PART-2.......MANALI AND TO KAASI WITH CHITHAMBARANATHA YOGI
2
Manali to Kashi (with Chidambaranath Yogi)
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After Muthukrishna Mudaliar's death, his son Venkatakrishna (Chinnayya) Mudaliar continued to play host to the Dikshitars. The Dikshitar family lived in Tiruvottriyur and later at Manali, close to the "Meddai Veedu", the palatial country home of the Mudaliars. (Till the 1980s, this house existed as a ruin). Venkatakrishna Mudaliar was also a dubash, attached to the East India Company and quite influential with his English masters. He introduced Muttuswami and his younger brothers to the bands playing Western music at Fort St. George. Muthuswami listened keenly and assimilated the essentials of that alien music. Later in his life he composed Sanskrit sAhityas in praise of Hindu deities for about thirty-five of those Western tunes including the British national anthem. These are called nOTTu svara sAhityas. Ramaswami Dikshitar who observed
the various western instruments being played, was particularly fascinated by the violin. He spoke to the Mudaliar who engaged an Englishman, Col. Brown to teach the violin to Baluswami, Ramaswami Dikshitar's youngest son. Baluswami attained proficiency on the instrument and with the help of his father and eldest brother Muttuswami, adapted the violin to Carnatic music. The Carnatic music world owes it to Baluswami Dikshitar and later Vadivelu, the youngest of the Tanjore Quartette and a disciple of Muttuswami Dikshitar, for introducing and adapting the violin to South Indian music. Life went on smoothly and in a satisfactory manner for the Dikshitar family. A visitor was to change all that. Chidambaranatha Yogi, a Vedantin, tantric, and a spiritually evolved sannyasi, came to the Mudaliar household on his way to Kashi. It was Chidambaranatha Yogi who had given shri vidya dIkshA to Ramaswami Dikshitar, early in the latter's life at Tiruvarur. The Yogi was also a guru to the Mudaliar family. He was therefore welcomed with deep veneration by the Mudaliars as well as the Dikshitar family. Chidambaranatha Yogi stayed for a few days with the Dikshitars. Muttuswami it was who was called upon to serve the Yogi. The lad, with reverence and humility, catered to all his needs. During the Yogi's pUjA, Muthuswami would play on the vINA and sing. The Yogi was quite impressed by the modesty, piety and the musical prowess of Muttuswami and was very affectionate towards the lad. The time came for the Yogi to resume his tour. The Dikshitars prostrated before him and asked for his blessings. Ramaswami Dikshitar requested Chidambaranatha Yogi to ask for whatever he wanted and promised that he would fulfill it. Whereupon,
Manali to Kashi (with Chidambaranath Yogi)
==================================
After Muthukrishna Mudaliar's death, his son Venkatakrishna (Chinnayya) Mudaliar continued to play host to the Dikshitars. The Dikshitar family lived in Tiruvottriyur and later at Manali, close to the "Meddai Veedu", the palatial country home of the Mudaliars. (Till the 1980s, this house existed as a ruin). Venkatakrishna Mudaliar was also a dubash, attached to the East India Company and quite influential with his English masters. He introduced Muttuswami and his younger brothers to the bands playing Western music at Fort St. George. Muthuswami listened keenly and assimilated the essentials of that alien music. Later in his life he composed Sanskrit sAhityas in praise of Hindu deities for about thirty-five of those Western tunes including the British national anthem. These are called nOTTu svara sAhityas. Ramaswami Dikshitar who observed
the various western instruments being played, was particularly fascinated by the violin. He spoke to the Mudaliar who engaged an Englishman, Col. Brown to teach the violin to Baluswami, Ramaswami Dikshitar's youngest son. Baluswami attained proficiency on the instrument and with the help of his father and eldest brother Muttuswami, adapted the violin to Carnatic music. The Carnatic music world owes it to Baluswami Dikshitar and later Vadivelu, the youngest of the Tanjore Quartette and a disciple of Muttuswami Dikshitar, for introducing and adapting the violin to South Indian music. Life went on smoothly and in a satisfactory manner for the Dikshitar family. A visitor was to change all that. Chidambaranatha Yogi, a Vedantin, tantric, and a spiritually evolved sannyasi, came to the Mudaliar household on his way to Kashi. It was Chidambaranatha Yogi who had given shri vidya dIkshA to Ramaswami Dikshitar, early in the latter's life at Tiruvarur. The Yogi was also a guru to the Mudaliar family. He was therefore welcomed with deep veneration by the Mudaliars as well as the Dikshitar family. Chidambaranatha Yogi stayed for a few days with the Dikshitars. Muttuswami it was who was called upon to serve the Yogi. The lad, with reverence and humility, catered to all his needs. During the Yogi's pUjA, Muthuswami would play on the vINA and sing. The Yogi was quite impressed by the modesty, piety and the musical prowess of Muttuswami and was very affectionate towards the lad. The time came for the Yogi to resume his tour. The Dikshitars prostrated before him and asked for his blessings. Ramaswami Dikshitar requested Chidambaranatha Yogi to ask for whatever he wanted and promised that he would fulfill it. Whereupon,
