MUTHUSWAMY DIKSHITAR-PILGRIMAGE IN PANDYA NAADU

"The  Eternal  Pilgrim"

Monograph on Sri.Muthuswami Dikshitar

by  RaviSri

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PART-5 (concluding  part)

Kshetras in Pandyan  Territories 

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A year passed by in quiet contemplation and spiritual practices. It was 1823. 

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continued  from p-709

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An unconfirmed report from Madurai reached Tiruvarur that Chinnaswami Dikshitar had passed away. Dikshitar also did not hear about his youngest sibling Baluswami. He decided to find out about Chinnaswami as also to trace Baluswami.

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Dikshitar and his two wives left for Madurai. 

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Madurai is known as Pandya Naadu and as AlavAi  in the Puranas. There is mention of the Pandyas in the two great epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata. Mention is also made in stone inscriptions of Emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century B. C. about the Pandya kingdoms. These testify to the ancientness of the Pandya empire and the city of Madurai.

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The composer enquired of people at Madurai about his brother but could not get exact details. Therefore, putting aside his grief and anxiety Dikshitar decided to have darshan of Goddess Minakshi. 


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Lord Siva ordained that the temple be built by the king Kulasekhara Pandya which the latter did. Parvati was born as daughter to Kulasekhara Pandya's son Malayadvaja Pandya and married the Lord at the appropriate time. The Divine Marriage took place in Madurai. A large part of the Madurai Minakshi temple was built between the 13th and the 19th centuries. This is one of the largest temples in India and is famous throughout the country as an important pilgrim centre. 


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This is perhaps the only Siva temple which is widely known not by the Lord's name but by that of His Consort.  the Madurai temple is not referred to as Somasundareswarar kOvil but as Minakshi kOvil. 

-His masterpiece in the rAga gamakakriyA (now referred to as pUrvikalyANi), mInAkShi mEmudam dEhi, reflects his deep devotion and the music literally moves one's heart, so sublime is the creation. -

The varALi composition mAmava mInAkShi is a charming little piece as is shrI mInAkShi gauri in the rare rAga gauri.

 The mOhana song kAdambari priyAyai is also his tribute to the Goddess.

-

 Dikshitar also composed a series of eight songs on Minakshi. These are called the madhurAmba series. 

One of them is in the rare 46th mELa rAgA stavarAjam. The others are in devakriyA, dEsi simhAravam, bilahari, bEgaDa, kalyANi, aThANA and paraju 

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On Lord Somasundareswara, Dikshitar composed the song sOmasundarEshvaram in the rare rAga shuddha vasantA.


 As seen before, Madurai was the place where the Goddess, who was born to Malayadhwaja Pandya, married Lord Sundareswara. 

Maha Vishnu gave His sister, the Goddess in marriage. Therefore Vishnu too is important at Madurai. He is known as Azhagar in Tamil and as Sundararaja in Sanskrit.


 It is significant that the names of both Siva and Vishnu here contain the term 'sundara' meaning beauty. Lord Sundararaja has His temple about eight miles away from Madurai at Azhagar Koil, beautifully set at the foot of the Pazhamudirsholai hills, one of the six sacred abodes of Subramanya.


 True to the name given, the icon of Lord Vishnu is imposing and is a sculptural beauty. Dikshitar visited Azhagar Koil and composed the kAshirAmakriya song shrI sundararAjam.


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Tirupparankunram on the outskirts of Madurai is another of the six abodes of Subramanya connected with His marriage to Devayani. 

Dikshitar must have visited Tirupparankunram.

 Two compositions are attributed to this shrine,

 gajAmbA nAyakO in jhanjUTi and

 gajAdIshAdanyam in nATakurinji though there is no mention of the kShEtra in either song.

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The river Vaigai originates from a lake at what is now called Tekkadi in the western ghats and flows eastward through the very heart of Madurai city. On its banks is a temple for Vinayaka. In His praise, Dikshitar wrote the bilahari song 'Ekadantam bhajEham' referring to the temple being on the banks of the river Vaigai at Madurai. 

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The kriti sarasa souvIra in the rare rAga souvIra is said to have been composed by Muttuswami Dikshitar at the shrine of Pushpavaneswara in the village of Pushpavanam near Madurai.

