Shyamale Meenakshi, composed by Muthuswamy Dikshitar, set to Raga Shankarabaranam, a major, fundamental, and expansive melakarta raga (complete, foundational musical scale that contains all seven notes of the octave in both the ascending and descending scales) and sung by various singers -
Lyrics: Shyamale meenakshi sundareswarasakshi
Shankari guruguha samudhbhave shiveva
pamara mochani pankaja lochani
padmasana
vaani hari lakshmi vinuthe shambhavi
"Shyamale Meenakshi" is a foundational piece in the Carnatic repertoire and a rite of passage for many serious students.
The above composition is a shortened, commonly taught, or regionally popular variant of the original. It uses different phrases to convey the same devotional meaning but sacrifices the inclusion of the explicit Raga Mudra that Muthuswami Dikshitar is famous for. The standard, full text version contains "Śaṅkarābharaṇa rāgē" mudra.
Muthuswami Dikshitar's compositions use the name of these ragas (or a word strongly related to it) in the lyrics (sāhityam) of the songs. This technique is known as Raga Mudra.
Muthuswami Dikshitar's compositions use the name of these ragas (or a word strongly related to it) in the lyrics (sāhityam) of the songs. This technique is known as Raga Mudra.
The term "Guruguha" is the most significant and defining feature of Muthuswami Dikshitar's compositions in Carnatic music. It serves as his signature (mudra) and is critical for both the spiritual and musical identification of his works.
"Guruguha" is the Vaggēyakāra Mudra (the signature of the composer) that Dikshitar embeds directly into the lyrics (sāhityam) of virtually every one of his Kritis.
"Guha" is another name for Lord Muruga (Kartikeya/Subrahmanya), the son of Shiva, who is the primary deity of Dikshitar's worship.
Dikshitar saw his deity, his teacher (Chidambaranatha Yogi), and his own spiritual identity as one.
"Guruguha" literally means "The Guru who is Guha" or "The Preceptor who resides in the cave (Guha means cave)".
By using this mudra, Dikshitar constantly invoked his spiritual guide and deity in his musical worship.