Kamalambal Kataksham

Grace of Goddess Kamalamba

Thematic Music and Dance Presentation of Sri Muthuswamy Dikshitar's Kamalamba Nava Avarana Kritis

Kamalambal Kataksham is an artistic revival and celebration of rich Indian cultural heritage. It is customary to invoke Maha Ganapathi and Lord Subrahmanya by singing Shri Mahaganapathivaratumam in Gowlai ragam and Balasubramanyam in Surutti ragamas as a prelude to Kamalamba Nava avarana kritis.

Sri Muthuswamy Dikshitar was an ardent devotee of Goddess Kamalamba, the celebrated deity of the Tiruvarur Thyagaraja Temple in Tamil Nadu. Along with Sri Thyagaraja and Sri Shyama Shastri, he is one of the trinities of Carnatic Music. He has composed almost 500 kritis. The Kamalamba Nava Avarana kritis is a set of 11 Kritis, the Dhyana kriti and Mangala Kriti on the Goddess and 9 glorifying the 9 chakrams of the Sri Chakra.

The Sri Chakra is a form of mystical diagram (yantra) used in the Srividya school of Hinduism. It consists of nine interlocking triangles - four upward ones which represent Shiva, and five downward ones representing Shakti. It consists of nine concentric layers that radiate outward from the Bindu and represent the nine obstacles to enlightenment.