One song at a time - 7. Muthuswami Dikshitar and Rabindranath Tagore
The transfer of musical ideas between the North and South India is well documented. Muthuswami Dikshitar had visited Kasi and brought along with him lot of Hindustani ragas to the South. The North Indian musicians turned Muthuswami Dikshitar's 'Vatapi Ganapatim Bhaje' into a khayal. (Wonderfully sung by Amir Khan.) Many such transfers have happened. I was aware of many of them but not about the one which inspired Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. One of my good friends had once sent me a link to a Rabindra Sangeeth song, which was actually Tagore's homage to that monumental krithi of Muthuswami Dikshitar, 'meenakshi me mudam dehi'. Tagore had taken this krithi and had made minor modifications to it and had written the Bengali lyrics to it. The song starts as 'basanthi o bhubhanamohini'. Very nice words. Gurudev must have been very impressed by the krithi. And what is there not to be impressed by it? 'meenakshi me mudam Dehi' stands as a testimon...