Mahālakṣmi karuṇārasa lahari - Mādhavamanohari - Ādi - Muttusvāmi Dīkṣita (1776-1835)

Mahālakṣmi karuṇārasa lahari — 'Great Lakṣmi, flood of compassion!' — in the rare rāga Mādhavamanohari. This kīrtana, often counted among seven Dīkṣitar compositions on the goddess Lakṣmi, appears in the Saṅgīta Sampradāya Pradarṣiṇi (SSP) — the great encyclopaedia of Carnatic music — without any such grouping being mentioned there. The text itself raises a quietly fascinating question: the words 'manonmaṇi' and 'śiva sahite' seem to point toward Pārvati rather than Lakṣmi — manonmaṇi being the utsava mūrti of Kamalāmba at Tiruvārūr, and 'śiva sahite' meaning 'companion of Śiva.' This slippage between goddesses is reminiscent of 'Kāmākṣi varalakṣmi' in Bilahari, where the deity addressed is ambiguous. Mādhavamanohari: A janya (derivative) of Śrī, the 22nd meḻa in the rāgāṅga scheme of Veṅkaṭamakhin (17th century), its first known mention traces to the Saṅgīta Sarāmṛta (1735) of the Maratha king Tulajāji. Musicologist, bankruptcy lawyer, computer engineer, and overall renaissance man Ravi Rajagopalan makes the compelling case that the Dīkṣita introduced a subtle but deliberate change to the rāga — adding a śuddha dhaivata in the phrase 'p d₁ m₁' — for two reasons: to differentiate Mādhavamanohari from the melodically similar Śrīrañjanī, and to bring it into conformity with the then-emerging understanding of a bhāṣāṅga rāga as one that includes an anyasvara, a note foreign to the parent meḻa. Before this conceptual shift, 'bhāṣāṅga' simply meant 'regional.' Interestingly, the SSP itself describes Śrīrañjanī as bhāṣāṅga even though it contains no foreign note. I have tried to bring out the śuddha dhaivata more prominently than is customary in some older recordings, in keeping with Rajagopalan's reading and with what the SSP notation itself seems to suggest the Dīkṣita intended. The tempo is a shade brisker than the langourous renditions of Semmangudi, MS Subbulakshmi, and Shobhana Rangachari — a choice encouraged by the brisker approach of DK Pattammal and R Vedavalli — each of whom are amongst the highest authorities. Finally, Dīkṣita compositions are notoriously resistant to 'neraval' — the elaborate melodic elaboration of a chosen line of text — due to the density and tightness of his musical and phrase-setting. I have nonetheless attempted to do neraval on the 3rd and 4th lines of the caraṇa: भारती रति शची पूजिते भक्ति युत मानस विराजिते Worshipped by Sarasvatī, Rati, and Indrāṇī (Saci) / Enthroned in the mind devoted to you For further readings, see: 1) https://guruguha.org/raga-lakshana-ma... 2) https://guru-guha.blogspot.com/2008/0... #dikshitar