Cultural geography of Deekshitar's pilgrimages.
Chandra S. Balachandran, Instructor, Geography
a couple of years ago. I thought it might be of some interest to the readers
of this group. If anyone has any comments at all, I would appreciate hearing
from them. I would like to refine the paper with comments from the musically
educated. In earlier drafts, a musician by the name of Sriram Parasuram helped
a lot. Further comments are welcome. Many thanks.
NOTE: The paper has been edited for posting. I apologize for the chopping of
---- the right margins!
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Muttusvaami Deekshitar: An Exemplar of Indian Integration and an
Agent of Change through Music
By:
Chandra S. Balachandran
Surinder M. Bhardwaj
Department of Geography
Kent State University
Kent OH 44242
Presented at:
19th Annual Conference on South Asia
University of Wisconsin
Madison WI
[1 - 3 November 1990]
ABSTRACT
Spatio-cultural symbolisms of integration and harmony
abound in several aspects of Muttu-
svaami Deekshitar's life. His journeys from his home
in Tiruvaarur in the south to Vaaraa-
nasi in the north and back to his home is symbolic of
a culturally circuit pilgrimage impor-
tant in Hinduism as the motif of circumambulation of s
acred space as well as the circularity
of life in the phenomenal world. His studies of Hindustani
music at Vaaraanasi, and their
diffusion through his and his students' efforts in southern
and southwestern India evidence
his role as an active agent of cultural diffusion. His
devotion to Siva, Vishnu, and the
Goddess and his corresponding pilgrimage to Vaaraanasi,
Tirupati, and Madurai eloquently
speak of his effort and ability to harmonize cultural
traditions through spatial symbolic
anchors. His songs composed in the vilambit (slow tempo),
in praise of the saguna and
nirguna, and the male and female deities, reflect a calm
syncretism, symbolic of cultural
integration, rather than an emotional outburst of national
or regional conviction. In the India
of the late 18th and early 19th centuries (the era of
British ascendancy ), his music
expresses conjunction, convergence, confluence, and harmony.
The religious context in
which Muttusvaami Deekshitar transformed and diffused
his musical genius, his songs and
his tunes, provided a mechanism linking linguistically
disparate and politically unsettled
regions of a fragmented India. His genius illustrates
the ability of cultural forms to tran-
scend many types of physical and linguistic barriers,
thus offering a reasonable testimony to
the enduring cultural empathies, even similarities, of
the otherwise regionally differentiated
India.
I INTRODUCTION
India's cultural diversity is quite well-known. Yet,
there is a unifying consciousness that
seems to underlie that diversity. That unifying consciousness
that provides the Indianness
to the diverse cultural patterns there provides the theme upon
which there are myriad
variations. That unifying theme, or consciousness, has endured
over the long history of
Indian culture in large part because there have arisen, time
and again, personalities who
acted as integrators of the diverse cultural mosaic without
impairing the diversity itself --
rather, they made patent (and promoted) the latent unity in
the diversity. This integrative
work was done not as a poetical mission, but rather through
the propagation of values,
beliefs, ideas, and motifs transcending the narrower identities
of caste, creed, and region.
In the scriptures, one reads of integrators in the form of
sages, wandering minstrels (also in
the recent past), kings, and so forth. Even in recent
history, several such personalities can
be identified as cultural integrators. Examples of such
integrators would include Sankara (c.
8th cent. AD), Purandaradaasa (1450-1564), Mahaaraaja
Svaati Tirunaal (1813-1846), and
many wandering poet-saints among whom Muttusvaami Deekshitar
(1775-1434), the subject
of this paper, is one.
In the next, the second, section, we present a brief biography
of Deekshitar and some of the
influences that shaped his personality. Following that,
in the third section, we deal with the
pilgrimages he undertook and place these in the context
of contemporary cultural patterns in
the parts he traveled. We also present a brief treatment
of places he visited and the songs he
composed at each. The fourth section is an analysis of
the significance of his pilgrimages as
integrative journeys. In the fifth section, we present
some conclusions on the significance of
Deekshitar's influence as an integrator. We conclude
this section, and the paper, with a plea
and some suggestions for a research agenda to bring out
themes similar to the ones in this
paper, and other themes as well, that can make significant
contributions to cultural geograph-
ic studies in, and of, India.
II A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF MUTTUSVAAMI DEEKSHITAR
Professor V. Raghavan (now deceased) has made a very comprehensive
study of Muttu-
svaami Deekshitar's life. Our summary here is based on
Raghavan's work (1975).
