Thirty songs from the panjab and kashmir

THIRTY SONGS FROM THE PANJAB AND KASHMIR is the eighth in the series of the Col- lected Works of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy in the IGNCA's publication programme. It was originally published by Luzac and Novello, in London in 1913. The songs were recorded by Mrs. Alice Coomaraswamy, who used the Indian name Ratan Devi professionally, with Introduction and translation by Ananda Coomaraswamy, and a Foreword by Rabindranath Tagore. The Coomaraswamys stayed in a houseboat in Srinagar (Kashmir) in 1911, along with Ratan Devi's guru, Usaid Abdul Rahim of Kapurthala. There she studied and did riyaz under the guidance of her ustod. She later transcribed with mu- sic and words some of the songs - both classical and folk - she had learnt. The thirty songs documented by her in staff notation are compositions of genres like Dhrupad, Khayal, Thumri, Dadra, etc. as well as folk songs in Panjabi, Dogri, Kashmiri etc; also sufi songs in Urdu, Persian and Kashmiri. The present volume reproduces the above compilation as Part I, and Part A contains a transcription of the staff notation into Sarigama notation in Devanagari, a Hindi translation of the non- Hindi texts of songs and notes in Hindi and English on raga, tala, and text. Prof. Prem Lata Sharma, an eminent musicologist, has very painstakingly prepared the text of Part A. The value of this volume lies in its great historical importance and vast expanse of musical genres brought under one fold by the great visionary that Coomaraswamy was. His prophetic remark - "Indian music is the most significant of surviving Indian arts; if it dies, it will be of starvation rather than of inherent weakness. It has been, perhaps, the greatest aesthetic achievement of Indian civilisation, the art in which that civilisation has most perfectly expressed itself", deserves serious attention.