Description
Motilal Banarsidass Publications Dictionary Of Hindustani Classical Music by Chaudhuri Bimalkanta Roy
In this book the author has dealt with the musical terms as found in the old sastras and are also in common use. He has explained these terms in simple language with reference to their history of origin. Description of seventy-eight different musical instruments and forty-seven different Talas are also there. An essential aid to research-scholars and students of music.The Bengali version of the book Bharatiya Sangeetkosh earned for him "Sangeet Natak Academy" award as the best book on music published during the period from 1960 to 1968. Bimalakanta Roychaudhuri was born in 1909 in all illustrious family of musical heritage. He had his training in music from Sitalchandra Mukhopadhyay, Sitalkrishna Ghosh, Amir Khan (Sarod) and then from Inayet Khan, the foremost Sitar players of those days. He also had his musical training from his maternal uncle Birendrakishore Roychaudhuri and maternal grandfather Brojendrakishore Roychaudhuri. He took part in the translation of "Sangeet Ratnakara" from Sanskrit to Bengali under the patronage of Brojendrakishore Roychaudhuri. He was Chairman of the Board of Musical Studies of the University of Calcutta. His work "Raga Vyakarana" (in Hindi) has been published by the Bharatiya Jnanpith.The growing interest of the Western, especially the English-speaking nations towards the North Indian Classical Music is more evident now than ever before. It is no doubt a sign for us to be happy about; at the same time it causes us deep concern whenever we try to appreciatethe great responsibility that has devolved upon us in presenting the correct interpretation of musical terms of the ancient Sanskrit Sastras.Aphoristic couplets of the ancient Sanskrit Texts, as they mostly are, even with their annotations, easily lend themselves to be misinterpreted today. Painfully bearing this in mind the author has attempted this dictionary with great trepidations. He has depended solely on his own inner resources in interpreting the musical terms rather than allowing himself to be influenced by any other publications in English or in any other languages, lest he should tread on the trap of terminological inexactitude.