Music maestro Ilaiyaraaja lights 'moksha deepam' for S P Balasubrahmanyam

Legendary music composer Ilaiyaraaja on Saturday travelled to Tiruvannamalai, 190 km from here, to light a moksha deepam at the famous Arunachaleswarar Temple for his friend of over five decades, S P Balasubrahmanyam, who died on Friday.

Ilaiyaraaja, who was at a loss for words to mourn his friend’s loss on Friday, lit a moksha deepam at the temple at around 6 pm on Saturday. According to Hindu traditions, moksha deepam is lit for a departed soul, making a prayer to God to help the soul rest in peace.

Read: SPB-Ilaiyaraaja jugalbandi: Of loyalty, royalty & the spat

A picture of Ilaiyaraaja holding the deepam was posted on Twitter by publicist ‘Diamond’ Babu.

“Where did you go, Balu? I do not see anything in the world now. I do not know what to say. I do not have words to speak. What do I say? There is a limit to every grief. There is no limit to this one,” Ilaiyaraaja had said on Friday, in a video released to mourn SPB’s death.

Ilaiyaraaja and SPB had enjoyed excellent personal and professional relationships for over five decades as they went on to give some of the finest melodies that the South Indian cinema never had.