highlighted in red. 

cāṇūra malla haraṇa nipunatara

caraṇa nihata śakaṭāsura murahara

maṇikya makuṭa hāra valaya dhara

mattebha kumbha bhedhana paṭutara

vaṇīśārcita pītāmbara dhara

vaijayantī vana mālā dhara

āṇavādi vijaya mānasākara

apahata kamsāsura nata bhūsura

droṇa karna duryodhanādi hara

draupadi māna samraksaṇa kara

vaiṇika gāyaka guruguha nuta pura

vairi vihita gopikā manohara

I must say, this song is a real treat to sing! Another such example would be the caranam of the song raṅganāyakam bhāvaye (Nāyaki ragam). In this charanam, Dikshitar uses different pairs of rhyming words like sadanam and vadanam, or pārāyaṇam and nārāyaṇam. The pairs are highlighted below.

praṇavākāra divya vimānam

prahlādādi bhaktābhimānam

gāṇapati samāna viśvaksenam

gajaturaga padādi senam

dhinamaṇi kulabhava rāghavārādhanam

māmaka videha mukti sādanam

maṇimaya sadanam saśi vadanam

paṇipati śayanam padma nayanam

aganita suguṇa ghaṇa nata vibhīśaṇam

ghanatara kaustubha maṇi vibhūsaṇam

gunijana kṛta veda pārāyaṇam

guruguha mudita nārāyaṇam

Apart from rhyming, Dikshitar also used certain sounds and played with those sounds to create a pattern. In the Anupallavi of the krithi akṣaya liṅga vibho (Shankarabharana ragam), Dikshitar sings:

dakṣa sīkṣaṇa dakṣatara sura lakṣaṇa bahu vicakṣaṇa lakṣya lakṣaṇa

vidhi vilakṣaṇa sudhā bakṣaṇa guru kaṭakṣa vīkṣaṇa

If you noticed, Dikshitar is playing with the sound "kṣa". It appears in almost every word and creates a cool effect! The fact that he was able to do this without compromising on the meaning is really quite amazing! This is the genius of the composer. 

In addition to rhyming, Dikshitar also had raga mudras in many of his songs. He wove them into his songs in a way that did not disrupt the overall meaning of the song. If he was composing a song in Kamboji, he did not simply say: "kāmboji rāga nute" or "kāmboji rāga priye", meaning “one who is fond of the ragam Kamboji”. (I call that "the lazy man's method".) 

For example, in the charanam of the song kamalambikāyai, fourth Kamalamba Navavarnam (Kamboji ragam), Dikshitar weaves the raga mudra into the song by saying:

sakala saubāgya dāyakāmboja caraṇāyai

sakala saubāgya dāyaka-amboja caraṇāyai

M: One who's lotus (amboja) feet (caraṇa) bestow (dāyaka) all (sakala) happiness (saubāgya). 

NOTE: This song is set to the dative case (caturthī vibhakti).

Notice how the word "kāmboja" is weaved into the charanam without disrupting the meaning at all! Imagine how creative and intelligent Dikshitar must have been to do this! I'll say one thing: it makes me feel pretty bad about my own intelligence and creativity! :(

I will continue about the Genius of Dikshitar in my next post!

Until then: Know Carnatic music, know fun. No Carnatic Music, no fun!

The Genius of Dikshitar (Part 2)

In my previous post, I explained the first main reason why I love Dikshitar. Below is the second reason.

2) Shows different facets of a ragam

One thing that makes Dikshitar very special is that he was also very well versed in Hindustani music.

The Hindustani influence can be seen in compositions like akhilānḍeśvari (Dvijavanti ragam). However, if you listen to his composition ceta śrī bālakṛśnam (also in Dvijavanti), you will hear a very different version of Dvijavanti than in akhilānḍeśvari. 

This is a video of MS Amma singing akhilānḍeśvari.

This is a video of Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer singing ceta śrī bālakṛśnam.

If you hear this carefully, you will notice the Dvijavanti that comes in akhilānḍeśvari uses many Hindustani phrases whereas the Dvijavanti in ceta śrī bālakṛśnam uses all pure Carnatic phrases.

