Muthuswami Dikshitar

Muthuswami Dikshitar (Mudduswamy Dikshitar) (, 24 March 1776 – 21 October 1835), mononymously Dikshitar, was a South Indian poet, singer, veena player, and prolific composer of Indian classical music. The youngest member of the Trinity of Carnatic music alongside Tyagaraja and Shyama Sastri, Dikshitar was born on 24 March 1776 in Tiruvarur near Thanjavur, in Tamil Nadu. His family traditionally traced its lineage to Virinchipuram in the northern part of the state.

Dikshitar is credited with about 500 compositions, noted for their elaborate, poetic descriptions of Hindu deities, architectural depictions of temples, and for capturing the essence of ragas through the vainika (veena) style, which emphasizes gamakas. His works are typically composed in a slower tempo (chowka kala). He used the signature name Guruguha (a mudra) in all his compositions. They continue to be widely performed in Carnatic music concerts.

The musical trinity consists of Dikshitar, Tyagaraja (1767–1847), and Syama Sastri (1762–1827). Unlike the predominantly Telugu compositions of Tyagaraja and Syama Sastri, Dikshitar's works are mostly in Sanskrit. He also composed a few kritis in Manipravalam (a mix of Sanskrit and Tamil).

There are two schools of thought regarding the pronunciation of his name. It is generally pronounced ''Muthuswamy Dikshitar''. ''Muthuswami'' is a common Tamil name; ''Muthu'' means "pearl" in Tamil, cognate to ''Mutya'' in Sanskrit. It may also be linked to Selvamuthukumaraswamy, a deity of the Vaideeswaran temple in Myladuthurai. However, T. K. Govinda Rao explains in ''Compositions of Mudduswamy Dikshitar'' that "Muddayya" is an epithet of Kumaraswami or Guha. In the 1904 Telugu publication of ''Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini'', Sri Subbarama Dikshitar refers to him as Mudduswamy. In his composition ''Bhajare re Chitha'' in raga Kalyani, the mudra appears as "Guruguha Roopa Muddu Kumara Jananeem". Provided by Wikipedia