MahaGanapathim Manasa : Dikshithar Krithi Raaga : Nattai

Maha Ganapathim Manasa 

Ragam: Nattai
Talam: Aadhi
Parent Ragam: Chalanattai (36th melakartha)
Aa: S R3 G3 M1 P D3 N3 S
Av: S N3 P M1 R3 S
Composer: Muthuswamy Dikshitar
Language: Sanskrit

pallavi

mahaa gaNapatim manasaa smaraami |
mahaa gaNapatim
vasishTa vaama dEvAdi vandita ||
(mahaa)

anupallavi

mahaa dEva sutam guruguha nutam |
maara kOTi prakaasham shaantam ||
mahaa kaavya naaTakaadi priyam
mooshika vaahanaa mOdhaka priyam ||

p,pmgmrs | rsnspmgm | p,dnsrgm | mrsrsnpm ||
snpmgmnp | mrgmrrs, | r,ss,np, | mg,mnsgm (mahaa ganapatim)

Core meaning: 

Mahaganapathy! My namaskarams to you. I meditate on You, the Great God Ganapathy. You are the one who is worshipped by great sages such as Vashishta and Vamadeva. You are the son of the Great Lord Shiva. You are always adored by 'Guruguha', Lord Skanda. You have a beauty and shine with the brilliance of a thousand 'manmadhas' -  Cuipds. You are the embodment of peace and tranquility. You love great poetry and drama. You have as the vehicle, as a mount,  a small mouse. You love the modhakas, a variety of sweet made of rice and coconut.  I bow to thee. My lord, Maha Ganapathy.

The stories here : 

Mahadevasutham : He is the son of the Great Lord Shiva. How Ganesha was born as the son of Shiva is an interesting story in itself. For the complete story, check out : The Birth of Ganesha : Story

Mahakavya Natakathipriyam: Lord Ganesha is the one who wrote Mahabharatha. This is an interesting story. Vyasa, who wrote Mahabharatha, needed someone who could write as fast as he could recite the slokas of Mahabharatha. He chose Ganapathy as the right person who could do it. Lord Ganesha agreed with one single condition : Vyasa should tell it as fast as he could write it! Vyasa also agreed and put a condition back : Ganesha should write the slokas only after understanding the meaning of the sloka. Ganesha agreed. Vyasa told it real fast and in between slokas, describing the slokas, he would put in one sloka which could have very subtle meaning. This, Ganesha had to decipher and it took slightly more time. This gave Vyasa a little more time to compose the next set of verses and be ready to dictate. Refer this for a little More on Vyasa

Vyasa is revered for his contributions. He is seen as Lord Vishnu himself. The Vishnu sahasranamam says :

"Vyasaya Vishnu Roopya,
  Vyasa Roopaya Vishnave"

It is no wonder that for Lord Ganesha accepted such a person's request.

Lord Ganapathy broke one of his tusks to be used as the pen. Elephants love their tusks. The tusk is the pride of any elephant. And yet, Lord Ganesha sacrificed it to be used as the pen to write the great epic. That shows how much love he had for the poetry and dramas. He used the great Mountain of Meru (Himachala) itself as the writing pad.

He uses Mooshika - the mouse as his vehicle. The mouse stands for ignorance and greed. It tries to nibble away at almost everything that it sees. When you pray MahaGanapathy, you will become the master of ignorance and greed as much as Lord Ganesha himself is.

For a brilliant, line by line  explanation of the song, check here : http://sviyer.blogspot.com/2009/04/mahaganapathim-manasa-smarami.html

A few brilliant pieces of singing of this song are enclosed here:


KJ Yesudas : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI5VneaW9A0 
TN Krishnan : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrzJ8yZib0Q

Some downloads possible for this song : (The downloads are given from the blog : http://arvindsdad.blogspot.com  a fantastic blog; he has given a huge download of Muthuswamy Dikshithar's songs. Please do visit for downloads and much more)

1. http://www.mediafire.com/?byl9bzrwgmc Mahaa ganapathim - Naattai - S. P. Raamh
   
2. http://www.mediafire.com/?4k5gglqtwjw Mahaa ganapathim - Naattai - Radha Jayalakshmi
3. http://www.mediafire.com/?5wg2l12twld Mahaa ganapathim - Naattai - Sriram Gangaadharan
   
4. http://www.mediafire.com/?q9gjjocxiiw Mahaa ganapathim - Naattai - T.V. Sankaranarayanan
5. http://www.mediafire.com/?vezkfi9yihp Mahaa Ganapthim - Thodi - G. N. Balasubramanian
6. http://www.mediafire.com/?jlt0jnfroam Maha Ganapathim - Thodi - Sikkil Gurucharan

Story and the background of Sri. Muthuswamy Dikshithar :

http://srimusicacademy.com/?p=96

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muthuswami_Dikshitar