MUSICAL MYSTERIES AND MYSTICAL MELODIES
but he also brought in Hindustani musical elements to Carnatic music. This was a consequence of being allowed by his parents to go to Varanasi with the yogi Chidambaranath who became his spiritual master (and gifted him the Sarasvati vina that he excelled in playing).
Deekshitar also made good use of the Western music he experienced. As young men, he and his brother Baluswami frequented Fort St George (Chennai) where they heard the music of English bands. While Baluswami, encouraged by his brother, learnt the western violin and pioneered its use in Carnatic music, Deekshitar had fun composing Sanskrit lyrics for 37 Western tunes.
A Deekshitar miracle story goes that he sang Raag Amritavarshini to invoke rain on the drought-stricken Tamil village of Sattur. Amritavarshini means ‘showering nectar’ in Sanskrit. The raag resembles Raag Malashree in Hindustani music. Deekshitar hailed Devi as ‘Ananda amritakarshini varshini’, ‘the One who showers the nectar of spiritual bliss’. They say that when he sang ‘Salilam varshaya varshaya’ (Let the rain pour), there followed such a torrent from heaven that he had to plead, “Sthambaya, sthambaya” (Do stop).
With such stories linking the land and still active in our culture can we wonder that south Asian musicians never stop pleading with us to stop fighting over externals and listen instead to the harmony that they find and share?