From the Tanjore Court to the Madras Music Academy A Social History of Music in South India

by Subramanian, Lakshmi

• ISBN13: 9780195678352
• ISBN10: 0195678354
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-03-23
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book traces the adaptation of the traditional music in south India to the necessities of colonial and post-colonial social realities. The cultivation of classical music and the music of the Tanjore Trinity in particular, emerged as a central element in the articulation, nourishment anddefence of a collective cultural persona by the Tamil Brahmin community in the face of the atomising threat of modernity. This project coincided with the growth of nationalist political agendas and traditional music was enlisted in the service of the freedom movement as an emblem of India s uniqueand independent authenticity. Classical music, in moving from the quiet courtyards of Tanjore to the concert halls of Madras, acquired a systematic re-ordering internally and externally that has empowered it to survive and thrive in the eccentric contemporary world.

Author Biography

Lakshmi Subramanian is Coordinator of the Indian Ocean Studies Programme, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, and was formerly Senior Fellow in History at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements	vii
List of Illustrations	x
Introduction	1	(22)
Music Comes to the City	23	(32)
Defining the Classical: The Nationalist Imperative	55	(29)
Consolidating the Classical: The Madras Music Academy and the Politics of Custodianship	84	(31)
On the Margins of the Classical: Law, Social Reform, and the Devadasis in the Madras Presidency	115	(27)
Contesting the Classical: The Tamil Isai Iyakkam and the Contest for Custodianship	142	(30)
Epilogue	172	(8)
Bibliography	180	(12)
Index	192