<p> Does it not imply that ‘Rudra Veena’ existed long before Tansen’s period? <br />Was the wind instrument ‘Shehnaai’ – etymologically a combination of ‘shah’ – meaning King and ‘nai’, an age-old wind instrument of the Perso-Arabic belt, an import from Iran or a desi folk instrument? Another myth shattered. Sheikh Chinna Moulana (1924-1999), a well known Nagaswaram player who received the Padma Shri, had a musical lineage that showed how some Muslims gained expertise in this wind-instrument, when Nagaswaram has been traditionally associated with Hindu devotional music.<br /><br />Bharatanatyam <br /><br />How did the four brothers of Thanjavur in the early 19th century under the munificence of the Thanjavur Durbar of Maharaja Sarforji-II systematise the complex system of Bharatanatyam as widely performed today? <br /><br />Such rare vignettes of information and seeking answers to the minutest of questions spanning 2,000 years of the Indian Musical traditions of music and dance, - including details of all forms of dance, raga, tala, gharana, treatises, technical terms, instruments as well as short biographies of musicians, Gurus, saint-poets and composers from Kashmir to Kerala have gone into this comprehensive and immensely vast encyclopedia.</p>
<p> Does it not imply that ‘Rudra Veena’ existed long before Tansen’s period? <br />Was the wind instrument ‘Shehnaai’ – etymologically a combination of ