Venkatamakhin (; ) or Venkatamakhi, was an Indian poet, musician, and musicologist of

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 ...

. He is renowned for his '' Chaturdandiprakashika'' in which he explicates the

melakarta Mēḷakartā is a collection of fundamental musical scales ( ragas) in Carnatic music (South Indian classical music). ''Mēḷakartā'' ragas are parent ragas (hence known as ''janaka'' ragas) from which other ragas may be generated. A ''melak ...

system of classifying

raga A ''raga'' or ''raag'' (; also ''raaga'' or ''ragam''; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a musical mode, melodic mode. The ''rāga'' is a unique and central feature of the classical Indian music tradit ...

s. Venkatamakhin composed

geethams Geetam, (Sanskrit: गीतम्; gītaṃ) the simplest music form in Carnatic music, was created by Purandara Dasa in order to introduce '' talas'' with '' sāhityaṃ'' (lyrics). Gītaṃ literally means "song" in Sanskrit. Structure A g ...

and

prabandha Prabandha is a literary genre of medieval Indian Sanskrit literature. The ''prabandha''s contain semi-historical anecdotes about the lives of famous persons. They were written primarily by Jain scholars of western India (Gujarat and Malwa) from 1 ...

s, as well as 24

ashtapadi ''Ashtapadis'' or ''Ashtapadi'' refers to the Sanskrit hymns of the ''Gita Govinda'', composed by Jayadeva in the 12th Century. The ''ashtapadis'', which describe the beauty of Lord Krishna and the love between Krishna and the '' gopis'', are co ...

s in praise of Lord Thyagaraja of

Tiruvarur Thiruvarur () also spelt as Tiruvarur is a town and municipality in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the administrative headquarters of Thiruvarur district and Thiruvarur taluk. The temple chariot of the Thyagaraja temple, weighing and mea ...

Biography

Venkatamakhin or Venkateswara Dikshita was the son of the musician, scholar, and priest,

Govinda Dikshita Govinda Dikshita (Dikshitar) was the minister of three successive Nayaks of Thanjavur, who ruled the region of Thanjavur in South India between the 16th and 17th centuries CE. About the scholar Govinda Dikshita was a scholar, philosopher, stat ...

, a

Kannada Brahmin Kannada Brahmins are Kannada-speaking Brahmins, primarily living in Karnataka, although a few of them have settled in other states like, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. They belong to one of the three main sects: Smartism, Sadh Va ...

from Honnali near Shivamogga, who was also a minister of

Raghunatha Nayak Raghunatha Nayak was the most powerful king of the Thanjavur Nayak Dynasty. He was the third ruler of Thanjavur, southern India, from the Nayak dynasty. He ruled from 1600 to 1634 and is noted for the attainments of Thanjavur in literature, art, ...

Thanjavur Thanjavur (), also Tanjore, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is the 11th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of South Indian religion, art, and architecture. Most of the Gr ...

. He was instructed in the

veena The ''veena'', also spelled ''vina'' ( sa, वीणा IAST: vīṇā), comprises various chordophone instruments from the Indian subcontinent. Ancient musical instruments evolved into many variations, such as lutes, zithers and arched harps.< ...

by his father and his brother, Yagnanarayan. He was later schooled in the scholarly aspects of classical music by Tanappacharya. Venkatamakhin was also versed in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

and equipped with knowledge in varied subjects such as astrology, logic, philosophy, and alankara. Like his father, Venkatamakhin served as a minister to Raghunatha Nayak's successor,

Vijayaraghava Nayak Vijaya Raghava Nayak (also Vijayarāghava Nāyaka, 1590s-1673) was the fourth and last king of Sevappa Nayak's line. He ruled from 1634 to 1673. In 1673, Vijaya Raghava Nayak was defeated in battle by the Madurai Nayak king Chokkanatha Nayak who ca ...

(). Seeing as to how there was no authoritative treatise on the classification of

s in Carnatic music, the king commissioned Venkatamakhin to compile the Chaturdandiprakashika, his most renowned work. He was devotee of Tyagesha, the presiding deity of

, and composed 24

s in his honour. Venkatamakhin composed the Gita ‘Gandharva Janata’ (Arabhi) in praise of Tanappacharya. Venkatamakhin's

Chaturdandi Prakasika The ''Chaturdandiprakashika'' (; "The Illuminator of the Four Pillars of Music") is a Sanskrit treatise written by the musicologist Venkatamakhin in the mid-17th century. It introduced a theoretical melakarta system to classify and organise rag ...

was a landmark in the annals of Carnatic music. It had been in circulation only in manuscript form until it was taken up for print early in the 20th century. It gives a systematic and scientific classification of Mela ragas based on

swara Svara or swara (Devanagari: स्वर, generally pronounced as ''swar'') is a Sanskrit word that connotes simultaneously a breath, a vowel, the sound of a musical note corresponding to its name, and the successive steps of the octave or '' ...

s. The name itself means ‘Exposition or illumination of the four channels through which a raga manifests itself’. Out of the ten chapters, the last and part of the ninth are said to be missing. Twelve hundred and odd couplets available are in simple, elegant Sanskrit. His grandson, Muddu Venkatamakhi, added a supplement to the work. It is said that Venkatamakhin freed himself from thieves by singing ‘Hare Nipidakantaka Dushpradesa’ (Lalita). He cared for his people too and freed them from the order of the ruler to get the symbols of conch and wheel tattooed by singing ‘Sankha Chakranganatyachara re’ (Ritigowla). He has also composed Lakshya Gitas and Prabandhas in Bandira Bhasha.

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Biography

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Further reading