PART-20

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PART-2.......MANALI AND TO KAASI WITH CHITHAMBARANATHA YOGI

2 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 partic...
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PART-14....KUZHIKKARAI AND MANNAARKUDI

14 Places around Tiruvarur, Kuzhikkarai and composition of shri viswanatham ragamalika, Mannargudi  ============================ We do not know how comfortably or otherwise Dikshitar was placed in those early years after his return to Tiruvarur. His father Ramaswami Dikshitar was a recipient of the Tanjavur king's munificence earlier. Whether this continued in full measure after the family returned to Tiruvarur is not known, though it can be surmised that some kind of allowance must have been offered by the palace in lieu of Ramaswami Dikshitar's services to the cause of music. What can be said with some authenticity is that the Tiruvarur temple would have catered to the needs of the Dikshitar family. . As already pointed out earlier, Ramaswami Dikshitar, and later on Muttuswami Dikshitar, were both associated with organising the temple music. Nevertheless, because of Dikshitar's peripatetic life, the temple might not have been able to regularly provide for his family. For,...
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PART-4.......THIRUTTHANI AND GURUGUHA VIBHAKTHI KRUTHIS, KALAHASTHI

4 Tiruttani and the guruguha vibhakti kritis =================--- Sharing the secret of his inner voice with his parents, Muttuswami expressed his desire to them to visit Tiruttani. Ramaswami Dikshitar and Subbalakshmi blessed their first-born. Before long, Muttuswami was on his way to the hallowed hill shrine of Tiruttani in the company of his brothers. After having darshan of Lord Subrahmanya at the sanctum-sanctorum, Muttuswami took a vow to perform spiritual austerities for a manDala or forty days. Every morning he took his bath at the temple tank downhill and climbed the steps to begin his tapas. His time was thus spent in worship of the Lord and practicing deep meditation. - It was the fortieth day of his stay at Tiruttani. While Muttuswami was repeating the Shadakshari mantra, he heard a voice near him say, "Muttuswami, open your mouth". Muttuswami opened his eyes and saw before him an elderly person whose whole being was suffused with spiritual splendour. The old man...
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