When one of Carnatic’s greatest was inspired by British tunes

Some 200 years ago, musician and composer Muthuswami Dikshitar moved to Manali near Madras following an invitation from a zamindar, Venkatakrishna Mudaliar. It is believed during that stint Muthuswami happened to visit Fort St George where he watched British bands belt out western orchestral music. The tunes, some of which are still part of the repertoire of Irish and Scottish melodies, had a quality about them that fascinated the composer from Tiruvarur near Thanjavur.

Dikshitar drew inspiration from these tunes and went on to compose 33 simple, hummable songs in the Carnatic music format on gods and goddesses in the Hindu pantheon and called them Nottuswara (note + swaras). In 1905, nearly 70 years after he died, his grandson Subbarama Dikshitar compiled them into a book, Prathamaabhyasa Pustakamu (‘first learning book’) in Telugu.

“Look at Dikshitar’s vision,” says musician T M Krishna. “This is what is known as transcending influence, inspiration, and doing what it takes to find one’s own voice through it all.”

March 24 marks the 249th birth anniversary of Dikshitar, recognised as one of the Trinity of Carnatic music – the other two being, Tyagaraja and Syama Sastri, and in their own ways, the classical music fraternity in Chennai, is, individually and collectively, doing its bit to celebrate his legacy.

Last week, at Ettayapuram, in Tuticorin, at the samadhi of Dikshitar, where it is believed he spent his final days, a few musicians brought together by Guruguhaamrta, a group helmed by Carnatic musician and IT professional G Ravikiran paid homage to Dikshitar through song.

“Singing there is an emotional moment for me but I won’t call it just an offering,” says Krishna, who, along with wife Sangeetha Sivakumar, also a musician, was part of the annual ritual. “I think of it as a way of centering yourself in the art that you practice; it’s about finding that connection with the mastery and artistry of these musical geniuses who continue to live only in sound. Think about it, Dikshitar today lives in the sound that he created, right?”

A few days later, three young musicians, who are at the helm of the Kural Trust that began last year as an e-magazine on music, organised the Guruguha Akhandam at The Artery in Chennai. The 12-hour marathon event allowed 70 musicians, known and little-known, to present popular and rare compositions of Dikshitar, in the 10 minutes they were allotted. “It was special to revive the old style of continuous, back-to-back singing format,” says V Subashri, a musician and a founding member of Kural.

In another initiative, SSP Archival Project by the Jnanarnava Trust, Krishna, violinist R K Shriramkumar and musician and musicologist R S Jayalakshmi, have archived 50 of Dikshitar’s nearly 500 compositions in the original format that they were written in referencing the book Sangitha Sampradaya Pradarsini published by Subbarama Dikshitar in 1905.

“The quality of Dikshitar’s music,” says Jayalakshmi, “is that he looked at ragams the way they are; in their original format and, as a result giving them a unique quality.

Documenting these aspects can be useful information for researchers and music students today, and can help and shape their musical thought process.”

Ravikiran says Dikshitar was like love at first sight for him. “It was a night in 2004 when I heard Dikshitar’s Sri Bhargavi Bhadram in ragam Mangalam Kaisiki sung by my guru, T M Krishna,” says Ravikiran. “I listened to it on loop nearly 40 times until the wee hours of the morning.” Ravikiran’s commitment towards discovering Dikshitar culminated in Guruguhaamrta in 2009, a platform dedicated to celebrating Dikshitar.

Born into a Brahmin family, legend has it that Lord Muruga, the deity of the temple of Tirutani in TN, placed a piece of sugar candy in Dikshitar’s mouth and commanded him to sing. It is said this marked the beginning of his career in music and also led to Dikshitar using Guruguha as the signature word in all his compositions.

By the time he was 16, Dikshitar was well-versed in singing, veena playing, and the vedas. As an avid traveller, who visited several temple towns, the descriptive quality of Dikshitar’s musical compositions are not only subjects of academic learning and discourse but also are detailed and deliberate in their content, allowing insights into each of these kshetras, the presiding deity, temple traditions, local culture and festivities of the region.

“Each of his compositions is like a Wikipedia of that temple,” says Ravikiran. This sub-set of Dikshitar’s compositions was the inspiration for the mini documentary series, Dikshita Kshetra Darshanam (DKD) that Ravikiran launched in 2022 with historian and storyteller Madhusudhan Kalaichelvan. The idea behind DKD, now launching a second season, is to also allow everyone access to Dikshitar’s creations. “We live in a world where it is possible to document these things,” Ravikiran says, “And we must.”

(The writer is an independent journalist and founder

of Aalaap)

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