Music Contexts: A Concise Dictionary Of Hindustani Music

All rich, durable and varied cultural traditions thrive because of their presence in multiple contexts. Hindustani music is no exception. Arts, culture and life have shaped the multi faceted personality of Indian music. Through this mechanism the performing and scholastic streams of Hindustani music have evolved to crystallize and the totality of inherited and practiced musical knowledge. 

The resulting musico - cultural profile is both rich and complex! Therefore the author thought it useful to combine two approaches of presenting source material, namely, the thesaurus and dictionary approaches. While the thesaurus approach seeks to provide larger contexts, the dictionary format supplies factual information and meanings. Together, the approaches make it easier to appreciate the larger map of Indian music.

Through three hundred entries grouped in three main sections and six subsections, the author deals with etymological, historical, musicological and cultural aspects of Hindustani music. The wide information base and in-depth entries make the work valuable for keen general readers, researchers and practitioners interested in knowing more about their own art.