Muttusvaami Deekshitar was born into a devout family steeped
in Indian and Hindu culture
and traditions. His forefathers were redoubtable scholars
in the Sanskrit language, and
Hindu scripture, philosophy, and mythology. The family
belonged to the smaarta group of
brahmins, a saiva sect (i.e. worshippers of Siva). Muttusvaami
Deekshitar's parents
Raamaswaamy Deekshitar and his wife Subbulakshmi, of Tiruvaarur,
observed many
austerities at Vaidyesvarankoil, a nearby pilgrimage spot,
and prayed to their family deity,
Kumaara -- called Muddukumaarasvaami at Vaidyesvarankoil,
and whose temple is
located there -- for children. Soon after their return
to Tiruvaarur, they had a son who was
christened Muttusvaami, after the family deity whose blessing
he was believed to be. The
couple also later had two other sons and a daughter.
In his early life, Muttusvaami Deekshitar received much
training in music, the scriptures,
etc. from his father. After several years in Tiruvaarur,
the Deekshitar family moved to
Manali, near Madras. At Manali, they came into contact
with some western musical
traditions dur to the presence of the East India Company
and their contact with people
associated with the Company. One of Muttusvaami Deekshitar's
brothers learned to play the
violin and introduced its use in southern Indian music.
Muttusvaami Deekshitar himself
composed Sanskrit lyrics for 37 different English airs,
including one for God save the
King.
After a few years' stay at Manali, Muttusvaami Deekshitar
joined a sage (by the name of
Chidambaranaatha Yogin) on a pilgrimage to Vaaraanasi,
where he stayed for five years.
During that time, he learned Hindustani (northern Indian)
music, and also obtained much
metaphysical training from his guru (preceptor), the sage.
Much of this training is evident
in the lyrics of his songs. Legend has it that when the
time came for the teacher and
Muttusvaami Deekshitar to part, the teacher asked Muttusvaami
Deekshitar to reach into the
waters of the Ganga and accept whatever he found as a
blessing. When Muttusvaami
Deekshitar did so, he found a veena (a lute-like stringed
instrument).
It must be noted here that the veena has a very deep significance
as a symbol of music and
naadopaasana (worship through music) in the Hindu ethos.
The Hindu deity Sarasvati (the
Goddess of Learning) is always depicted as having a veena
in her hands.
III THE PILGRIMAGES
When, after his five-year residence in Vaaraanasi, Muttusvaami
Deekshitar returned to the
south, he visited the shrine of Kumaara (the Deekshitars'
family deity) in Tiruttani. It is
said that while Muttusvaami Deekshitar sat in deep contemplation,
all alone in the temple, an
old man appeared before him, put some sugar candy in his
mouth, and disappeared into the
sanctum sanctorum. Muttusvaami Deekshitar believed that
this was a vision of none other
than Kumaara Himself, who is also called Guha in the scriptures.
Thereupon, Muttusvaami
Deekshitar composed his first song in which saluted Guha
as his Guru, and thenceforth all
his songs bear the stamp of authorship: guru guha. He
further went on to compose a series
of eight songs on Guha using one of the eight Sanskritic
declensions of the word guha in
each song.
From that stage, Muttusvaami Deekshitar began his pilgrimages
in earnest, having accumu-
lated much metaphysical enlightenment, and training in
the art of playing the veena and
singing. He had already adopted the vow of voluntary
impecuniousness in life. Soon
thereafter, the Deekshitar family moved back to Tiruvaarur,
visiting several shrines (Kanchi,
Tiruvannamalai, Chidambaram, and Vaidyesvarankoil) en route.
Muttusvaami Deekshitar
stayed at Tiruvaarur for many years, composing several
songs in salutation to the several
deities in the temples of the town and nearby shrines
as well (the detailed sequence of travels
will be discussed in Section III below). Muttusvaami
Deekshitar lived in Kumbhakonam for
a while as well, because it was (and still is) a city
of many temples, and visited the local and
nearby shrines. Then he moved to Tanjaavur where he stayed
for several ;years continuing
his pilgrimage to local and nearby shrines. Tanjaavur
was the capital of the Mahratta rulers
who were great patrons of the various arts, including
music. It was also this region where
Syaama Saastri (1762-1827) and Tyaagaraaja (17671847),
the other two of the musical
trinity of southern Indian music lived contemporaneously
with Muttusvaami Deekshitar. It
is said that he has met Saastri and, perhaps, Tyaagaraaja
as well. Furthermore, Tanjaavur
city and surrounding area was a region of many temples,
many of which Muttusvaami
Deekshitar visited.
