Guru Guha Vaibhavam: Dikshitar Kritis

The grammatical term Vibhakti means “variations” and refers to the various forms that a noun can take. These are called “cases” or “case endings” in languages like Latin and “VEttrumai” (வேற்றுமை) or “VEttrumai urubugal” (வேற்றுமை உருபுகள்) in Tamil.

English does not have the concept of “case endings” as it a non-inflectional language. In English, prepositions such as by, for, from, in etc., serve the same need.

There are eight Vibhaktis in Sanskrit, of which the eighth is only a sub-category of the first one. So we commonly say there are seven Vibhkatis. These are:

First Vibhakti – “prathamA” - means that the particular noun is the Subject of the sentence.
Second Vibhakti – “dvitIyA” - means that the particular noun is the Object of the sentence.
Third Vibhakti – “tRtIyA” – means by or with that noun
Fourth Vibhakti – “caturthI” – means to or for that noun
Fifth Vibhakti – “pancamI” – means from or than or since that noun
Sixth Vibhakti – “ShaShThI” – means of that noun.
Seventh Vibhakti – “saptamI” – means in, on, at , or unto that noun
Eighth Vibhakti – “Sambodhana Prathama” – is to address or call out that noun.

Muthuswamy Dikshitar has composed Kritis in all eight Vibhaktis. This means that the God or Goddess of the Kriti could be referred to in any of these eight variations. For example if we take the noun “Ramachandra”, the eight forms would be:

First Vibhakti - “Ramachandrah”– Ramachandra is the subject (eg. “Ramachandra is victorious”)

Second Vibhakti - “Ramachandram”– Ramachandra is the object (eg. “I worship Ramachandra”)

Third Vibhakti - “RamachandrENa” – By Ramachandra or With Ramachandra (eg. “I am protected by Ramachandra”)

Fourth Vibhakti - “RamachandrAya” – To Ramachandra or For Ramachandra (eg. “Salutations to Ramachandra”)

Fifth Vibhakti - “RamachandrAt” – From Ramachandra or Than Ramachandra(eg, “There is none greater than Ramachandra”)

Sixth Vibhakti - “Ramachandrasya” – Of Ramachandra (eg. “I am the servant of Ramachandra”)

Seventh Vibhakti – “RamachandrE” – In Ramachandra or Unto Ramachandra (eg. “ Practice devotion unto Ramachandra”)

Eighth Vibhakti –“ Hey Ramachandra” – O Ramachandra!

PS: These are examples of Vibhaktis for the Singular form only. All nouns have Plural as well as Dual ( a special number in Sanskrit for two units only) forms and these also have Vibhaktis. But since each Kriti is addressed to one god or goddess, only the Singular is discussed here.

32 comments:

kn-nr said...: I refer to the meaning section of the Sahana Navaavarnam,viz, Sree kamalaambikaayaam bhaktim karOmi, the meaning for 'Hreemkaara Taru manjarryaam"
"manjari" is bunches and not branches as given in the translation.
K.Narayanan
Tiruchy; October 5, 2014 at 8:25 AM
V Govindan said...: Shri kn-nr,
I may state that I have posted only the kRti and its transliterations. I have not translated the kRti. For translations, I have simply referred to websites where meanings are given. Therefore, you may kindly post your comments in the website where the meaning has been given.

Best wishes
V Govindan; October 6, 2014 at 2:58 AM
Unknown said...: Dear Shri Govindan
I am enjoying your Thiagaraja vaibhavam. You are not only helping me to understand the bhavam of the krithi but to sing in appropriate tempo and manner. I have a humble request to you. Can you please do the same for Dikshithar navagraha krithis? I would like to know how the word divisions (padham) are done in navagraha krithis. Please do not say "no" to my request. If possible, kindly share me your contacts.

Rajagopal - rtn1969@gmail.com; January 7, 2018 at 8:19 AM
RSR said...: Respected Sir,
May I know if you have provided the lyrics for the 5 ragamalika krithis of Muthuswami Dheekshithar? I am trying to collect them with lyrics in devanagari script, ragams , meaning ana an mp3 or mp4 version.

Kindly have a look at:
https://sites.google.com/site/ncvasanthakokilam/home/muthuswamy-dhikshithar
and
https://sites.google.com/site/mlvasanthakumarisongs/home/02-rare-dhikshithar-ragamalika-by-mlv

Best Regards.; April 29, 2018 at 5:47 PM
V Govindan said...: Sir,
The following four kRtis in rAga mAlika are listed in my blog post -
pUrNa candra bimba
mAdhavO mAm pAtu
SrI viSva nAthaM bhajEhaM
siMhAsana sthitE

I am not aware of fifth one.
With best wishes
V Govindan; May 4, 2018 at 12:48 AM
Shailesh Mohan said...: Thank you so very much for providing the kreethies in Devnagri script as well. The English language does not give that feeling of purity while being read. I am a typical north Indian man who has been practising Carnatic Music on my own just out of sheer madness for it. No other guidance except for the web. What attracted me is that it is so intricate yet mathematical. Each krithy set to a perfect tempo to learn. I know I am totally wrong in my approach yet I learn and sing for myself only. Even my parents do not know that I sing Carnatic music. Thank you once again.; June 7, 2018 at 10:55 AM
RSR said...: Dear Sri.Shailesh Mohan,
May I request you to visit
sites.google.com.site.dkpattammalsongs

