(b Tiruvarur, Tamil Nadu, 24 March 1776; d Ettayapuram, Tamil Nadu, 21 October 1835). South Indian composer and musician. He was a member of the Karnatak trimūrti (‘trinity’) of singer-saints (see also Tyāgarāja and Śyāma Śāstri). Unlike the other two composers of the ‘trinity’, Muttusvāmi Dīksitar was born into a musical family. While he was still young his parents took him to Manali, an estate outside Madras, where his father, Rāmasvāmi Dīksitar, had been asked to perform. It was there that Muttusvāmi received his first training in vīnā and vocal music from his father. At the age of 15 he accompanied a yogī on a pilgrimage to Varanasi, where he remained for five years. This period in the North is said to account for his long and serious compositions, which may be influenced by dhrupad. He is known as a bhakta of Devi and Subrahmanya, whose darśan as an old man inspired his first kriti ‘Śrī nātadhi guruguha’ in rāga Māyāmālavagaula (from which he took his mudrā, ‘signature’). Like the other two members of the ‘trinity’ he refused to sing at court and, on occasion, he lived in poverty. His two brothers were also accomplished musicians, and the youngest, Balasvāmi Dīksitar, was the first to use the Western violin to perform Karnatak music. The musicologist Subbarāma Dīksitar, author of the Sangīta-sampradāya-pradarśinī, was the grandson of the second brother, Cinnasvāmi.
Whereas Tyāgarāja's and Śyāma Śāstri's compositions were largely in Telugu, Muttusvāmi Dīksitar is noted for his Sanskrit texts. He composed at least 600 pieces, most of them kriti, and like Tyāgarāja used a great many different rāga. His frequent use of ornamentation, corresponding to that of the vīnā, shows the influence of his early training on the instrument. Muttusvāmi Dīksitār's kriti display a virtuoso grasp of rāga, and two of them are famous as rāgamālikā, one containing 10, the other 14, sequences of different rāga. Other outstanding compositions include: the sequence of nine kriti, Navagraha, one to each of the nine planets; the group of 11 kriti known as Kamalāmbā navāvaranam, in praise of the goddess; and his eight kriti in praise of Śrī Tyāgarājasvāmi, sung at the temple in Tiruvarur.
P. Sambamurthy: Great Composers, i (Madras, 1962)
The Music Academy, Madras: Sri Muttuswami Dikshitar Bi-Centenary Conference [49th Conference Souvenir, 1975]
T.S. Parthasarathy, ed.: The Musical Heritage of Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar (Bombay and Baroda, 1976/R)
MARIA LORD