Muthuswami Dikshitar

Muthuswami was born at Tiruvarur in 1775 to Ramaswami Dikshitar, a scholar and musician, and Subbulakshmi; the family held that he was born by the grace of Muthukumaraswami of Vaitheeswaran Koil, and named him for the Lord. As a young man he went with the yogi Chidambaranatha to Kashi and spent five years there learning Srividya upasana and the Hindustani music of the north. The tradition says that when his guru sent him to the Ganga, a veena rose out of the water into his hands.

Back in the south he went to Tiruttani, and on the hill, the tradition says, Murugan came as an old man, put sugar candy in his mouth and vanished. Muthuswami sang his first kriti, Shri Nathadi Guruguho Jayati in Mayamalavagowla, and signed every song after it Guruguha, the name of Murugan who dwells in the heart's cave.

He wrote almost entirely in Sanskrit, slow and grave, often in the vilamba kala, with the temple, its deity, its tank and its sthala purana woven into the words. He composed in groups: the nine Kamalamba Navavarana kritis on the Devi of Tiruvarur, the Navagraha kritis on the nine planets, the Abhayamba and Nilotpalamba groups. About five hundred of his songs survive, and he used ragas that would otherwise be forgotten.

He died at Ettayapuram on Deepavali in 1835. The tradition says he asked his disciples to sing Meenakshi Me Mudam, and at the line meena lochani pasha mochani he said Shive pahi and left the body.