.....It is said that once when Muttuswami Dikshitar was singing the kritis mInAkShi mEmudam and mAmava mInAkshi at the Madurai temple, the priests of the temple asked him as to where he hailed from. Dikshitar's disciple Tevur Subramania Iyer who had accompanied his guru told the priests that they were from Tiruvarur and that the composer of the kritis that they had just heard was the personage in front of them and that his name was Sri Muttuswami Dikshitar. The priests and other devotees after paying their respects to the great man then said that two musicians hailing from Tiruvarur had visited the temple a few times and that the elder of them, Chinnaswami Dikshitar had passed away and that the younger one, Baluswami Dikshitar, distressed at the loss, had gone on pilgrimage to Rameswaram. Dikshitar immediately decided to visit Rameswaram in order to meet his youngest brother. 

-RAMESWARAM

Situated about 100 miles from Madurai. The island is shaped like a conch and stands at the edge of the Palk Straits. The Bay of Bengal meets the Indian Ocean at Dhanushkoti, a few miles from Rameswaram. 

Rameswaram and its surrounding areas are popularly connected with the story of Sri Rama. It was from here that the Prince of Ayodhya marched to Sri Lanka to wage war against Ravana and rescue his Consort Sri Sita. After the victorious battle with Ravana, Sri Rama on his way back to Ayodhya, arrived at Rameswaram. 

 The Lord is Sri Ramanathaswamy (worshipped by Sri Rama) and the Goddess is Parvatavardhini. 

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 Muttuswami Dikshitar had darshan of the deities and composed the kAshirAmakriya kriti rAmanAtham bhajEham in praise of the Lord and parvatavardhani in sAma rAga in praise of the Goddess. 

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At the temple Dikshitar heard from certain people that Baluswami Dikshitar had visited Rameswaram and stayed for a few days and that he regularly sang at the shrine. They also told him that during this period, the Raja of Ettayapuram had visited Rameswaram and attracted by the music had requested Baluswami to accompany him to Ettayapuram which invitation the latter had accepted. Dikshitar was happy as he now knew the exact whereabouts of his brother. 


On the way, between Rameswaram and Ramanathapuram, is the village of Tiruppullani.


 This was where Sri Rama worshipped the Mother Goddess. The Prince of Ayodhya slept on a bed of grass and performed intense tapas in order to secure Her blessings for the success of his mission of rescuing Sri Sita. Hence the place is called Tiruppullani in Tamil or Darbhashayanam in Sanskrit. There is a beautiful temple to Sri Rama here. Offering worship to the Perumal, Dikshitar wrote the song 

srI rAmam ravikulAbdi sOmam in the rAga nArayaNagauLa.

Dikshitar continued his journey in the direction of Ettayapuram. One has to pass through extremely arid regions on the way. The entire territory is permanently drought affected. The earth is parched and rarely does one come across a shade giving tree. The situation has not changed over time.

 He then took some rest at a chatram where he espied a few priests who were discussing about a marriage to take place at Ettayapuram. Dikshitar enquired of them and discovered that Baluswami Dikshitar, who was now an AsthAna vidwAn of the Ettayapuram court was to get married and that they were on their way there. and said that they would be happy to take Dikshitar to Ettayapuram along with them. Thus, Dikshitar, his two wives and the earnest disciple Tevur Subramania Iyer who followed Dikshitar like a shadow, much like Lakshmana of Ramayana fame, accompanied the priests. 

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A few miles from Sattur, the party sat down at a grove for rest. Dikshitar was tired and thirsty. The owner of the grove after offering water to Dikshitar and attracted by the latter's divine mien, related the heartrending tale of the people of that region. For many years now there was scanty rain. The fields were parched and so were the throats of the people. Poverty and hunger were quite common. 

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 Then and there, Muttuswami Dikshitar created a new rAga and composed a song in it. In the song he appealed to the Mother Goddess to pour rain as amritA (amritEshwari salilam varShaya, varShaya, varShaya). Appropriately named, the rAga amritavarShiNi is Dikshitar's gift to the music world. 

 As Dikshitar prayed and sang 'AnandAmritAkarShiNi', the skies darkened accompanied by lightning and thunder. Rains poured to the happiness and satisfaction of the people of that area. 

