Sri Kamalamba Nava Aavarana Kritis

Out of his devotion to Sri Kamalamba, (one of the 64 Sakti Peethams in India), the celebrated deity at the famous Tyagaraja Temple in Tiruvarur and his compassion for all bhaktas, Sri Muthuswamy Dikshitar composed the Kamalamba Navavarana kritis, expounding in each of the nine kritis, the details of the each avarana of the Sri Chakra, including the devatas and the yoginis. Singing these kritis with devotion, sraddha and understanding would be the easy way to Sri Vidya Upasana.

Kamala is one of the ten maha vidyas, the principle deities of the Shaktha tradition of Tantra. But, the Sri Kamalamba referred to by Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar in this set of kritis, is the Supreme Divine Mother herself. The immediate inspiration to Dikshitar was, of course, Sri Kamalamba (regarded one of the sixty-four Shakthi centers), the celebrated deity at the famous temple of Sri Tyagaraja and Sri Nilothpalambika in Tiruvavur.

Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar follows the Smahara krama, the absorption path, of Sri Chakra puja and proceeds from the outer avarana towards the Bindu in the ninth avarana at the center of the Sri Chakra. At each avarana, he submits his salutation and worships the presiding deity, the yogini (secondary deity) and the attendant siddhis of that avarana; and describes the salient features of the avarana according to the Kadi School of the Dakshinamurthy tradition of Sri Vidya. It is in effect both worship and elucidation.

Dikshitar had developed a fascination for composing a series of kritis on a composite theme, perhaps in an attempt to explore the various dimensions of the subject. In some of these, he employed all the eight Vibhaktis, the various cases that delineate a noun.He also composed a series of kritis in a set of ragas, all ending with the same suffix (e.g.Gaula). No other composer has attempted so many group kritis in such a planned, orderly, meticulous fashion.

The Kamalamba Navavarana Kritis by Shri Muthuswami Dikshitar (1776-1836) are some of the most famous pieces of music in the Carnatic system of Indian classical music. They are treasures which embody not only the technical brilliance of the composer but also offer a peep into the advaitic school of Hindu philosophy and elements of Tantric rituals. They are very elaborate compositions which may be well compared with major symphonies in the Western system.

These songs are set in praise of the Goddess Kamalamba who is enshrined in Tiruvarur in the Tanjore district of Tamil Nadu in South India. The Goddess is the reference to the Divine Mother of the universe, or the Supreme Consciousness. The lyrics and the descriptive details are loaded with the mystical symbolism of the Vedantic (advaita) tradition and the chakras of the human system are closely linked to the evolutionary aspects described in the compositions that reflect the scholarly reach, musical depth and mystical significance of the composer.

Musically, they are par excellence and the majestic sweep of well known ragas (melodic forms) like Todi, Kalyani, Kambhoji, Sankarabharanam, Sahana, Anandabhairavi and Bhairavi are offset against haunting melodies in lesser known ragas like Punnagavarali, Ghanta and Ahiri.

Dikshitar uses several talas (time measures) although Rupakam (3 beats) seems to be his favourite. Ata talam (14 beats) and Misra Jampa (10 beats) in the Kambhoji and Bhairavi pieces are rarely used because of the technical difficulty in executing these. The Dhyana (invocatory) kriti in Todi is in the vocative case, followed by the Anandabhairavi in the nominative, Kalyani in the accusative, Sankarabharanam in the instrumental, Kambhoji in the dative, Bhairavi in the ablative and so on. The ninth avarana kriti in Ahiri has all the cases; interestingly the raga itself has all the 22 Sruti (notes) in the octave. Indeed the Ahiri composition is very unusual musically especially the pallavi which has a repeating and distinctive prose sections are seamlessly put together.

It is customary, as a prelude to Kamalamba Navavarana group of kritis, to invoke Maha Ganapathi and Lord Subrahmanya by singing Shri Mahaganapathivaratu mam (Gaula) followed by Balasubrahmanyam Bhaje (Surati). Thus the vocal tradition of the Kamalamba Navavarana has a set of thirteen kritis. The core kritis are however the nine relating to nine avaranas of Sri Chakra.

The Dhyana kriti Kamalambike_ashrita_kalpa_lathike is composed in Raga Todi (Rupaka); while the concluding Mangala kriti Shri_Kamalambike is in the auspicious Shri Raga. The Dhyana kriti in Todi does not bear the customary Raga_mudra, the name of its Raga.

For the core nine kritis sang in worship of the Navavaranas of Sri Chakra, Dikshitar employed eleven different Ragas and eight different Vibhakthis (case endings denoting the noun) of Sanskrit grammar; and for the ninth avarana kriti he employs a garland of all the eight Vibhakthis.

As regards the Raga-mudra, a distinctive feature of Dikshitar’s compositions, the kritis in Anandabhairavi (first avarana), and shankarabharaaam (third avarana) indicate their Ragas only partially (the word “Ananda” for the former, and shankara for the latter). The kambhoji, Sahana, and Ahiri compositions have their Raga mudras hidden within complex phrases. In all the other kritis, the Raga mudra is explicit.

The more you deep dive to this concept, like one gets lost in gardens of Oxford, you would be lost in trance. Such is its power and vast knowledge to be acquired.

One who takes proper steps, with right Guru or Teacher, would definitely enjoy this travel path.