Yoga based bhakti in Muttusvami Diksitar's compositions

Abstract

BACKGROUND Some of the researchers generally focus on Dīkṣitar’s music aspect and others focus on his Bhakti aspect. This thesis is to explore how Dīkṣitar’s Bhakti becomes unique and takes a new shape when it evolves from Yoga and how this Yoga-based Bhakti is helpful to mankind. AIMS & OBJECTIVES  To find the concept of Bhakti in Dīkṣitar’s compositions.  To decipher Yoga-based Bhakti in Dīkṣitar’s compositions.  To find several aspects of Bhakti eg, Navavidhā Bhakti (nine kinds of devotion) in Dīkṣitar’s compositions.  To find the link of different emotions of Dīkṣitar with Rāgas adopted by him.  To present how Dīkṣitar links concepts other than Bhakti with it.  To connect the principles of Yoga and Bhakti found in Dīkṣitar’s compositions. METHODS Syntactical approach: searching for terms related to Bhakti in Dīkṣitar’s literature. Symantical approach: exploring the principles of Bhakti and Yoga in Dīkṣitar’s compositions. DESIGN This is a descriptive research analysing the literature of Dīkṣitar in the context of Bhakti and Yoga. ASSESSMENT This work explores the components of Bhakti described in Bhakti Śāśtras, like nine types of Bhakti and five Bhāvas, in Dīkṣitar’s compositions. Their subdivisions are also dealt. (E.g. Smaraṇa is the component of Bhakti. Cintana, Bhāvana and Upāsana are Smaraṇa’s subdivisons). viii Music and literature are two aspects of Dīkṣitar’s Bhakti. Researching the music aspect, a survey of connoisseurs has been made and the emotional stimuli that get kindled while listening to several compositions have been studied. Various reasons for the raise of several emotional variants listening to different songs are discussed. It has been concluded that different Rāgas have different potencies of emotions. One raga may have one or more potencies. Among potencies, a connoisseur extracts a particular potency based on his character. Thus recognition of an emotion of a Rāga is partially objective and partially subjective. Connoisseurs of rare personality traits may recognize the emotions that are hardly found by others. All Rāgas selected in this research may have peace as a fundamental potency. Researching the literature aspect, Alaṅkāra (figures of speech), Rasa (aesthetic sense) and Dhvani (tone) of the passages found in Dīkṣitar’s compositions are analyzed in detail. More than that the link between Bhakti and various principles of Yoga and Tantra like Āsana, Prāṇāyāma, Kuṇdalinī and Nādopāsana found in Dīkṣitar’s compositions are explored. CONCLUSION Dīkṣitar’s Bhakti is Kathenotheistic and therefore certainly non-fanatic. His Bhakti‟s objective is peace. His Bhakti emerges from the internal peace and it merges in it. This is his Yoga- based Bhakti. This kind of Bhakti is very relevant to society to lead a harmonious life