The next pilgrimage destination for Muttusvaami Deekshitar
(although there seems to be
some doubt about whether he went there directly from Tanjaavur
or returned to Tiruvaarur
first for a while) was Tiruchchiraapalli (called Trichinopoly
by the British), where he visited
several temples. Next on the list was Raamesvaram on the
sea-coast where Raama (an
incarnation of Vishnu) is said to have worshipped Siva,
and is an important place of
pilgrimage for anyone who has gone on pilgrimage to Vaaraanasi.
Many devout pilgrims
bring the holy water from the Ganga and pour it on the
Sivalinga at Raamesvaram to
symbolize Siva's acceptance of the holy river in his matted
locks.
En route to Raamesvaram, he visited many shrines. Thence,
hearing that one of his brothers
had gone to Ettaiyapuram at the invitation of the king
there, he proceeded there. On the
way, he visited several shrines where he composed songs,
as was his wont.
Having reached Ettaiyapuram, Muttusvaami Deekshitar and
his brother lived under the
patronage of the king for several years. (Muttusvaami
Deekshitar, in accordance with his
vow never to glorify a mortal in his music, never composed
any song praising his patrons).
He visited several other pilgrimage centers including some
in the modern state of Kerala, and
eventually returned to Ettaiyapuram. Here on deepaavali
(the Festival of Lights day in
1834, he passed away -- his passing, too, is said to have
been surrounded by supernatural
phenomena.
IV THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MUTTUSVAAMI DEEKSHITAR'S PILGRIMAGES
Here, we choose to interpret Muttusvaami Deekshitar's move
to Manali as his first pilgrim-
age, because it was significant as an example of cultural
integration in Muttusvaami Deekshi-
tar's composition of Sanskrit lyrics for English Airs.
This integration of two very different
styles of music provides one testimony to the ability of
Muttusvaami Deekshitar to introduce
a different tradition to the existing tradition of southern
Indian music.
Muttusvaami Deekshitar's second pilgrimage was to Vaaraanasi,
the primeval city of Siva,
with his guru. It is a place important to the Saivites,
but here one also sees the scriptural
story of Siva declaring that the name of Raama uttered at
the moment of one's passing, at
Vaaraanasi, will lead to one's release from the cycle of
births and deaths. Vaaraanasi has
long been the center of much Hindu learning, and of the
rich tradition of Hindustani
(northern Indian style) music. Here, Muttusvaami Deekshitar
was introduced to both. Study
of Hindustani music at the sacred complex of Vaaraanasi
must have been a profound
experience for Muttusvaami Deekshitar because he could
have experienced the difference
between the two regional cultural traditions first hand,
and then propagate them together,
within the context of a culturally divided India. In his
pilgrimage to Vaaraanasi, the
foundations in music that he brought with him from the
south made it quite easy for him to
learn and adapt the northern systems. It was here, quite
close to Nepal, that he also
obtained much training in Tantric worship, and Advaitic
(non-dualist) philosophy. Further-
more, the obtaining of the veena from the river Ganga,
whether fact or legend, has signifi-
cance: first, the Ganga is steeped in Hindu scriptural
tradition as arising from the feet of
Vishnu, and being contained in the matted locks on Siva's
head before being released
gradually to the earth as the ever-pure, ever-purifying
Mother Ganga. Second, the veena's
identification with the Goddess of Learning, and with
worship through music add to the
significance and symbolism of Deekshitar's pilgrimage
to Vaaraanasi. He thus literally
carried one major regional tradition to the other parts
of India.
Muttusvaami Deekshitar's third pilgrimage may be seen
as the one back to the south with the
first stop at Tiruttani. Here, the occurrence of his
formal (divine) initiation into naadopaa-
sanaa begins the first of his compositions where:
1.the ethos of a place brings about a musical outpouring
of an inner, deep spiritual experi-
ence, and
2.this musical outpouring ties the within (spiritual
place) to the place without (physical
place).
Thus, the songs pertain to specific deities at shrines
which he visited, bringing out a spiritual
dimension of the place -- a dimension in which his inner
view of the place in its divine
aspect, and the actual physical place where the ethos
draws froth his talent, fuse in lilting
lyrics. Thus, we see the elicitation of person-person
relationships in Muttusvaami Deekshi-
tar's compositions.
