Gharapuri with Dikshitar playlist

 

There are many brilliant depictions of Ardhanarishwara across the country. But, standing before Him/Her at Gharapuri/Elephanta always feels special. As one moves from the Sadashiva who occupies the center space, with his magnifying spell, towering over us is the Ardhanarishwara. The Her part which we first encounter, the lips that twist to represent the masculine and the feminine is sure to cast a spell. The stylish way in which His hand rests on the Nandi, and the light coming from the left adds to our appreciation of the full form. 

On my first visit after five years, in December, when I was standing there, I asked my friend who is a student of Carnatic Music, “why don’t you sing Ardhanarishwaram” … that song reverberated in my ears for long after I left the island that day, to only revisit it with another friend, the next week. I thought as someone who loves temple visits as much as Carnatic music, and listening to lot more of the mahan vaggeyakara Muthuswami Dikshitar in his 250^th anniversary year, I will do a Gharapuri with Dikshitar playlist.

Here is a link to listen to the song - 

the one Dikshitar composed on the deity at famous temple of Thiruchengode, but see how the features he describes also aligns with Ardhanarishwara at Elephanta.

“ardha yAma alaMkAra viSEsha prabhAvaM
ardha nArI-ISvarI priya-karaM abhaya karaM Sivam

nAga-indra maNi bhUshitaM nandi turaga-ArOhitaM
SrI guru guha pUjitaM kumuda kriyA rAga nutam
Agama-Adi sannutaM ananta vEda ghOshitaM
amara-ISa-Adi sEvitaM Arakta varNa SObhitam”

I should have dealt with the Sadashiva or the Trimurti representation first. He is the central figure; one whose presence dominates the cave shrine. Yes, but that day Dikshitar came to my mind only when I moved from Sadashiva to Ardhanarishwara, that is why I began the playlist with him. Gharapuri (the original name of Elephanta) was a Pashupata cave, and their system of worship in five stages, the five forms of Shiva, Sadyojata, Vamadeva, Aghora, Tatpurusha and Ishana are correlated to the central Sadashiva murthy.

Generally, the four faces are depicted in the sculptural form while the Ishana is only implied. However, at Elephanta we see only three faces and the fourth face is taken as implied, and not seen like how it is in Nachna’s Chaturmukha linga.  Central to the figure is Mahadeva with a serene face and closed eyes, on one side is a peaceful Vamadeva, and the fierce Aghora on the other side. He is the identity of Gharapuri caves today, and if you get a clear, unhindered view and enough light on your visit, consider yourself lucky.

What other song can be more apt than the Shankarabaranam kriti of Dikshitar, “Sadashivam Upasmahe”, to celebrate our Elephanta’s auspicious one. Whose voice, but the one who celebrated Shankarabaranam, M.S. Subbulakshmi.

Moving next, to an elegant panel, one where Shiva is standing in a slightly bent pose, Parvati next to him, and He is holding Ganga in his matted locks, and the triumvirate of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati above His head, is the Gangadhara Shiva. 

I could only hum the song celebrating Ganga at Varanasi by Dikshitar here. If there is a song that worships Ganga so soulfully, it is “Gange mam pahi Girisha shirasthithe” … she is “gita vadhya priye”, the one who gave Dikshitar, the Veena. 

Gharapuri is a well-planned, well executed cave, a complete temple where definitely the Pashupatas must have lived and worshiped. There is the shrine of Shiva in linga form complete with Dwarapalakas, and rest of the caves carry Shiva in different forms.

I step back to the main entrance, since in this playlist I haven’t followed a linear approach, to look at the two contrasting representations on either side. We look to the right first, don’t we, while we enter the cave, and there stands the Nataraja. 

Actually, the entry point itself is a shock, to see such a remarkable dancing Shiva stand there so badly mutilated. What hands could have harmed such an art, forget even the respect a deity commands. Even in that condition, his face mesmerizes one, arrests us there, to stand still and comprehend the Thandava murthy. He emergence or out encounter with Him here is sudden, but unfolds slowly and in such beautiful rhythm in Dikishitar’s Kedaram kriti on the Lord of Chithsabha, Chidambaram Nataraja.

 

“Ananda naTana prakASaM cit-sabhA-ISaM
ASrayAmi Siva kAma vallI-ISam

bhAnu kOTi kOTi saMkASaM
bhukti mukti prada dahara-AkASam
dIna jana saMrakshaNa caNaM
divya patanjali vyAghra pAda-
darSita kuncita-abja caraNam”

How we long to see that “kuncitaabja caranam”, the legs some barbarians cut off. In the mind his unblemished vigraha from Chidambaram comes to mind, the smiling face from Gangaikonda Cholapuram, the complicated posture from Kanchi Kailasanatha temple.

