Subbarama Dikshitar (1839–1906) was a
Carnatic music
Carnatic music, known as or in the Dravidian languages, South Indian languages, is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, an ...
composer. He was the grandson, and also the adopted son, of Baluswami Dikshitar, a brother of
Muthuswami Dikshitar
Muthuswami Dikshitar (Mudduswamy Dikshitar)(, 24 March 1776 – 21 October 1835), mononymously Dikshitar, was a South Indian poet, singer and veena player, and a legendary composer of Indian classical music, who is considered one of the musical ...
. He was an accomplished composer in his own right, but is more famous for his ''Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini'', a book detailing the works of Muthuswami Dikshitar and a reference on many other Carnatic musical concepts.
Baluswami Dikshitar, a noted musician, was at the court of
Ettayapuram
Ettayapuram is a panchayat town in Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu, India. It is the birthplace of Tamil poets Mahakavi Bharathiar and Umaru Pulavar. Muthuswami Dikshitar, one of the triads of Carnatic music, was patronized in his final years ...
kings. His daughter had a son named Subbarama. Baluswami did not have a male child, so he adopted his daughter's son Subbarama Dikshitar as his own son and taught music to him. Subbarama Dikshitar began composing at the age of seventeen and became the court musician of the Ettayapuram kings at the age of nineteen. He composed many ''
kritis
''Kriti'' (Sanskrit: कृति, ''kṛti'') is a format of musical composition typical to Carnatic music. ''Kritis'' form the mental backbone of any typical Carnatic music concert and is the longer format of Carnatic song. "Kriti" also means C ...
'', ''
varnam
Varṇam is a type of composition in the Carnatic music system consisting of short metric pieces which encapsulate the main features (patterns of notes) of a ''raga''. Varnams capture the ''raga bhavam'', ''ranjaka prayogas'' ''visesha sancha ...
s'', etc. To name a few important ones - Darbar raga, atta tala varna on God Karthikeya; jathiswara in yamuna kalyani raga, mrudanga jathi (1-2-3-2-1); shankaracharyam in shankarabharana raga, adi tala; ragamalika in 9 ragas; chauka varnas in raga anandabhairavi & surati.
Subbarama Dikshitar at the age of 60 began writing the book ''Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini'' at the behest of A.M.Chinnaswami Mudaliar and completed it after four years of hard work. It can be said that he was one of the earliest documenters of Indian music and musicology. Subbarama Dikshitar died at a relatively young age of 67.
Subbarama Dikshitar's son Ambi Dikshitar (1863-1936) was originally named Muthuswami Dikshitar, not to be confused with the member of the trinity. Ambi Dikshitar continued the family tradition of achieving excellence in music and he taught T L Venkatarama Iyer and
D. K. Pattammal.
His other works include:
* Prathamabhyasa Pustakamu - A beginner's introduction to Carnatic Music
* Sanskrta Andhra Dravida Kirtanalu - A collection of compositions of Krishnaswami Ayya and others tuned by him
__NOTOC__
See also
*
List of Carnatic composers
List of composers of Carnatic music, a subgenre of Indian classical music. Chronologically they can be grouped into 4 different Eras: Pre-Trinity Era, Trinity Era, Post Trinity Era and Modern Era. Composers are listed here based on this classif ...
Ambi Dikshitar's prime disciples were brothers A Ananthakrishnan Iyer and A Sundaram Iyer and were primarily responsible for bringing their Guru to Chennai for propagation of Muthuswamy Dikshitar's compositions.
References
*
External links
An English Translation of the Sangita Sampradaya Pradarsini
Carnatic composers
1839 births
1906 deaths
20th-century Indian musicians
Place of birth unknown
Place of death missing
{{Carnatic-music-stub