[Advaita-l] Devi kritis for the season

[V Subrahmanian]

On Sun, Oct 9, 2016 at 10:15 PM, Raghav Kumar Dwivedula <
raghavkumar00 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 'The sharannanavaratri are noted in southern india for (among other
> things) the singing of the devi navAvaraNa kritis of the vAggeyakAra
> muttusvAmI dIxita (1775-1835 CE). His compositions are in sanskrit and he
> studied vedanta in kashi for five years. He was a lAxaNika. He left the
> body while on the 'on the banks of cauvery to the singing of  his great
> devi kriti 'mInAxi me mudam dehi'. It is said that when the lines from this
> song ,  'mInalocani pAshamocani' (O Goddess, Giver of freedom from
> bondage....) were being repeated, he left the body.'
>

Some very famous compositions of Muthuswamy Dikshitar are 'vātāpi gaṇapatim
bhaje', 'ranga pura vihāra' (on the Lord of Srirangam temple),
'Srivaralakshmi namastubhyam' in Sri rāga.  The devi navāvarṇa krtis are a
very rare composition with a deep mystical theme. There are the navagraha
kritis too.

vs

> "The great* composer, created an alternative universe in an ancient music
> form. He did this not by intuition or immersion alone, but by assiduously
> backing these insights up with learning and experience.*
>
> *In an era with extremely limited means of transport, Dikshitar travelled
> the length and breadth of the country. He sang the praise of deities in
> celebrated temples all over India and penned, in his **kriti** s,
> interesting details about these **sthalam** s. His stint in * Kashi,
> where he spent close to five years learning the theories of Vedanta * as
> well as music, exposed him to the Hindustani system and the dhrupad style
> of singing. He also travelled to many important shrines in south India,
> including Tiruttani, Kanchipuram, Tiruvarur, Chidambaram and Kumbakonam, to
> name just a few.*
>
> *Muttuswami Dikshitar composed songs on a galaxy of deities, often from
> different perspectives. Each of his **kriti** s contains mythological
> stories about the deities, festivals and temples associated with them and
> pertinent philosophical messages and concepts.*
>
> *He composed songs on various forms of the Goddess.*
>
> *Legend has it that in his final moments, he was listening to his
> disciples render ‘ **Meenakshi memudam dehi** ’, one of his cornerstone
> compositions set to Gamakakriya.*
>
> *The felicity in his writing was clearly powered by a unique combination
> of scholarliness and linguistic acumen. Dikshitar was a **lAkshanika** ,
> or musical grammarian, with each of his **kriti** s presenting a rich,
> vivid and nuanced portrayal of the **raga**employed*
>
> On 09-Oct-2016 9:36 pm, "V Subrahmanian via Advaita-l" <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
>> Devi kritis - nice album for the season:
>>
>> http://mio.to/album/Mambalam+Sisters/Devi+Krithis+-+Mambalam
>> +Sisters+(2006)
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