https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=2001%3A4C4C%3A1EEA%3A7400%3A6C%3AA8B9%3A7116%3ABAB3Bharatpedia - User contributions [en]2026-09-08T04:43:22ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.43.6https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=Venkatamakhin&diff=276513Venkatamakhin2021-08-29T10:31:28Z<p>2001:4C4C:1EEA:7400:6C:A8B9:7116:BAB3: Corrected last name of author.</p>
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<div>{{Short description|Musicologist, composer}}<br />
{{more citations needed|date=June 2018}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}<br />
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2020}}<br />
{{Infobox person<br />
|name = Venkatamakhi<br />
|image =<br />
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|birth_name =<br />
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|other_names = Venkateswara<br />
|occupation = {{hlist|Minister|Scholar}}<br />
|years_active = {{flourished|{{circa|1630}}}}<br />
|notable_works = [[Chaturdandiprakashika]]<br />
|father = [[Govinda Dikshita]]<br />
}}<br />
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'''Venkatamakhin''' ({{IAST3|Veṅkaṭamakhin}}; {{flourished|{{circa|1630}}}}{{sfn|GroveMusicOnline}}) or '''Venkatamakhi''', was an Indian poet, musician, and musicologist of [[Carnatic music]].{{sfn|GroveMusicOnline}} He is renowned for his ''[[Chaturdandiprakashika]]'' in which he explicates the [[Melakarta (asampurna scheme)|melakarta]] system of classifying [[raga]]s.{{sfn|Subramanian|1999|p=135}} Venkatamakhin composed [[geethams]] and [[prabandha]]s, as well as 24 [[ashtapadi]]s in praise of Lord Thyagaraja of [[Tiruvarur]].<br />
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==Biography==<br />
Venkatamakhin or Venkateswara Dikshita was the son of the musician, scholar, and priest, [[Govinda Dikshita]], a [[Kannada language|Kannada]] [[Brahmin]] from Honnali near Shivamogga, who was also a minister of [[Raghunatha Nayak]] of [[Thanjavur]].{{sfn|Ries|1969|p=24}} He was instructed in the [[veena]] by his father and his brother, Yagnanarayan. He was later schooled in the scholarly aspects of classical music by [[Tanappacharya]]. Venkatamakhin was also versed in [[Sanskrit]] and equipped with knowledge in varied subjects such as astrology, logic, philosophy, and [[alankara]].{{sfn|OxfordReference}} <br />
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Like his father, Venkatamakhin served as a minister to Raghunatha Nayak's successor, [[Vijayaraghava Nayak]] ({{reign|1633|1673}}). Seeing as to how there was no authoritative treatise on the classification of [[raga]]s in Carnatic music, the king commissioned Venkatamakhin to compile the [[Chaturdandiprakashika]], his most renowned work.{{sfn|GroveMusicOnline}} He was devotee of Tyagesha, the presiding deity of [[Tiruvarur]], and composed 24 [[ashtapadi]]s in his honour.{{sfn|OxfordReference}}<br />
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Venkatamakhin composed the Gita ‘Gandharva Janata’ (Arabhi) in praise of Tanappacharya.{{cn|date=September 2018}}<br />
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Venkatamakhin's [[Chaturdandi Prakasika]] was a landmark in the annals of Carnatic music. It had been in circulation only in manuscript form until it was taken up for print early in the 20th century. It gives a systematic and scientific classification of [[Melakarta|Mela]] ragas based on [[swara]]s. The name itself means ‘Exposition or illumination of the four channels through which a raga manifests itself’. Out of the ten chapters, the last and part of the ninth are said to be missing. Twelve hundred and odd couplets available are in simple, elegant Sanskrit. His grandson, Muddu Venkatamakhi, added a supplement to the work.{{cn|date=September 2018}}<br />
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It is said that Venkatamakhin freed himself from thieves by singing ‘Hare Nipidakantaka Dushpradesa’ (Lalita). He cared for his people too and freed them from the order of the ruler to get the symbols of conch and wheel tattooed by singing ‘Sankha Chakranganatyachara re’ (Ritigowla). He has also composed Lakshya Gitas and Prabandhas in Bandira Bhasha.{{cn|date=September 2018}}<br />
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==Notes==<br />
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==References==<br />
* {{cite journal |last1=Katz |first1=Jonathan |title=Veṅkaṭamakhin |journal=[[Grove Music Online]] |volume=1 | publisher=Oxford University Press | doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.48134 | ref={{harvid|GroveMusicOnline}} |language=en|year=2001 }}<br />
* {{cite journal | last = Subramanian |first = L. |title = The reinvention of a tradition: Nationalism, Carnatic music and the Madras Music Academy, 1900-1947 | journal = Indian Economic & Social History Review | volume = 36 | issue = 2 | pages = 131–163 |year = 1999 | doi = 10.1177/001946469903600201 |s2cid = 144368744 }}<br />
* {{cite journal |last1=Ries |first1=Raymond E. |title=The Cultural Setting of South Indian Music |journal=Asian Music |date=1969 |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=22–31 |doi=10.2307/833909 |jstor=833909 }}<br />
* {{cite encyclopedia |title=Venkaṭamakhi |encyclopedia=The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Music of India |url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195650983.001.0001/acref-9780195650983-e-5173 |access-date=7 September 2018 |ref={{harvid|OxfordReference}} |language=en |url-access=subscription |year=2011 |isbn=9780195650983 |last1=Mahabharati |first1=Sangit }}<br />
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==Further reading==<br />
* V. Raghavan: ‘Later Saṅgīta Literature’, ''Journal of the Music Academy'', Madras, 4 (1933), 62–4<br />
* V. Raghavan: ‘Venkatamakhin and the 72 Melas’, ''Journal of the Music Academy'', Madras, 12 (1941), 67–79<br />
* S. Seetha: ''Tanjore as a Seat of Music'' (Madras, 1981)<br />
* N. Ramanathan: ‘Influence of Śāstra on Prayoga: the Svara System in the Post-Saṅgītaratnākara Period with Special Reference to South Indian Music’, ''The Traditional Indian Theory and Practice of Music and Dance'', ed. J.B. Katz (Leiden, 1992), 75–105<br />
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[[Category:Carnatic composers]]</div>2001:4C4C:1EEA:7400:6C:A8B9:7116:BAB3