muttusvAmi dIkshitar (was Re: navagraha worship ...)

[DEVARAKONDA VENKATA NARAYANA SARMA]

At 11:53 AM 4/9/98 PDT, Vidyasankar Sundaresan wrote:

>ps.2. to Ganesan and Sarma - It is very difficult to separate out
>Tamil/Kannada/Telugu elements in the Dikshitar families. The immediate
>family of Muttusvami Dikshitar hailed from Virinchipuram near
>Kanchipuram, where there is heavy Telugu influence. The family might
>have well been originally Telugu speakers. Govinda Dikshita, the father
>of Venkatamakhi, was a Kannada speaking Brahmin belonging to the Hoysala
>Karnataka group, who migrated to the Tanjavur region. Ramasvami
>Dishitar, Muttusvami's father, studied music with a descendent of
>Venkatamakhi. Syama Sastri, the other famous composer, belonged to the
>Telugu speaking dharmakartA family of the Kanchi Kamakshi temple. There
>was considerable inter-marriage among Kannada and Telugu Brahmin
>families which settled in Tamil Nadu during late Vijayanagara times.
>Their common Sanskritic heritage may have been more important to them
>than the other languages, and whether the correct spelling should be
>muttusvAmi or muddusvAmi is a moot point, although Telugu was certainly
>more fashionable then than Tamil.
>
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I want to set one record straight. The teacher of rAmaswAmi dIkSitar
in vocal music is the tanjAvur AsthAna vidvAn vIrbhadrayya, a telugu
man. rAmasvAmi dIkSitar learnt upto AlApana and pallavi svaras from him.
This fact is usally underplayed in taking about the musical tradition
of muddusvAmi dIkSitar.

> From the descendents of vEnkaTamakhi, rAmasvAmi dIkSitar learnt
musicology (chaturdanDi prakAzika) and vINa.

subbarAma dIkSitar in SSP says of vIrabhadrayya

"It is because of this great man that the southern musical tradition
is shining with great clarity till today."

regards,

sarma.