Ancient Indian Classical Music

This book attempts to give a composite view of Indian classical music in an interesting format by including colourful photos and paintings. It is an outline of the major areas in this art from its prehistoric beginnings to the present day. It contains a little of everything and will hopefully arouse the interest of the reading public for a deeper study.

I am profoundly grateful to the music vidwans who have been generous in giving their photographs for publication.

This book could not have taken shape without the encouragement and help of my husband GVR, who has involved himself in every aspect of this project. My sister, Shakuntala Ramani gave enthusiastic support, which was of great help when the project seemed like an impossible exercise. Shanker's skill with the camera got me some rare pictures.

Among the older maestros and among the younger group, I have not mentioned many excellent performers, due to lack of time and space.

The following books have been an invaluable help while writing this book:

Indian Music - Thakur Jaideva Singh
Evolution of Raga and Tala - M.R. Gautam
Naad - Sandeep Bagchi
South Indian Music - Prof Sambamurthy
A History of South India - K.A.Nilakanta Sastri
South Indian Classical Music - Ludwig Pesch
The Great Masters - Mohan Nadkarni
Shruti Magazine - All issues
Diacritical marks have been given for many of the words in the Glossary.

I am grateful to the Development Commissioner, Handicrafts, Govt. of India for permission to use the pictures of Ancient Instruments with descriptive notes from the brochure of Sangita Vadyalaya, Chennai. Some rare pictures of maestros of Hindustani music were included through the courtesy of Sangit Mahabharati, Mumbai.