PUBLICATIONS Current GR Issue Recent GR Issues Subscribe to the GR October 2001 Issue Instructions for Authors Contact the GR Editor About the Geographical Review Search the GR Index FOCUS on Geography Magazine Ubique Maps, Atlases, and Books

The Geographical Review October 2001, Vol. 91 (4), pp. 690-701 Geography as Melody in Muttusvami Dikshita's Indian Musical Works Chandra S. Balachandran and Surinder M. Bhardwaj Keywords: cultural diffusion, Muttusvami Dikshita, India, music. Click here to view the abstract and first page in Adobe Acrobat format. ABSTRACT: The life and works of Muttusvami Dikshita (1775-1834), a luminary of South Indian Karnatak classical music, abound in spatiocultural symbolisms of integration and harmony. Dikshita's peregrinations symbolize a cultural circuit of Hindu pilgrimage. His studies of North Indian Hindustani music at Varanasi (formerly Benares), and his transplantation of them throughout South India, make him an active agent of cultural diffusion, harmonizing cultural traditions through spatiosymbolic anchors. The religious expression of his musical genius, his songs, and his melodies contributed to linking linguistically and politically disparate regions of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century India. The works of Dikshita affirm India's cultural continuity and underscore its enduring cultural empathies and similarities.