As we said earlier, the contrasting depiction, Yogishwara sits on the other side, to calm our nerves, to prepare us for what we encounter in our journey further into the cave shrine. How can one remain calm, for even the Mahayogi is mostly destroyed except for his face, and it is His eyes alone that gives us the serenity.  Shiva the renunciate, the yogi is celebrated in the masterpiece Thiruvarur kshetra kriti of Dikshitar, “Thyagaraja yoga vaibhavam” yoga vaibhavam, vaibhavam. The melodious phrases of Ananda Bhairavi will keep repeating in our ears. It will immerse one into the meditative state. See how the structure goes …

Tyāgaraja yōga vaibhavam sadāshivam

Tyāgaraja yōga vaibhavam sadāshrayāmi

Tyāgaraja yōga vaibhavam

Agarāja yōga vaibhavam

Rāja yōga vaibhavam

Yōga vaibhavam

Vaibhavam
Bhavam

Vam

 

In journalism text book, in good old days we used to be taught the inverted pyramid structure while writing news reports. But this musical inverted pyramid and the song has no match, with its meaning, its technique, and layers.

I will always remember this song in the voice of D.K. Pattammal, and hence I share her rendition here. 

DKP’s brother, it is his Dikshitar playlist I have always loved to listen to. Here is DKJ singing “Parvati Patim”. 

If you heard the clear exposition of the line there and see the picture here, you would know why it is playing now – “bhadra prada kailAsa virAjaM”. Sculpturally a very striking, a very illustrative piece of purana is Ravana lifting Kailasa, where Shiva is seated with Parvati along with his parivara, called as Ravananugraha murthy.

We see this at the Kailasa temple Ellora, at Pattadakkal and many more temples. At Elephanta you cannot see the details you can at other places. Many of Ellora’s sculptures and themes would match with Elephanta like the Ravananugraha murthy, Uma Maheshwara murthy and the Kalyana Sundara. 

There are two songs that I can sing along as I move from one to the another – first the song “Sri Kantimatim Shankara yuvatim”. I love that expression, Shankara yuvatim. What a beautiful way to address Her, the beautiful wife of Shiva, and Guruguha jananim. This is yet again a kshetra kriti where Goddess Kantimati resides on the banks of Tamraparani river, “shudha Tamraparani tatasthitam” is celebrated. 

What if Dikshitar didn’t visit Gharapuri, what if there was no worship perhaps even during Dikshitar’s lifetime in the island. We can see Shiva and Parvati in their beautiful manifestations in our minds eye, with the help of Dikshitar’s lines, and the artistically amazing contours that still stands at Gharapuri even after all that wilful destruction.

Why do they stand there, why did they take those forms? In “Sri Parvati Parameswaram” Dikshitar gives us the answer. The Kalayana Sundara murti along with his young bride gives darshan to Agastya at Vedaranyam and Dikshitar gives us that vision in this song, the young couple adorned from head to toe as any newly married would be. And they take all those forms for – “lIlA vigrahau mama-abhIshTa siddhayE”. 

Since I cannot think of a song for the giant Andhakasura panel I leave the main cave and go to the one where we have Ganesha, Karthikeya and the Saptamatrukas.  Though “Vatapai Ganapati” is the most famous of the Ganesha songs I think of –

“VallabhA nAyakasya bhaktO bhavAmi
vAnchita-artha dAyakasya vara mUshika vAhanasya”

due to my special affection for Begada, and also the simple and straight forward description of Ganesha, and also how quickly Dikshitar packs everything including his help in Valli vivaha to Karthikeya in the song. 

What can one say of his compositions on Karthikeaya, for his mudra itself was Guruguha, for Subramanya Swamy himself had blessed and initiated Muthuswamy to start composing. It would be auspicious (vibrant too in chala nattai) to end the tour and the playlist here with the Swamimalai kshetra kriti –

“svAmi nAtha paripAlayASu mAM
sva-prakASa vallISa guru guha dEva sEnESa ….

kArtikEya nArada-Adi bhAvita
vAma dEva pArvatI su-kumAra
vArija-astra sammOhita-AkAra
kAmita-artha vitaraNa nipuNa caraNa
kAvya nATaka-alankAra bharaNa
bhUmi jala-agni vAyu gagana kiraNa
bOdha rUpa nitya-Ananda-karaNa”

May we delight in the beautiful temples and songs on this day, and every day. May we carry with us all the songs, that soak us in devotion, always.

 

 

Credits: Indebted to the guru-guha.blogspot.com for all the songs, transliteration and the meaning. All the verses quoted here in transliteration are from the blog.

Photographs were all taken by me during the visits in December 2025.

Videos are all, as you can see, links from You Tube.