This brings me to an interesting topic: madi and ammadi.

In many ragams, Dikshitar composed a madi (a Carnatic style song) and an ammadi (a Hindustani style song). In Dvijavanti, ceta śrī bālakṛśnam and akhilānḍeśvari respectively are the madi and ammadi krithis. So if one were to learn both these krithis, they would see how Dvijavanti could be sung in both Carnatic and Hindustani styles, and they would see more than one facet of the ragam. 

Other such examples of a madi/ammadi set would be:

govardhana girīśam/nīrajākṣi kāmākṣi - hindolam

hiranmayīm lakṣmīm/agastīśvaram – lalita

rāmānātham bhajeham/śrī sundara rājam - pantuvarāli

So Dikshitar was very flexible in his composing style: it's not easy to take a Hindustani ragam like Dvijavanti and make it sound Carnatic, but Dikshitar did it with ease! Pretty awesome, right?

I will continue the "Why I Love Dikshitar" series in my next post. (I'm sorry, I can't think of a better name! :P)

Until then, Know Carnatic music, know fun. No Carnatic music, no fun!

The Genius of Dikshitar (Part 1)

Hi, and welcome to my blog!

I am an avid Carnatic Music lover, and I thought that it would be apt to have my first post be a rant about my favourite composer of all time, Sri Mutthusvami Dikshitar.

First, a little background on the composer.

He is the youngest of the Musical Trinity (Thyagaraja, Dikshitar, Shyama Shastri), and he just happens to be my favourite composer of ALL TIME! (Dikshitar swag!).

He composed many compositions, of which about 500 are commonly known to us. His compositions were mostly in Sanskrit, with one known song in Telugu (nī saṭi in Sriranjani Ragam) and a few Manipravālam songs (a mix of Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit).

I was lucky enough to learn one of his Manipravālam songs, śrī abhayāmba, a really cool song in Sri ragam. To get a sense of how the lyrics are in different languages, here are the lyrics. (Love the song!) 

Some of his other famous compositions include akhilānḍeśvari (Dvijavanti ragam), raṅgapura vihāra (Brindavana Saranga ragam) and vātāpi gaṇapatim (Hamsadvani ragam). 

The legend associated with this legendary composer is that once day, Dikshitar had gone to Varanasi where he got a veena from Ganga. When he returned to Thiruvarur, his guru Chidambaranatha Yogi advised him to go to Tiruthani. Legend has it that Lord Muruga in Tiruthani came in the form of an old man and put a sugar candy in Diksitar's mouth, and on the spot, he composed his very first krithi, śrī nāthādi guruguho, in Raga Mayamalagowla. (man, that must have been a pretty special candy!) Since he was such a great devotee of Muruga, his mudra (signature) became guruguha, which is another name for Lord Muruga. 

WHAT A COOL STAMP!

But what makes Dikshitar's compositions stand out?

 

1) They capture the essence of the ragam

My mother always says that I would never properly know a ragam unless I knew at least one varnam, and one chowka kala (slow speed) Dikshitar krithi in the ragam.
 

Dikshitar compositions are at first REALLY hard to learn because of the amount of gamakam (oscillation) needed to render them. One of the most painful (when I say painful, I mean painful!) parts of singing a Dikshitar krithi would be singing them at a slow pace without rushing. This is one of the reasons why Dikshitar krithis are so hard to master!

However, once mastered, they provide such a vast variety of phrases that singing alapana, nereval, or swaram in the ragam would be very easy to do. One such example would be the song mīnākśī memudam dehi (Gamakakriya ragam). I can confidently say that this is THE hardest song I know but once I learnt it properly, I had a very firm grounding in the ragam. The very first phrase in the song (S,RS S,RD) happens to be a very defining phrase of the ragam!


I also used to really HATE the ragam Saveri, but right when I learnt to the song śrī rājagopāla, (a Dikshitar krithi in Saveri) I just fell in love with the ragam. 

I just couldn't stop singing Saveri! Well, I am going to continue about the Genius of Dikshitar in next post. Until then:

No Carnatic Music, no fun.

Know Carnatic Music, know fun!