Ragamalikas of Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar
Introduction
Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar, one of the musical trinity of carnatic music has composed a variety of musical forms like kritis, varnams, nottu swara sahityams, ragamalikas, group kritis, vibhakti kritis, thematic kritis etc to name a few. In this article, the ragamalikas of Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar will be looked at . The musical form ragamalika as the name indicates is a composition made out of a garland of ragas. It was known as ragakadambakam during the medieval period.
Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar composed four ragamalika kritis :
1. Madhavo maam paatu
2. Poornachandra bimba vijaya vadane
3. Sri vishwanatham bhajeham
4. Simhaasanasthite
These compositions are outstanding and bear the traditional stamp of the great composer.
Madhavo maam paatu
Madhavo maam paatu is a dasa ragamalika on the ten avataras of Lord Vishnu set to rupaka talam. The composition has ten passages one for each avatara and is set in ten distinct ragas. The ragas are nattai, gaulai, sri, aarabhi, varaali, kedaram, vasanta, suratti, saurashtram and madhyamavathi.
There are some remarkable aspects in this composition with regard to the sahityam and the ragas that were chosen. The initial five stanzas are in the ghana panchaka ragas. The sixth stanza is in kedaram, one of the dvithiya ghana panchaka ragas. The last four passages are set in the mangala ragas, vasanta, suratti, saurashtram and madhyamavathi.
The sahityam is noteworthy and clearly exhibits the composer’s characteristic style. The first eight passages are in the eight declensions or vibhaktis of the sanskrit language. The last two stanzas are in the dvithiya vibhakti or accusative case. Each stanza has a madhyama kala sahityam followed by a chittaswaram in the same ragam. All the ten passages are rendered one after the other sequentially with the chittaswaras in between. The first stanza or the pallavi line is not repeated after every stanza. The second passage contains the vaggeyakara mudra “ guruguhanuta kurmavataram”.
Poornachandra bimba vijaya vadane
Poornachandra bimba vijaya vadane is a shadragamalika in rupaka talam. This is a composition extolling Goddess Kamalambika at Tiruvarur, Tamilnadu. It has a pallavi and five charanas, set in six ragas. The ragas are poornachandrika, narayani, saraswatimanohari, suddhavasanta, hamsadhwani and nagadhwani.
This composition has some unique features. All the ragas are the janya ragas of the twenty ninth melam dheera shankarabharanam. The pallavi and each of the charanams are followed by a chittaswaram in the same ragam. After rendering of each charanam and chittaswaram, the pallavi line is repeated. The raga mudhra occurs in the pallavi and all the charanams. Poornachandra bimba vijaya vadane in the pallavi , narayani jagadambike, saraswatimanohare, pushpita suddhavasante, hamsadhwani virajite, nagadhwani sahite in each of the charanams. The last charanam is embellished with the gopuccha yati-
nagadhwani sahite
dhwani sahite
sahite
hite
te
There is a belief that two more charanams exist in the ragas kedaram and bilahari in between the narayani and the suddavasanta charanams.
Sri viswanatham bhajeham
This ragamalika is the most popular of Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar’s ragamalikas and has been immortalised by the Late Smt. M.L. Vasantakumari . This composition is in adi talam. This ragamalika is set in fourteen ragas which the composer mentions in his composition — chaturdasa bhuvana rupa ragamalika. This ragamalika is in praise of Vishwanatha swami at Kuzhikkarai temple near Tiruvarur, Tamilnadu.
The pallavi is set in two ragas sri and aarabhi with the raga mudras interspersed in the sahityam — sri viswanatham and samsarabhityapaham. Each raga is set in two avarthas with the second avartha in madhyama kalam.
The anupallavi is in four ragas gauri, nattai, gaulai and mohanam. After the anupallavi, there is a madhyama kalam viloma passage in the four ragas of the anupallavi and the two ragas of the pallavi in reverse order, half an avarta per raga. The raga mudras occur as follows- vishalakshi gaurisham, chitra vishwa naataka, govindhaadhi vinutha gowlaangam, guruguha sammohana kara lingam.
The charanam is set in eight ragas saama, lalitha, bhairavam, saaranga, shankarabharanam, kambhoji, devakriya and bhupalam. A similar style like in the anupallavi is repeated in the charanam. Viloma passage in madhyamakala sahitya, with the ragas in reverse order back to the pallavi is observed. The composer has also followed a pattern with regard to the lengths of the avartas for each raga. Gaulai and mohanam which are the fifth and sixth ragas have been allotted 1 ½ avartas, while the previous ragas have two avartas, one in sama kalam and the other in madhyama kalam. The same pattern is seen in the charanam too. The raga mudras are seen as- saama gaana vinutham, sanmaargam lalitha hrudhaya vidhitham, bhairavam puraharam, chith sabesham saaranga dharam, sadhaasrayaami shankaraabharanam, sathgathi daayakambhoja charanam, vadhaanya devakriya khelanam, vaidhyalinga bhoopaala paalanam
There is yet another remarkable feature in the sahityam. In every raga’s sahityam, the swara and sahityam of the last word of the line is the same as the one in the preceding line- For example
Sadaa sivam saama gaana vinutham
Prakruthyaadhi saptha roopa saama gaana vinutham
Simhaasanasthithe
The fourth ragamalika Simhaasanasthite composed by Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar is the mangala ragamalika which is set in adi talam. This composition is in praise of Goddess Rajarajeshwari. It consists of four passages set to the four ragas — saurashtram, vasanta, surati and madhyamavati which are the mangala ragas. It has swara passages after every ragam and the pallavi line is sung after each passage. This composition has been popularised by the late bharathanatyam Guru Adyar Lakshman who choreographed it. Nowadays, it is also rendered as the last composition in Dikshitar festivals.
Conclusion
This article has tried to capture some salient features of the ragamalikas composed by Sri Muthuswamy Dikshitar, Each composition is a master piece and is unique in its own respect.
