“Sri Muka Panchashati was composed by Sri Muka Sankarendra Saraswati, the
20th Acharya to adorn Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam. The acharya was the son of one
Vidyavati, an astrologer and astronomer. He was a congenital deaf-mute. But
through the grace of Goddess Kamakshi he gained the power of speech. On knowing
this attainment of speech by Mooka because of the grace of Devi, the then
Acharya of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, Sri Vidyaghana, sent for the boy's
parents and told them of his intention of giving sanyasa to the boy and, with
their consent, gave sanyasa to the boy and ordained him as his successor in the
Kamakoti Math. Vikramaditya Sakari of Ujjain, Matrugupta, some time king of
Kashmir, and Pravarasena, who succeeded Matrugupta on the throne, all
considered it a rare privilege to serve at the feet of this great Acharya. Muka
Sankara is the author of Muka Panchasati, a lyrical outburst of poetry on
Kamakshi, The mellifluence of the work is said to be rivaled only by Lila
Suka's Krishna Karnamrta. He attained mukti at a village near Godavari on full
moon day in the month of Sravana of the cyclic year Dhatu (437 AD).” The above excerpt is taken from http://www.kamakoti.org/peeth/origin.html#appendix2
Here we deal with the first set of 100 verses entitled
Kataksha Shatakam. This is set in the Sanksrit metre Vasantatilaka. The
rendering of this metre here is different from the way others recite;
hopefully Devi Kamakshi Amman as well as the listener will enjoy this different
technique. Even if the meaning is not understood, just the flow
of words will elevate the listener or reciter to high levels of joy.
The inspiration to recite this phenomenal stotram came about
from reading an article that dealt with an upanyasam of Sri Kanchi Maha
Periyava, wherein He had praised the Muka Panchashati. This is a beautiful set of mantras; during recitation, some
errors were found in the original printed source given below; hence comparisons
were made with others; inspite of this, it is felt there are a couple of
printing errors.
This is a long hymn. In the entire set of Muka Panchashati,
having recorded in a factory environment with the need to stop and re-start to
avoid noises such as telephone and fax machine rings getting recorded, the
pitch may not be uniform throughout – please accept sincere apologies.36MB
And now the audio: 39 minutes 17 seconds long.
( Mobile devices: click download; then play.)
NOTE: BECAUSE THIS IS A VERY LARGE FILE ABOUT 36 MEGABYTES, YOU WILL HAVE TO DOWNLOAD AND THEN LISTEN. On mobile devices and some computers, you may get the message -- This file is too large for Google to scan, download anyway? -- You will have to answer "YES" and then listen after download. On some computers, when you hit the play button, if nothing seems to happen, click the Download arrow at the top, click download anyway and then listen. Sorry for the inconvenience -- but this is a big file and praise to Sri Kamakshi Amman -- Her Grace is magnificent !
There have been some errors in the audio pronunciation as
given here:
Verse 9/2nd line: Print should be “Kokanadakaa”
NOT “Kokanadaakaa” – audio is correct
Verse 22/4th line: Audio should be “Tvadapaangamaalaa” NOT
“Tavapaangamaalaa”
Verse 29/3rd line: Audio should be “Kuntikurushva” instead
of “Kuntikarushva”.
Verse 38/3rd line: Audio should be “Sakalaloka” instead of
“Sakalalola”.
Verse 40/3rd line: Audio should be “Pathathyamam” instead
of “Pathathyumam”.
Verse 72/3rd line: Audio should be “Karmakanchuka” instead
of “Karmachanchuka”.
Verse 77/3rd line: Audio should be “Dhraatha” instead of “Dhraadha”.
Verse 98/4th line: Audio
should be “Shoka” instead of “Shokee”.
The Sanskrit lyrics can be found at :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5yrewH-M1znNVhLVUtWV181RlE/view?usp=sharing
To know the meaning of the shlokas, one can go to the
following link which gives translations of sets of shlokas at a time – this is
a really great service to mankind.
http://stotram.lalitaalaalitah.com/blog-page_15
Om Shree Kamakshi Ammane Namo Namaha !!