Dikshitar and party continued their journey and reached Ettayapuram. 

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Muthuswami Dikshitar  attended  the  marriage  of  his  brother and  was  well  received  by  everyone  there.  After  the  marriage  function he  returned  to  Thiruvaaroor

=================================================He then visited Pazhani, the most famous hill abode of Lord Subramanya. Palani is about 120 k.m. from Madurai and nestles between the Kodaikanal hills and the Western Ghats of Kerala. It was to the hillock here that Lord Muruga repaired after a quarrel with his Divine Parents over a fruit that they gave to their elder son Vinayaka. 

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The beautiful Ananda bhairavi kriti danDAyudapANim is dedicated to Lord Subramanya here. Though the kriti does not directly refer to Palani, there are references to the kShEtra that place it as a song in praise of Lord Dandaydapani here. 

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 He was 50 years old now, spiritually ripe. His life's work was progressing well and was almost nearing completion. New disciples came and joined him to partake of the nectar of the divine art that he liberally bestowed upon the sincere, devoted student.


 A youngster, not more than 15 years old, came to Dikshitar with the desire to learn from him. Panchanada Iyer belonged to Sattanur near Tanjavur. Well versed in the Vedas and sAshtras, Panchanadam, nevertheless, was more interested in pursuing music. Panchanadam was Dikshitar's last and youngest disciple. He joined Dikshitar towards the end of the third decade of he 19th century. 


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During the late 1820s, Muthuswami Dikshitar's two wives left this world one after another. He now had no other commitments. He could spend all of his time for the rest of his life in spiritual contemplation.

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He received  an invitation from Ettayapuram for a wedding  function there and  so  left  for  Ettayapuram.


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 Dikshitar was received with great enthusiasm at Ettayapuram. The joy of the Rajah, Venkateswara Ettappa and his court was greater this time, as they knew that the composer had come to Ettayapuram for good. Some of Dikshitar's disciples like Tevur Subramania Iyer, Tirukkadayur Bharati and Sattanur Panchanada Iyer accompanied him and they too were received enthusiastically by the gentry of Ettayapuram. 


Dikshitar made use of his sojourn at Ettayapuram to visit nearby places of pilgrimage. Kankashaila or Kazhugamalai (the hill of the vulture) is on the road from Kovilpatti to Sankarankoil.

 Kazhugumalai is a huge rock about 300 feet high. The temple is a rock cut one, a cave temple, veTTuvAn kOvil, as they call it locally. It has beautiful sculptures adorning its inner walls and its dome. Lord Subramanya at Kazhugumalai is the tutelary deity of the Ettayapuram zamindars and the temple belongs to them. It was on this Lord that Dikshitar wrote the shuddha dhanyAsi composition '

subramaNyEna rakShitOham'.

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Dikshitar then visited Sankarankovil where both Siva and Vishnu give darshan as Sankaranarayana. Here Dikshitar wrote shankaranArAyaNam in the rare rAga nArAyaNa dEsAkShi. 

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The shore temple of Tiruchendur is the biggest for Lord Subramanya and it is one of the six main temples (paDai vIDu) for the Divine Son of Siva and Parvati. It is situated on the Bay of Bengal coast. The sUrasamhAram festival is very famous here. 

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 Dikshitar paid tribute to this deity in the tODi song 

'srI subramaNyO'. Herein he refers to the temple practice of giving vibhUti prasAdam on dry leaves to devotees. 

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Dikshitar then visited Tirunelveli where there is a big temple for Lord Siva as Nellaiyappar. On Nellaiyappar he wrote 'shAlivATIshvaram' in dEvagAndhAri.

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 On the Goddess here, he wrote the dEshi simhAravam piece

 shrI kAntimatim.


 Dikshitar is also supposed to have visited the nearby village of Kallidaikurichi and composed the AbhOgi song 

'shrI lakshmi varAham' in praise of Lord Vishnu who gives darshan here as varAhA, the boar. 


Accounts of Dikshitar's life say that he also visited Sabarimalai and Trivandrum and composed the songs 'hariharaputram' in vasantA on Sashta at the former shrine and 'pannagashayana' in madhyamAvati at the latter. 

Dikshitar returned to Ettayapuram. and passed  away  soon after.

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