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Chidambaranatha Yogi asked Ramaswami Dikshitar to send his son Muttuswami to accompany him to Kashi. The father was benumbed with shock and pleaded with the Yogi to spare Muttuswami, saying that the lad was born after a long time in their lives, that he was very young and that they could not bear to be separated from him. Chidambaranatha Yogi was annoyed and told Ramaswami Dikshitar that he wanted nothing else and that if the former did not want to send his son along, so be it. Sensing the delicacy of the situation, Venkatakrishna Mudaliar intervened in the matter and bid Ramaswami Dikshitar part with his son, saying that Muttuswami would be safe with the Yogi, that such an opportunity of serving a great yati was rare to get in life, and that the lad would benefit immensely from association with the great man. The father finally agreed to part with the son. It was a tearful farewell that the family gave its first born.
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Chidambaranatha Yogi accompanied by Muttuswami left Manali on their pilgrimage to the holy city of Kashi. The journey to Kashi in those days involved travelling on foot for months together, sometimes close to a year depending on the vagaries of the weather. Pilgrims also sometimes made detours from the straight route in order to bathe in the sacred rivers and have darshan of important shrines. The usual route taken by pilgrims from the south to Kashi was Tiruttani, Mangalagiri, the Krishna and Godavari regions of what is now Andhra Pradesh, Puri Jagannath and Allahabad.
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Chidambaranatha Yogi and Muthuswami visited the important shrines and tIrthAs on the way. The Yogi explained to the young lad the significance and importance of each kshetrA that they visited.
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After a few months of travel the party reached Kashi. Under the benign grace of Chidambaranatha Yogi, Muttuswami lived a deeply religious and spiritual life at Kashi. The Yogi initiated him in the Sri Vidya cult, gave him upadEsa of the ShODashAkshari mantra and trained him in the tantric mode of worship. He also taught the young lad yOga and vEdAnta. Muttuswami spent his time in Kashi serving his guru, reciting the vEdAs, practising Shri Vidya, meditating, and singing and playing on the vIna. This kind of disciplined life resulted in Muttuswami's acquiring a keen and perceptive intellect and a mind that was capable of probing deep into spiritual matters. Doubtless, it also sowed the seeds of vairAgya (detachment) and instilled in the young lad a sense of equanimity. Though very young, and though he sometimes felt the separation from his parents, Muttuswami came to look upon the Yogi not only as his guru but as the embodiment of his father and mother too. The Yogi in turn, loved his disciple and took care of him as a mother would. The relationship between guru and
sishyA was unique. Being an advanced tantric and a spiritually evolved Yogi, Chidambaranatha was intuitively aware of the tremendous potential of his disciple, the epoch-making task that Muttuswami would be charged with in future and the eternal fame that would be his lot.
sishyA was unique. Being an advanced tantric and a spiritually evolved Yogi, Chidambaranatha was intuitively aware of the tremendous potential of his disciple, the epoch-making task that Muttuswami would be charged with in future and the eternal fame that would be his lot.
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Muttuswami also had the opportunity of listening to Hindustani music at Kashi and imbibe its essential features. It is handed down through tradition that Muttuswami was away from his family for five years. It can therefore be safely assumed that Muthuswami spent between 3 ½ to 4 years at Kashi. It is quite possible that Chidambaranatha Yogi must have taken Muthuswami to many holy shrines in the North including Badrinath, but it is doubtful whether the future composer would have visited Nepal as that country was under the Gurkhas then and there were several fratricidal wars of succession raging regularly.
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