#Arunagirinatha

“Tradition says a ruined man threw himself from a temple tower and got up singing. The legend cannot be checked; the songs can — about 1,334 survive, each on a different rhythmic scaffold, and that countable, danceable, still-living architecture is the real miracle.”

“He composed the drum-pattern first and then made Tamil dance on it — hundreds of songs, each built on its own unique rhythmic mold, fusing prayer, confession and percussion so tightly that Carnatic musicians still train their sense of rhythm against him.”