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The Nottuswara Sahithya of Muthuswami Dikshitar is a fine example of intercultural musical form in the realm of Carnatic music. Muthuswami Dikshitar, one of the greatest composers of Carnatic music, composed forty compositions known as Nottuswara Sahithya in Sanskrit and Telugu, which are prescribed for abhyasagana or technical compositions in the place of gitam for beginners to practise.
Intercultural compositions were sometimes created by South Indian composers during the late 18th and 19th centuries as that was a time of mutual fascination on the part of Europe and the Orient. These Nottuswara Sahithya pieces are set to English tunes and the text is the form of a poem in Sanskrit or in Telugu. Among the forty compositions, eleven have an exact replica of the English songs' melodies.
Muthuswami Dikshitar (1775-1835) lived during the British period in Indian history and had the opportunity to listen to the Western tunes played by a military band of the British East India Company.
Ramaswami Dikshitar, the father of Muthuswami Dikshitar, was also a great musician and Sanskrit scholar. He brought his three sons to a place called Manali near Madras, to a music patron's house. The latter was the zamindar of Manali and he requested Ramaswami Dikshitar to be his court musician. Therefore he and his three sons settled in Manali for some years. The zamindar was closely connected to the East India Company and he used to take Muthuswami Dikshitar and his brothers to Fort St. George, which was the British Government Secretariat. It was there that they listened to Western music played by the British band. Muthuswami Dikshitar's brother Baluswami Dikshitar was very much fascinated by the fiddle, played by Irishmen in the British band. When he expressed his desire to learn the fiddle, the music patron arranged for an Irish fiddler to teach him the instrument. Baluswami Dikshitar mastered the technique of playing fiddle and adapted it perfectly to play Carnatic music on the European instrument. He was the first to play Carnatic Music on the violin, which has now become an indispensable accompaniment for a Carnatic music concert.
It is said that Muthuswami Dikshitar was requested by the Collector of Madras, Mr Brown, to compose text for famous European airs. Dikshitar accepted his request...