Few other Carnatic musician s have left as indelible an imprint on the sands of time as Tiruvadutura N. Rajarathnam Pillai, the wizard with the nagaswara. Even today, 42 years after he breathed his last, his music is recalled vividly; not with reverence, for he himself was an irreverent man, but wit h awe, wonderment and respect. He was a rebel and a maverick, but a genius. His personality was flawed but his music , fired by a wonderful imagination and honed by practice, was almost ethereal. He was an epoch-maker who gave a new, enthralling dimension to nagaswara music and, through this music, to Carnatic music itself.