Thyagaraja, Shyama Sastri and Muthuswamy Dikshitar form the trinity. A majority of the songs sung in any concert are compositions of the trinity.

What is more interesting is that all the three composers were born at Thiruvarur - a town that was a part of the earlier undivided Thanjavur district in Tamil Nadu state. (Now it is the headquarters of Thiruvarur district.)
Their birthdays also fall around the same time – between March and May.

A group of people thought it was more important to ‘celebrate’ these great composers on their birthdays since only a ‘homage’ can be paid while remembering them on the day of their attaining ‘samadhi’.

Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peeda Carnataka Sangeetha Seva Trust has been organising the Trinity Jayanthi Festival for the past 23 years at the birthplace of the trinity.
The Muthuswamy Dikshitar Jayanthi was held on March 23 this year.

An overnight journey by bus will take you to Thiruvarur from Chennai. You have only one option to go to Thiruvarur now. To take the journey by road. As the broad gauge rail conversion is going on in this region, the train services to Thiruvarur are temporarily suspended.
There are a few nice hotels here - Selvies and Sudarshan are two.

We suggest a morning visit to the Sri Thyagarajaswamy temple. It is still quiet all around and for us, the visit set the mood for the Dikshitar celebrations. The temple is situated in a vast area of 20 acres with sannidhis for various deities built in different sizes.

For those who are familiar with Dikshitar’s compositions, each shrine – small or big – will take you to a composition of Dikshitar. One can have a rare sight of all the navagrahas placed in a straight line at this temple instead of the customary square arrangement.
The sprawling temple compound had three prakarams (circumambulatory paths) and each of them houses a number of small shrines.

A small board directs you to a ‘stone chariot’ built later to depict the legendary story of Manu-neethi Chozhan who provided justice to a cow, when the calf was killed by Chozha king’s son by the chariot he drove on.

The mandapam houses a small idol of Muthuswamy Dikshitar, well decorated for the occasion. Like the Pancharatna kritis for Thyagaraja, Kamalamba navavarana kritis are the well-known and considered the best composed kritis of Dikshitar.

Each of the nava-varanams is composed on one of the nine avaranams (enclosures) of the Shri Chakra (a geometrical form in which goddess Tripurasundari is worshiped).

Senior vocalist – guru Seetha Rajan is present with her disciples to render the navavaranams to celebrate the composer on his birthday this year.
Starting with the kriti on Ganapathy, all the nine kritis are rendered on the occasion. After each kriti, a pooja is offered and the group moves on to the next avaranam.

After the rendition of songs, paddy seeds are given away as ‘virai danam’, a practice followed in birthday celebrations.
The organizers are good hosts too. Traditional lunch was served at a hall, which they had rented for the occasion. Those who had not arranged for their stay in the town could relax at this hall and refresh for the evening programme!

We chose to go around the city after the lunch and a brief rest. A walk down to the temple tank, the Kamalalayam, is really refreshing. The mammoth tank, which lies to the west of the temple, occupies 25 acres!
Vocalist Seetha Rajan, who is a regular at Thiruvarur for this festival says, “My students enjoy the trip every year. We have gone on boat rides inside Kamalalayam!”
Yes, if you are lucky to spot the boatmen around, you can signal to them and enjoy a cool ride. It takes about half an hour on a manual boat to do one round.

On the eastern side of the temple, the chariot was being given a fresh coat of paint for the Azhi therottam (temple car) festival. We had to walk back to the mandapam quickly for the evening session of the Dikshitar jayanthi.
The sishyas of Seetha Rajan presented an all-Dikshitar composition concert. They introduced the songs to the audience briefly before they sang them. Seetha Rajan’s two- hour concert followed. It was an occasion to experience the intricacies and depth of Dikshitar kritis.

The birth celebrations of the other two composers – Shyama Sastri and Saint Thyagaraja were celebrated last week, on April 19 and 23 respectively.
On Shyama Sastri’s jayanthi day, his famous swarajatis were rendered and on Thyagaraja day, the Pancharatna kritis.

The report, photos and video will be on the website soon. Watch out for it!