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!