Tracing Muthuswami Dikshitar’s musical journey through his kshetra compositions

Dikshitar 250 (250th commencement anniversary) whitethorn person been a focal constituent of the past year, but the composer’s power connected Carnatic euphony resonates incessantly. That came done successful vocalist Gayathri Girish thematic performance ‘Hidden gems successful Muthuswami Dikshitar’s compositions’, held precocious astatine Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mylapore. Dikshitar, the youngest of the Carnatic euphony Trinity, was an inveterate pilgrim,’ said Gayathri astatine the outset.

The taxable echoed the composer’s passionateness for question and his penchant for composing kritis connected the deities of assorted temples. His works are affluent with references to anecdotes, rituals and festivals associated with each shrine. In that sense, Dikshitar was a historian, Gayathri observed during her well-researched presentation. She was accompanied by M. Vijay connected the violin and Poongulam S. Subramanian connected the mridangam. Vijay was astatine his melodious champion successful solo raga sketches, portion the mridangist seamlessly brought retired the absorbing rhythmic operation of each composition. 

 As portion of Dikshitar’s kshetra kritis, Gayathri sang songs connected Achaleswarar temple successful Tiruvarur (Sadachaleswaram successful Bhupalam), Varadaraja Perumal temple successful Kanchipuram ( ‘Varadarajam upasmahe’ successful Saranga), Rathnagiriswarar temple successful Nagapattinam territory (‘Pahimam ratnachala’ successful Mukhari), Bhaktavatsala Perumal temple successful Thirukannamangai ( ‘Bhaktavatsalam abishekavalli’ successful Vamshavati), Subramania Swamy temple successful Tiruchendur ( Sri subrahmanya mam’ successful Thodi) and the shrine of Kamalamba successful Tiruvarur (Sri kamalamba jayati’ successful Ahiri). The database besides included ‘Narasimha aghacha’ successful Mohanam and ‘Tyagaraja mahadvajaroha’ successful Sri raga. Each kriti was preceded by a little statement of the kshetra, accompanied by a descent amusement of these temples. One lone wished that the slides were little cluttered. 

The precocious constituent was the opus ‘Bhaktavatsalam abhishekavalli’, which recounts the wedding of Lakshmi and Vishnu, and however Lakshmi asked the devas to refrain from attending it. Undeterred, they are said to person swarmed the wedding successful the guise of bees — a beingness that, to this day, is believed to linger successful Abhishekavalli Thayar’s shrine. These facets were reflected successful the verse ‘Sura maya madhu makshika-aradhitam’ (the 1 worshipped by honeybees, who are themselves forms of the devas).

The evening gave the assemblage a glimpse of the galore kshetras that inspired Dikshitar’s compositions, establishing him arsenic 1 of the uttama vaggeyakaras.