Every song of Muttusvaami Deekshitar can exemplify this,
but two examples will suffice;
here. In a song of prayer to the goddess Meenaakshi,
in Madurai (Tamil Nadu), he sings of
her: O, Meenaakshi, bless me, thou who dwellest in the
city of Madhuraa (Madurai). In
the same song he sings of her as the acme of non-dual
(advaitic) existence, characterizing as:
the measurer, the measured, and the measurement" -- i.e.,
the actor, the acted-upon, and
the action. He also sings of her as, therefore, being
the one who breaks the shackles of
bondage (to things mundane) -- the goddess although in
the world, not of it, and enabling
devotees to shed their shackles: the worship of her at
this place (Madurai), releasing a
devotee from the spatio-temporal conditioning of mundane
existence. The primordial energy,
in Hindu mythology is characterized as being Sakti, the
Mother Goddess, one of whose
forms is Meenaakshi whose most famous temple is in Madurai.
In that song, he also
characterizes her as: the daughter of the Paandya king ,
and the creator of ten notes on the
veena. In these lines, he brings out the mythological
tradition of the place,and the worship
of the primordial energy through the sounds of the veena.
He infuses the place with
meaning, thus glorifying the deity, and then glorifies
the place permeated by the goddess.
This evocation of the spiritual and the physical is an
important message.
The second example is the song he sang at Saattur, an
area located in a drought-prone semi-
arid region. When Deekshitar visited Saattur, the place
was in the grip of a severe drought.
The local people, hearing about the holy man visiting
the local temple, went to him and
entreated him to pray for rain, on their behalf, since
his prayers would be more potent.
Thereupon, Muttusvaami Deekshitar is said to have composed
and sung a song in a raaga
called Amrtavarshini (literally, she who causes a rain
of ambrosia ) addressing Sakti (also
the deity of that temple) as One who bestows the rain
of ambrosia of joy divine. The song
concludes with a prayer to Sakti: I meditate upon Thee
always, Goddess of Immortality,
pour forth the rains, pour forth, pour forth. Legend
has it that soon there were heavy
rains. In fact, after a while, there was fear amongst
the local people that the rains were too
much. When they went to Muttusvaami Deekshitar again
and expressed their concern that
the rains must stop now or else there would be massive
destruction in the area, Muttusvaami
Deekshitar sang the self-same song merely substituting
in the last line one word which made
the concluding prayer read: I meditate upon Thee always,
Goddess of Immortality, stop the
rains, stop, stop. Then, the rains stopped. This incident
is symbolic of the integration of
the physical environment with the benevolence of divine
spirit, not to mention his compas-
sion for the people who were suffering. Through this
composition, Muttusvaami Deekshitar
brings out both the pathos of the famine-ravaged people
and land, and the necessity of human
endeavor to influence the superhuman forces to show their
benevolence.
Deekshitar's training in northern Indian music was evident
in the whole new genre of lyrical
compositions that he launched when he eventually returned
to the south and made his first
important pilgrimage to Tiruttani. He brought the concept
of slow-moving (vilambit)
compositions, and also the mixing of this with the fast-
moving (dhrupad) in the same
composition, to southern Indian music. Several raagas
(e.g. Jaijaivanti, Imaan, Yaman-
kalyan) were introduced to southern Indian music with or
without a change of name, because
he composed songs in these raagas. (A raaga is not preserved
as easily in its abstract form
as in a lyrical composition set tot that raaga.) The
vilambit mode of his songs also appear to
be logical because he sang to the accompaniment of his
veena, an instrument especially
amenable to slow-moving compositions. Thus, we have an
embodied preservation of the
raagas that he brought with him from the northern, Hindustani
tradition in the context of
deities located in southern India.
Through his compositions, he worships Siva, Vishnu, and
Sakti (in spite of his own ishta-
devata, chosen deity, being Kumaara). In each case, the
compositions were connected with
important pilgrimage centers for each deity -- mainly
Vaaraanasi, Tirupati, and Madurai.
This symbolizes the integrative, syncretistic motif in
his pilgrimages. It is this non-sectarian,
transcendental endeavor expressed through his music th
at gives Muttusvaami Deekshitar the
non-exclusive, typically Indian personality.
It is indicative of integration in yet another way. In
the Hindu religion, Vishnu and Siva
represent the sustenance and dissolution aspects of existence
respectively. The Mother
Goddess represents the primordial energy which is subsumed
by the Siva and Vishnu princi-
ples. The composition of songs on these three principal
deities of the Hindu pantheon
harmonizes the otherwise different principles expressed
in the form of Siva, Vishnu, and
Sakti. In his ecclesiastical lyrical worship of all three
aspects, Muttusvaami Deekshitar
freely enjoys the union of these principles within himself
as a result of his advaitic training
and practice. These again, are brought out in his songs.
For example, in a song to the
Mother Goddess he says of her: One to whom Vishnu and
Siva bow (Sankara Murthy,
1989, p. 23, song no. 59).
