A Lovely Rama Temple in Thanjavur sung on by Dikshitar

During his stay in Thanjavur, Muthuswami Dikshitar seems to have embarked on what can be considered a raganga raga project. As is well known, he followed the asampurna mela/raganga raga scheme, wherein a raga can be considered a parent scale if it has all seven notes occurring in it, not necessarily linearly or in both ascent and descent.

It was Dr V Raghavan who identified the bulk of the compositions in this set, and also located temples in and around Thanjavur that were the subject of the lyrics. Out of the 72, 69 have songs in them, all of them based on Thanjavur temples. The largest corpus is on the Big Temple and the Bangaru Kamakshi shrine. One composition is on Lord Rama – Kodandaramam in raga Kokilaravam (the 11^th raganga raga)/Adi. early in 

Dikshitar and his First Visit to Thanjavur

Muthuswami Dikshitar arrived for an extended stay in Thanjavur sometime early in the 19th century. That he may have been here even earlier is evident if we accept the legend that his composition Nabhomani Chandragni Nayanam (Nabhomani/Triputa) was composed on the occasion of the Brhadiswara Temple’s consecration during Serfoji II’s reign. The line Sarabhendra Samsevita Charanam is said to indicate this. As per the Thanjavur Saraswathi Mahal Library records, this consecration took place in 1801. 

A Later and Prolonged Stay

The composer’s later and more prolonged stay was to teach music to the Thanjavur Quartet. As per Subbarama Dikshitar in his Sangita Sampradaya Pradarsini, only two of the four brothers, namely Ponniah and Vadivelu were Muthuswami Dikshitar’s disciples. But today it is accepted that all four learnt from him. And given that Vadivelu was born only in 1810 and should have been at least five before he began studying under Dikshitar, we can assume that the composer came to Thanjavur at around 1815. 

Vaduvur or Vennar?

In keeping with most of the raganga compositions Kodandaramam too is in the pallavi/anupallavi format, i.e. it lacks a charanam. In recent times this song has been attributed to the Rama temple at Vaduvur, famed for its utsava deity of bewitching beauty. But Dr Raghavan very clearly says it has been composed at a Kodandarama temple on the Vennar Bank in Thanjavur. 

There is logic in what he says. The farthest temple to have a composition in the raganga raga scheme is the Dharmasamvardhini shrine in Tiruvarur. And what is more, all the temples covered in the set come under the management of the Thanjavur Palace Devasthanam, which the Vaduvur shrine does not and never was. That said, we need to accept that the song Sarasa Sauvira in raga Sauvira is on Pushpavaneswara in Thiruppoovanam near Madurai.

The Vennar Rama Temple and Dikshitar

Having accepted Dr Raghavan’s premise, the task remained to identify which Rama temple he meant. The shrine in question is an extremely picturesque one, not far from the famed Punnainallur Mariamman Temple. The Vennar flows close by, but the larger water body is the Samudram Lake. Given Thanjavur’s flat landscape, you can see the temple’s gopuram, as also that of the Mariamman shrine, from quite far away. The Kodandarama temple is accessed by a road that runs past the now ruined Rani Mandapam, once a pleasure pavilion for the Maratha queens. 

The temple was constructed by Pratapasimha (r 1740-1763). It is noteworthy that his queen Yamunamba endowed another Rama temple – in Needamangalam. The Santaramaswami there was praised by Dikshitar in his kriti in raga Hindola Vasanta. And he gives the kshetra as Yamunambapuri. 

At Vennar, a flight of steps takes you to the entrance arch and then you are in the temple proper. The plan is simple – rectangular with a sanctum, a mukhamandapam and then a large open circumambulatory corridor, with a colonnaded verandah running all around the periphery. This has a raised platform within throughout, perhaps to sit and witness temple festivals and for pilgrims to rest. It also serves as a vahana mandapam. 

Legend has it that the utsava idols of the temple comprising Rama, Lakshmana, Sita and Anjaneya, were discovered in a field and they provided the impetus for the construction of the shrine. The moola murthy is a magnificent standing Kodandarama, with Lakshmana, Sita and most unusually, Sugreeva. Hanuman has a sanctum facing south where he is in veera posture. There is another Hanuman too outside this sanctum. A Garuda faces the main Rama. The priests aver that the moola Rama is made of Salagrama stone brought from Nepal. What is likely is that it is fashioned in stucco, with the core being Salagrama-s. 

Imagining Dikshitar at the shrine

The temple is so peaceful that you can very well imagine Dikshitar seated here and composing. That said, it must be accepted that the composition does not give any kshetra details and so the argument that it cannot be on Vaduvur applies equally to this temple. But then, none of the raganga raga compositions can be considered to have any local details. 

Despite the doubts that arise, and irrespective of whether the song was composed here, the temple is worth a visit. 

This article appeared in The Hindu dated March 27th, 2026 and can be read here – https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/music/a-kodandarama-temple-that-may-have-inspired-muthuswami-dikshitars-raganga-composition/article70783239.ece#:~:text=Located%20in%20Vaduvur%20on%20the,to%20the%20composer’s%20Kokilaravam%20kriti.&text=Sriram%20V.&text=Sometime%20in%20the%20early%2019th,came%20to%20Thanjavur%20around%201815.