Can i hav your feed back?; June 8, 2018 at 6:00 PM
Unknown said...: Finally my search is over with all the three blogs covering the trimurthulu. I am enchanted. I would take a printed version of all the kritis and save it.; July 15, 2018 at 6:13 PM
Praveen said...: Sir there are some set of krithis called gurupara krithis of Muthuswamy deekshitar. I can't find any details in net. Can you suggest some source to find them; August 15, 2018 at 2:57 PM
మానిత said...: wonderful, it is so helpful to refer deekshitaar krithis. thank you so much; September 18, 2018 at 3:11 PM
Unknown said...: Respected Govindan sir,

This is a wonderful site and is my all time favorite for sri deekshithar's krithis.
I have a suggestion regarding the lyrics of a song - Sri vidya rajagopalam - ragam-jaganmohanam

In the 3 rd line of the charanam the lyrics reads "dhatramsa svaroop avataram" and the explanation given is aspect of brahma. But in my opinion it should have been "dvaa trimshat svaroopa avataram" . Dva trimshat meaning 32 (appearance in 32 varied forms). This has direct relevance with the sthala puranam. Recently I had visited Mannargudi temple where the bhattar told me that Sri Krishnar had exhibited 32 varied forms and performed Leelas there to the rishis who had pleased the Lord with their prayers.
Please try to check with the main source of the text and have the corrections done if needed. Thank you.; September 25, 2018 at 6:08 AM
V Govindan said...: Response of Rajani who has provided the meanings of the kRtis -

"It is true that dvA-trimSat fits in terms of the Sthala Puranam details. But dhAtramSa also has a Sthala Puranam basis, that the Lord appeared that to revive Brahma's creation powers that were lost to him. Please refer to this page that contains a scan of the page from the book of a Vaishnavite scholar:

http://anudinam.org/2011/12/18/mannargudi-sambakaaranya-kshetram-a-detailed-insight/

So it would be proper to stick to the lyrics as found in the books."

I may add that this variation is not found in any books I referred. Further, sorry to say, the list of 32 seems to have been contrived in order to justify the new interpretation of 32.

With best wishes,
V Govindan; October 1, 2018 at 3:37 AM
Unknown said...: I am utmost glad that u responded so well to my doubt. Thanks a lot; May 15, 2019 at 10:03 AM
Unknown said...: Rangapuravihara in vrindavanasaranga?; August 14, 2019 at 12:24 PM
Unknown said...: namaste, i have been searching for a way to download a pdf set of the dikshitar kriti lyrics and have not been able to find, can you please help, the pdfs for tyagaraja kritis from tyagaraja vaibhavam which i downloaded once are very useful for searching what i want.
Dr Bhairavi.; September 17, 2019 at 3:26 AM
RSR said...: Dr.Bhairavi

May I know if you want the Dikshitar kritis in Sanskrit (PDF)?

If you want a complete list of the kritis in English transliteration ,
Kindly visit.
https://karnatik.com/c1008.shtml
( for Rangapura vihaara)

https://sites.google.com/site/dkpattammalsongs/home/10-rangapura-vihara

---------------------------------------------------------
https://karnatik.com/co1002.shtml

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Can you read Sanskrit? If so, I can send a pdf in sanskrit.
Write to me
rs.ramaswamy@gmail.com

Hope this helps.
Best Regards.
RSR; November 26, 2019 at 4:05 PM
RSR said...: https://karnatik.com/co1002.shtml; November 26, 2019 at 4:07 PM
RSR said...: http://carnatica.in/lyrics/mdcomp_sansk.pdf

gives the complete list in sanskrit

Can be downloaded.

This has been compiled and prepared by Dr.P.K.Narayanaswami; November 26, 2019 at 4:27 PM
Ravula said...: Namaskaram, is there lyrics containing words beejapura gadekshu.... by Muthuswami Deekshitar?. If yes pl... do the needful.; December 6, 2019 at 2:23 AM
Unknown said...: Wow very nice post, LyricXona; December 26, 2019 at 10:35 AM
Rajani Arjun Shankar said...: "beejapura gadekshu" are the starting words of the Dhyana Shloka of Ganapati Mantra. Those exact words are not found together in any Dikshitar's kriti. The Navaroj Kriti "Hastivadanaya" has the same description of Ganesha, with almost the same set of words. - Rajani; January 11, 2020 at 12:41 PM
Unknown said...: Ramaswami deekisthar ragam ganga tharangini keerthanam sarsa nayana sarasa; March 15, 2020 at 7:41 AM
V Govindan said...: What is your point?
This blogpost deals only with Muttuswami Dikshitar kRtis.
V Govindan; March 15, 2020 at 5:05 PM
Namakkal Srinivasan said...: Thanks Sir, for such an exhaustive list of Deekshidar Kritis.; March 21, 2020 at 6:29 AM
mccbala said...: The top links are pointing to blogspot.in. Please change them to blogspot.com. Blogspot.in does not work anymore.; July 13, 2020 at 9:16 AM
Unknown said...: A great site for reference and learning; August 24, 2020 at 2:53 AM
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