Sangita Sampradaya Pradarsini

The Sangita Sampradaya Pradarsini of Subbarama Dikshitar is an important text on South Indian Musicology. It was published in Telugu in the year, 1904 at Ettayapuram, Tamilnadu. It contains sections on musicology, biographies of composers and short descriptions of the ragas of South Indian music that follow the scheme established by Venkatamakhin and his descendants / followers.It also has notated compositions to illustrate these ragas.

To commemorate the 100 years of its publication in 1904, an English translation was initiated by Smt. Vidya Jayaraman. Dr.P.P.Narayanaswami, an ardent devotee of Shri Muttusvami Dikshitar and a Professor of Mathematics at St. Johns University New Foundland, created the gamaka symbols using Latex and associated technologies and was responsible for typesetting the bulk of the work. Soon, an enthusiastic team of volunteers and proofreaders joined. The English web edition is based on the original Telugu version and includes all the Gamaka symbols (ornamentations) and Svara notations as given in the original Edition. We have also given here the Vaggeyakara Caritamu or the Biographical accounts of Composers.

Based on feedback for a print edition , a printed edition of this work was released which includes the Sangita Lakshana Pracina Paddhati, Lakshana Sangraha and the section “Instructions for understanding the printed mistakes”. Prof. S.R.Janakiraman had worked on these two sections with his Lakshana guru Shri P.K. Rajagopala Iyer several decades ago, the initial segments of which were published in the Journal of the Madras Music Academy. He then provided the translation and critical commentary for this section which was included in the printed edition.

Dr.PP Narayanaswami and Smt.Vidya Jayaraman express their profound gratitude to the following people who helped complete and release the first English edition of the Sangita Sampradaya Pradarsini.

Prof.S.R.Janakiraman, Musician-Musicologist, Chennai – Translation and Critical Commentary
Technical and scholarly inputs at various stages of this project were generously provided by:
Dr. N.Ramanathan,Musicologist, Chennai, and Dr. R.S.Jayalakshmi, Vina Vidushi Chennai
Some footnotes, clearly marked by the symbol “ED ” that appear in this work, are results of their concrete suggestions.

Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini – English