| Muthuswamy Dikshitar(1776-1835)
Muthuswami Dikshitar,belonging to the famous Trinity of Karnatic Music was born in Tiruvrur of Tamilnadu.He attained proficiency in Sanskrit,Vedas and playing Veena in his early life.He wrote his first composition on Guru Guha at Tiruttani.He had a penchant for Sanskrit language and composed his first song in first declension(Vibhakti) followed by kritis in all the eight Vibhaktis.At Tiruvarur he composed Kamalamba Navavarnas.He also composed Navagraha kritis in praise of planets in scholarly Sanskrit.He has the unique credit of composing in all seven basic Talas.Dance Gurus from Tanjavur learnt intricasies of music from him and they paid tribute to him by composing Navaratnamala.He was the author of krutis in Manipravalam a mixture of Sanskrit,Tamil and Telugu.
Dikshitar had the opportunity of listening to Western Music at St.George Fort,Madras which made him introduce Violin to Karnatic music.He and his brother Balaswamy used to play duet on Veena and Violin.On the request of Col.Brown the author of Telugu-English Dictionary,he composed a number of songs in Sanskrit with western tunes.(Eg.God Save the King-santatam pahimam sangita syamale).
Chidambaranatha yogi their family Guru took him to Kasi where he was very well exposed to spiritualism.Final gesture by his Guru was presentation of Veena by Goddess Ganga in his presence.He also got familiarised with Hindusthani style of music there.It is evident in his Brundavani Sarang compositions etc.Dikshitar enriched Karnatic music with hundreds of Krutis in praise of several deities at different holy places.Singing his Krutis well, is definitely a challenge to even stalwarts in music.
Dikshitar spent even the last hours of his life in engrossing himself in the sublime music.He asked his diciples to sing'Minakshi mudam dehi'and breathed his last while listening to 'Meena lochani pasa mochani'(Minakshi, whose eyes are fish shaped snaps away the worldly attachments).
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