Kāśī viśveśvara – Kāmbhoji – Aṭa – Muttusvāmi Dīkṣita

I have been intrigued by this truly beautiful composition ever since reading yet another typically — and maniacally — erudite blog essay on it by Ravi Rajagopalan, which describes it as a 'forgotten magnum opus'. I cannot add anything to his analysis, so I simply commend it to you: https://guruguha.org/kasivisvesvara-e.... The key points are, firstly, that Dīkṣita composed it under the hospitality and patronage of a certain Vaidyaliṅga Mudaliyār, the zamindar of a place called Kuḻikkarai, which Dīkṣita renders into Sanskrit as gartatīrtha. Other pieces composed during this period include the caturdaśa rāgamālikā Śrī Viśvanātham and Annapūrṇē Viśālākṣī — my late grandmother's favourite. Unlike the other Kāmbhoji compositions Śrī Subrahmanyāya Namaste and (the likely spurious) Marakatavallīm, it is rarely ever performed — which is not surprising. It is the most challenging piece I have attempted so far. D. K. Pattammal — who studied under Ambi Dīkṣitar and, after his death, continued her training under T. L. Venkatarama Iyer — apparently used to say that singing this piece was as difficult as performing a yajña, the Vedic ritual sacrifice conducted by a complement of sixteen brāhmaṇas in pursuit of immortality. A professional hazard for the śrautis conducting these sacrifices was that their heads would explode the instant they made a mistake. So far that hasn't happened… yet.