Omissions and Commissions on Dikshithar's Krithis on Sri Rama

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends :

 

One of our dear fellow members invited my attention to

the Krithi "Santhana Ramaswaminam " in Raga

HindoLa Vasantham as a missing piece. I am

glad to add it. This Krithi set in a Janya Ragam

of Nata Bhairavi is indeed a beautiful tribute by

Dikshithar to the Santhana Ramaswamy of

the town of NeedAmangalam (Yamunampuram )

in Tanjore District .

 

After thinking about this omission, It occured to me

that I had left out three more krithis on Sri Rama by

Dikshithar . They are :

 

1. Ramachandrayaa -- Ragam Hejjajji in Dikshitar

tradition and the 13 th Melam in the other tradition

(Gayakapriyaa ) .

 

2. Kodhanda Raamam in the raga Kokilaaravam in

Dikshitar tradition and the 11th mela kartha in the

other tradition ( Kokilapriyaa ) .

 

3 . Maamava Raghuveera -- Ragam Maahuri , a derivative

of the Mela ragam, Hari Kambhoji .

 

Finally , Ragam Jyothi SvarupiNi that I referred to earlier

is known as Jyothi in Dikshithar tradition.

 

Sri Dikshitar has composed many beautiful krithis on

some of the Vishnu archa Murthys of 108 Divya Desam and Abhimana

sthalams as well as the presiding deities of the Vaishnavite

temples close to his home town of Thiruvaarur. Although ,

the majority of his krithis are on his upasanaa murthys

( Sri Subramanya and Sri Lalitha Parameswari ) , his

repertoire of songs on Vaishnava Divya Desams is

significant in number . These are in addition to the ones

on Sri Ramachandra referred to in this and previous posting .

 

Sri Dikshitar was a great believer in Kshethraadanam unlike

Saint Thyagaraja and Shyamaa SastrigaL . The latter were

home bodies compared to Dikshithar . Wherever Dikshithar went ,

he composed a krithi on the presidng deity of that Divya Desam.

 

A complete list of songs on Vishnu has to wait for

another time.Some of the famous ones

or the most familar ones made famous by our great Sangeetha

Vidwaans are :

 

1. Sri Rangapura Vihara _ Brindhavana Saarangaa on Sri Ranganatha

2-3 : Varadarajam -- Ragas Gangaa Tarangini & Saarangaa

(On Lord Varadaraja of Kanchipuram )

4. Sundarajam -Panthuvaraali ( Thirumaalirumcholai )

5. Soundara Rajam --Brindhavana Saaaranga

( On the presding deity of NagapattiNam )

6. Pannaga Sayana - Madhyamaavathi

( On the Lord of Thiruvanthapuram ).

7. Sri Krishnam -Thodi (Sri Guruvayurappan )

8. Sri Rajagopalam -Saveri ( Mannargudi )

9. Parimala Ranganatham --Hameer Kalyaani

(Thiru Indaloor)

10 .-13 : On Govinda Raja of Tillai Thiruchitrakootam

( Ragas -- Surutti, Mukhaari, Rathipriyaa/Rishabapriyaa,

Mesa Bowli ) .

14. Sri Parthasaarathinaa --Suddha Dhanyaasi

( on Sri Parthasarathi of ThiruvallikeNi ).

15. Narasimha - Mohanam ( Sholingar )

16. Nara Harim --Suddha MaaLavi .

 

There are seven( ? ) krithis on Maha Lakshmi, the consort

of Sriman Narayana that I wrote about earlier.

 

On this navarathri Occasion, I thank our fellow member ,

who triggered this line of thought on Dikshithar's

contributions to Bhakthi-laden songs on Vishnu .

 

V.Sadagopan