Shodasha Ganapathi kritis of Muthuswamy Dikshitar

Shodasha Ganapathi kritis of Muthuswamy Dikshitar

Muthuswamy Dikshitar, one of the musical trinity in Carnatic music, is a prolific composer. Many of his compositions have deep implications in mythology, puranas, mantras and tantras. A good appreciation of his compositions is hard unless a person is well conversant with mythology, puranas etc.

Prof.Sambhamurthi, the well-known musicologist, refers to the Dikshitar kritis as ‘narikela’. That means one has to break open the hard shell of coconut to enjoy the sweet and tasty coconut kernel.

Dikshitar has used Sanskrit as the medium for his compositions, with ‘guruguha’ as his mudra. He is the master in building rhyming words, alliterations etc. These aspects will be pointed out later.

Among the Hindu pantheon of Gods, Lord Ganesha or Ganapathi enjoys the privileged position, as He is supposed to commence a ritual or a function without obstacles. Therefore, it has been the practice to start the first music lessons in geetam ‘Sri Gananatha sindhuravarna’ and ‘Lambodara lakumikara’ composed by Purandara Dasa- the Carnatic music pithamaha as a prayer to Ganapathi.

Many vaggeyakaras or composers have composed kritis on Ganapathi, but Muthuswami Dikshitar has devoted a large number of kritis in praise of Ganapathi. Sixteen forms of Ganapathi are enshrined in the Tyagaraja Temple in Tiruvarur. Muthuswamy Dikshitar, having born and lived in Tiruvarur, has composed a kriti on each of these forms. In fact, there are more than sixteen vigrahas of Ganapathi in the Tiruvarur temple. Some of the Ganapathi temples are located in other towns. Consequently, there are other kritis by Dikshitar besides the sixteen which are in praise of Lord Ganapathi. Actually, there are 27 Dikshitar kritis on Ganapathi, out of which 16 kritis are the shodasha kritis, as the name suggests.

The shodasha (16) forms of Ganapathi are Bala, Taruna, Bhakti, Veera, Shakti, Dwija, Siddhi, Uchishta, Vighna, Kshipra, Heramba, Lakshmi, Maha, Vijaya, Nritta and Urdhava.

Other forms of Ganapathi, Dikshitar mentions are Rakta, Sweta, Ekadanta, Lambodara and Dhundi.

A list of kritis is appended below.

No	Kriti	Raga	Tala
1*	Uchishta Ganapathim	Kasiramakriya	Adi
2	Eka dantam	Bilahari	M.Chapu
3	Gajananayutam	Vegavahini	Ch.Eka
4*	Gananayakam	Rudrapriya	Adi
5*	Ganarajena	Arabhi	M.Chapu
6*	Ganesha kumara	Jenjuti (Chenjuruti)	Ch.Eka
7	Karikalabha	Saveri	Rupakam
8*	Panchamatanga	Malahari	Rupakam
9*	Maha ganapatim	Nata	M.Chapu
10*	Maha ganapatim	Todi	Rupakam
11*	Maha ganapathe	Natanarayani	Adi
12	Rakta ganapathim	Mohana	Adi
13	Lambodaraya	Varali	K.Chapu
14*	Vallabha nayakasya	Begada	Rupakam
15*	Vatapi Ganaptim	Hamsadhwani	Adi
16	Vamanga stita	Athana	K.Eka
17	Vinayaka	Vegavahini	Rupakam
18	Shakti sahita	Sankarabharanam	Tisra Eka
19	Sweta ganapatim	Choodamani	Triputa
20*	Siddhi vinayakam	Chamaram (Shanmughapriya)	Rupakam
21*	Hastivadanaya	Navaroj	M.Chapu
22	Sri Gananatham	Eshamanohari	Rupakam
23	Sri Ganeshatparam	Ardhadesi	Jampa
24*	Sri Mahaganapatira vatu mam	Gowla	Triputa
25*	Sri Muladhara	Sri	Adi
26*	Vighneshwaram	Malahari	Adi
27*	Herambhaya	Athana	Rupakam

The numbers with * denote shodasha kritis.

We shall just touch upon some literary and technical points of interest in the shodasha kritis.

For example, ‘Vatapi ganapathim’ in raga Hamsadhwani is the most popular among Dikshitar’s Ganapathi kritis. The kriti has 3 parts - pallavi, anupallavi and charanam with madhyamakala sahityas in both anupallavi and charanam. In this kriti, the word ‘muladhara kshetra’ refers to Tiruvarur. Dikshitar’s mastery in building rhymes and alliterations can be seen in the following words-

Vitaraginam Vinuta yoginam

Vishwakaranam Vighna varanam

Vinayaka vighnanashaka (the Vegavahini kriti) is not sung often. In the anupallavi, there are lilting words like dakshaka and shikshaka, ravi and sasi and rati and pati, which are interesting.

An unusal feature in some Dikshitar kritis is having samasti charanam, which means anupallavi is omitted. In the kriti, “Mahaganapathe palayashumam”, no anupallavi is used. The kriti has only the pallavi and charanam. An uncommon raga, Natanarayani, is used for the above kriti. Generally speaking ragas like Todi are seldom used for Ganapathi kritis, but Dikshitar has chosen Todi for his kriti ‘Mahaganapathi’.

Being a vainika himself, Dikshitar’s compositions reflect ample use of gamakas, which is characteristic of veena playing. He is noted for using raga-mudras for all his compositions, barring a few. The above features can be seen in the Ganapathi kritis too.