Muttusvaami Deekshitar's south to north and north to south
physical pilgrimage symbolized a
continuous flow -- a circulation of ideas between what
otherwise are distinct regional
cultures. In his compositions, he provides details pertaining
to that location, such as:
significant geographic detail(s) (e.g.: ... She who dwells
on the banks of the pure Taamra-
parni... -- song to Sakti at Tirunelveli; ...He who
influences the Paandya and Kerala
regions... : -- song to Ayyappan at Sabari Malai, Kerala;
..Lord of the city of Guru and
Vaayu... -- song to Krshna at Guruvaayur, Kerala), the
name of the king/dynasty associated
with the region (e.g.: ...Daughter of the Paandya king...
-- song to Meenaakshi at Madu-
rai), rituals performed at the shrine (e.g.: ...He who
is pleased by the sounds of the flute
and ... other instruments... -- song to Ayyappan at Sabari
Malai, Kerala), mythological
traditions (e.g.: ...He who is pleased by offerings of
sesame seeds... -- song to Saturn), or
metaphysical symbols/symbolisms associated with that deity
(e.g.: ...She who dwells in the
Source Chakra... -- song to Sakti). Thus, through his
compositions, Muttusvaami Deek-
shitar has facilitate the circulation of cultural motifs
between places -- especially because
many people who have learned his compositions sing the
song(s) he composed for the deity
at a specific place when they go to that shrine even today.
V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
We have sought to discuss the significance of Muttusvaami
Deekshitar's pilgrimages, from a
cultural geography viewpoint, for spatio-cultural integration.
His journey from his native
Tiruvaarur to Vaaraanasi and back, and then his further
pilgrimages in southern India are not
only symbolic of a culturally integrative circuit pilgrimage,
but have also produced concrete
examples of the method in which this integration took place,
namely lyrical compositions at
each of the places he visited. His pilgrimages were not
motivated by a patent, conscious
desire for achieving the spatio-cultural integration which
we see, rather it was a result of a
deep-seated consciousness which encompassed the physical
and spiritual place enabling him
to experience the unity of the physical place with the
divine place.
Muttusvaami Deekshitar made use of the existing intellectual
space in India by visiting its
several nodes, centers of pilgrimage, and affirmed the
common cultural circulation manifold.
He enriched that system, through his eloquent evocation
of sanctity in the physical attributes
of the sacred places he visited. Each holy place to him
was completely penetrated by the
qualities of the presiding deity. Thus he transformed
places from their physical entities to
symbols of the holiness, the benevolence, the might, and
the awe of the spirit. Important as
the physical reality of the holy place, its location, its
landscape, its water, its forests were,
more important to Deekshitar was the beauty of the deity
it reflected. Place by itself was
meaningful only in so far as it symbolized the divine;
it was solely in reference to what it
spiritually symbolized.
His work clearly brings out the importance of, and makes
patent, the latent unity in the
cultural diversity of India. This occurs with every pilgrim
who crosses cultural boundaries
in India, but in some cases such as that of Muttusvaami
Deekshitar, we find a remarkable
corpus of work that becomes a legacy for many generations
to experience and enjoy.
Clearly, as we mentioned at the outset, Muttusvaami Deekshitar
is not the only integrator of
this type. He is one of a class which includes Sankara,
Purandaradaasa, Mahaaraaja Svaati
Tirunaal, and many others. Just to take the example of
the three names just mentioned:
Sankara traveled in many parts of India and has composes
several hymns in Sanskrit which
bear a lot of study by cultural geographers. Purandaradaasa
was one of the many of his ilk
who went on pilgrimages to many places in southern India,
and he too has composed many
songs which have place-specific references. Mahaaraaja
Svaati Tirunaal's work is very
interesting -- he was a king who achieved much integration
by bringing the diverse cultural
motifs together in his own capital city (Tiruvanantapuram).
The literacy and musical works
these persons have left behind can yield much useful insight
into understanding the unifying
message underlying the diversity of the Indian ethos.
These are worth much study by
cultural geographers.
REFERENCES
1.Iyengar, R. Rangaramanuja. (1975). Sri Kiruti Mani
Malai. (Part 4). Saparmati,
Madras, India.
2.Murthy, M. R. Sankara. (1989). Muthuswamy Dikshitar's
Sahitya Manjari. Part I.
Guru Guha Gana Nilaya, Bangalore, India.
3.Raghavan, V. (1975). Muttusvami Dikshitar. National
Centre for the Performing Arts,
Bombay, India.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
----------------
Help rendered by Jonathan Durr, Kent State University, and Sriram
Parasuram, University of Akron in the preparetion of this paper is
gratefully acknowledged.
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