A Kodandarama temple that may have inspired Muthuswami Dikshitar’s raganga composition

How Dikshitar was inspired by Vaduvur Rama to come up with a composition in a raganga raga

Sometime in the early 19th century, Muthuswami Dikshitar arrived in Thanjavur for an extended stay. Legend suggests he may have visited even earlier, going by his composition ‘Nabhomani chandragni nayanam’ (Nabhomani raga, Triputa tala), which is believed to have been created on the occasion of the Brihadiswara temple’s consecration during the reign of Serfoji II. The ‘Sarabhendra samsevita charanam’ seems to indicate this. As per the Thanjavur Saraswathi Mahal Library records, the consecration took place in 1801, evidencing Dikshitar’s presence in the region.

The composer’s more prolonged stay was to teach music to the Thanjavur Quartet. According to Subbarama Dikshitar’s Sangita Sampradaya Pradarsini, only two of the four brothers, Ponniah and Vadivelu, were disciples of Muthuswami Dikshitar. Today, however, scholars accept that all four trained under him. Since Vadivelu was born in 1810 and would have been around five when he began learning from Dikshitar, we can assume that the composer came to Thanjavur around 1815.

During his stay, Dikshitar embarked on what may be described as raganga raga project. As is well known, he followed the asampurna mela/raganga raga scheme, where in a raga can be considered a parent scale if it has all seven notes, not necessarily in linear order or in both ascent and descent. It was scholar V. Raghavan who identified most of the compositions in this set, and the temples in and around Thanjavur mentioned in the lyrics. Of the 72 raaganga ragas, 69 have songs, all of them based on Thanjavur temples. Many of them are on the Big Temple and the Bangaru Kamakshi shrine.

The entrance to the Vaduvur Kodandarama temple. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

One of the compositions is on Lord Rama — ‘Kodandaramam’ in raga Kokilaravam (the 11th raganga raga in Adi tala). In keeping with most of the raganga compositions, this too is set in the pallavi/anupallavi format, and therefore has no charanam. In recent times, this song has been attributed to the Rama temple at Vaduvur, renowned for its beautiful utsava deity. But V. Raghavan clearly states that it was composed on the Kothandarama temple on the banks of the Vennar in Thanjavur.

There is logic in what he says, because the farthest temple to have a composition in the raganga raga scheme is the Dharmasamvardhini shrine in Tiruvarur. All the temples featured in the set come under the administration of the Thanjavur Palace Devasthanam. However, the Vaduvur shrine has never been a part of it, making its association with the song unlikely. Having accepted V. Raghavan’s premise, the task then is to identify the temple he meant.