PART-5... THIRUVOTRIYUR, THIRUVALLIKKENI, AND KANCHIPURAM- UPANISHADH BRAMMAM

5

Chennai and Kanchipuram
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Before leaving Manali, Muttuswami Dikshitar worshipped at the shrines in and around Madras.

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 Tiruvotriyur, which is near Manali is famous for its temple dedicated to Lord Tyagaraja and Goddess Tripurasundari. In this temple, Adi Sankara had consecrated an arddha mEru underneath the pITham of the vaTTapArai amman, at whose shrine human sacrifices were stopped by him. In addition, a shrI cakra was consecrated by him under the feet of the Goddess Tripurasundari and he arranged for regular worship by Nambudiri brahmins. This tradition continues to this day. 

Here Dikshitar composed 

AdipurIshvaram in Arabhi, in praise of the Lord and Tripurasundari in the raga sAmA on the Goddess.

He then visited Triplicane where Lord Krishna gives darshan as Arjuna's charioteer Parthasarathi.

 Here, Dikshitar composed 

Sri pArthasArathi in shuddha dhanyAsi.

 Nearby is the shrine dedicated to Lord Siva as Tiruvateesvara. Dikshitar sang on Him the kriti

tiruvaTIshvaram in the raga gamakakriya.

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We do not know whether Dikshitar visited Mylapore and sang the praise of Kapaleesvara and Karpagambika. Most probably he might have, but no evidence in the form of kritis on Mylapore is available.

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One fine day, Muttuswami Dikshitar and his family left for

 Kanchipuram. 

This pilgrim town, about 75 k.m. from Madras is one of the most important kShEtras of this country. It is one of the panchabhUta kShEtras representing the element prithvi or earth. Lord Ekamreswara is the lord of prithvi. Equally sacred to Saivites, Vaishnavites and Shaktas as also to Buddhists and Jains, Kanchipuram boasts of thousands of temples. It was also a great educational centre. The most important shrines are those of Ekamreswara, Kailasanatha, Varadaraja and Kamakshi.

 In Kanchipuram no Siva temple has a shrine for Ambal.

 The most important temple dedicated to the Mother Goddess is the Kamakshi temple. Adi Sankara during his travels stayed here for a few years and consecrated a shrI cakra in front of the Goddess to appease her then destructive power. A section of Sankara's devotees believes that he attained samAdhi at Kanchipuram. This sacred place is also the seat of the Kanchi Kamakoti mutt founded by the Adi Acharya as also that of a sannyasi and yogi, Upanishad Brahmendra. 

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Muttuswami Dikshitar and family took up residence in Kanchipuram and settled down.
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Upanishad Brahmendra was a prominent and greatly respected scholar, sannyasi and advaitin of Kanchipuram. He was a philosopher who had made the Upanishadic wisdom his own and also had to his credit commentaries on them. He was a great devotee of Lord Rama. Being a friend of Rama Brahmam, Tyagaraja's father, Upanishad Brahmendra it was who sent a shrImukham inviting Tyagaraja to Kanchipuram.

 He was also revered by the Dikshitar family.
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Muttuswami Dikshitar saw in Upanishad Brahmendra the answer to his deep desire of mastering the Upanishads and thus consolidating his knowledge. He accordingly requested the sannyasin to teach him the Upanishads which request the latter gladly agreed to. Upanishad Brahmendra, besides being a great scholar was a highly evolved tapasvi too. He could therefore explain the Upanishads to Dikshitar not only theoretically but also through the broad spectrum of his practical wisdom and experience.

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 His own sAdhana enabled Dikshitar to master the Upanishads. Upanishad Brahmendra requested Dikshitar to tune his work rAma aShTapadi which he had composed in praise of his favourite deity. Dikshitar composed the music for this work which unfortunately is lost and therefore not available to music lovers.
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Of course, for Dikshitar, Kanchipuram was rich, fertile territory as far as his life's work went. The city of temples was waiting to be sung of by him. It elicited from him the composition cintayamAkanda mUlakandam in the rAga bhairavi. It was his second composition in the series dedicated to the five elemental Sivalingas. 

Siva Ekamresha also secured from Dikshitar the song in gamakakriya, EkAmranAtham bhajEham. 

The Kailasanatha temple in Kanchipuram is a sculptural wonder built by the Pallava kings. This temple elicited from Dikshitar two kritis,

 kailAsanAthEna in kAmbOji

 and 

kailAsanAtham in vEgavAhini.

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The Mother Goddess had a special place in Dikshitar's heart as She was his Guru's (Guha) Mother. More special to him was Kamakshi, because as a shrI vidya upAsaka, he was fascinated by the shrI cakra in front of the Goddess. Worship is done only to this shrI cakra and not to the Goddess directly.
The Goddess's countenance is bewitching and the inner shrine is absolutely powerful. The bilAkAsha here, a cavity, represents the highest Advaitic truth. Worshipped and sanctified by Adi Sankara himself, Goddess Kamakshi was the tutelary deity of Dikshitar's illustrious contemporary Shyama Sastri.
The speciality of Kanchipuram and the Kamakshi temple is that the deities of all the other temples in Kanchipuram face the Kamakshi temple. Also, there is no separate shrine for the Goddess in any of the Siva temples in Kanchipuram. It is no surprise therefore, that Dikshitar decided to compose some of his gems in praise of Kamakshi. 

nIrajAkShi kAmAkshi in hindOLam,

 kancadaLAyatAkShi in manOhari, 

saraswati manOhari in saraswati manOhari,

 kAmAkshi in sumadyuti,

 EkAmrEshanAyikE in shuddha sAvEri (this is now called karNATaka shuddha sAvEri), 

kAmAkShi varalakshmi in bilahari

 were some of the compositions he dedicated to the Goddess here. The bilahari composition refers to Maha Vishnu propitiating Goddess Kamakshi, living in a hole. There is a pillar in the inner sanctum of the Kamakshi shrine which has a hole at the bottom with a small icon of Vishnu inside. Dikshitar refers to this in the song as kAmakOTi bila harinuta kamalE, thereby also cleverly weaving the rAga mudra.
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No less known for its Sri Vaishnava traditions, Kanchipuram houses one of the four shrines most sacred to Vaishnavites. The others are Tirumala, Melkote and Srirangam. The Varadaraja temple is a big complex and is famous for its garuDa sEva festival. Dikshitar paid homage to Lord Varadaraja with the sAranga kriti, varadarAjam upAsmahE. A unique feature is that all of the three members of the Trinity have composed on Lord Varadaraja; Shyama Sastri composed a varNam in Ananda bhairavi, sAmi nI rammanavE and Tyagaraja composed the swarabhUShaNi song, varadarAja ninnukOri. The other deities that have had the privilege of being sung by all the three are Goddess Kamakshi of Kanchipuram, Goddess Dharmasamvardhini of Tiruvaiyyaru and Goddess Nilayatakshi of Nagapattinam.

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During his stay at Kancheepuram, Dikshitar must have visited Tirukkazhukunram, a hill shrine near Chingleput, famous for the two eagles that visit the temple everyday for partaking the Lord's prasAdam. The dhanyAsi kriti vEdapUrIshwaram is attributed to this temple.

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 Dikshitar also visited the hill shrine of Sholingur, situated between Arkonam and Walajapet in the North Arcot district. 

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This is a very famous temple dedicated to Lord Narasimha. 

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Here, Dikshitar wrote the mOhanam kriti narasimha Agaccha.

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The cala nATa kriti pavanAtmajAgacha is attributed to the Anjaneya temple situated on this hill. The above two songs have a lot of common words and phrases in the sAhitya.

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continued  in  

part-5  at

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