There once lived a man called Muthu along with his wife somewhere in the land of Tamil Nadu. Muthu grew up in a family that was surrounded by pious musicians and thus he inherited both these traits. …

When you see the words ‘concert’ and ‘appreciation’ associated with Carnatic music, we automatically link it to an expert playing excerpts from recordings of yesteryear stalwarts and talking about what one should notice while listening to it. I am not that expert and so I am not writing about that. …

This is a humble exploration of feminism in the popular Navavarnam musical work by Sri Muthuswamy Dikshitar on Goddess Kamalamba. Kamalamba Navavarnam was composed on the basis Sri Vidhya Upasana, which is a system of belief by a section of people that the supreme energy in this universe is Feminine…

Ragapedia is a series of posts I am writing, one Carnatic Raga per post, on my understanding of the ragam, carnatic compositions in that ragam and how it has been dealt within films. …

Ragapedia is a series of posts I am writing, one Carnatic Raga per post, on my understanding of the ragam, carnatic compositions in that ragam and how it has been dealt within films. This post is about the ragam Anandabhairavi, a soothing and traditional ragam. Anandabhairavi is a janyam of…

As we know that the Carnatic fraternity predominantly passes on its skills in an oral tradition, giving rise to different schools of music (styles of singing) each with its own uniqueness and specialty, and musicians at each level of the hierarchy added something on their own and passed it on…

Although the Dikshitar is a family of composers and musicians and everyone had contributed to Carnatic Music, the name Dikshitar by default refers to Muthuswamy Dikshitar, who is also one of the Trinity (comprising of Thyagaraja, Muthuswamy Dikshitar and Syama Sastri). This post is simply an introduction to Muthuswamy Dikshitar…

I believe that ragas elicit certain emotions in you when you listen to them and each one has one emotional trait that is predominant. It is possible for song or songs with lyrics that carry a certain emotion to majorly influence how the raga is “felt”. It is also possible…

Ragapedia is a series of posts I am writing, one Carnatic Raga per post, on my understanding of the ragam, carnatic compositions in that ragam and how it has been dealt within films. This post is about the ever bright and magnificent ragam Mohanam. …