About the Book We hold with pardonable pride that all the fine arts-Music. Painting, Poetry, Sculpture and Architecture- flourished scientifically in India from very ancient times and that each of them had advanced to such an extent so as to possess well established rules. In support of this we see even at the present day, colossal buildings of rare architectural beauty, temples, beautiful pictures, life-lick statues in granite, exquisitely moulded figures in different metals, ancient poems which delight the hearers to a remarkable degree and any number of Ragas to chant those poems in a melodious manner. On the other hand, we find from experience that the measurements of Srutis which form the basis of all music and the system of producing Ragas from Srutis, have gone out of use for many years. Fortunately these Srutis, the Ragas based upon those Srutis and the compositions of our ancestors have been preserved by traditional and oral transmission. We have to regret that the music of those who are ignorant of Srutis and the Ragas derived from them is as useless as the linguistic ability of a man who has learnt many languages just by hearing them talked, without being able to read of write any of them. Hoping that some of the distinguished Kamatic musicians would help in arriving at definite conclusions as regards Srutis the Sangeetha Vidhya Mahajana Sangam was started by me in Tanjore of the 27th of may 1912.
About the Author Rao Sahib Pandithar 11859-1919) was a Tamil musicologist, composer and a traditional medicine practitioner from Sambayar Vadakarai of Tirunelveli District (That day Kollam district), who is celebrated for his patronage of numerous Tamil musicians and his influential studies concerning the origins and evolution of traditional Tamil music. He belonged to a family of doctors and became interested in Siddha medicine.In 1879, he went to Suruli hills to research herbs growing there. There he met the Siddhar Karunandhar and became his student. After completing his studies he went to Tanjore and worked as a Tamil teacher in Lady Napier Girls School. His wife Gnanavadivu Ponnammal was the headmistress in the same school. In 1890, he left his teaching job to do research on medicine full-time. He started a farm outside Tanjore for growing medicinal plants. He named it Karanandhapuram after his teacher.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
**Contents and Sample Pages**
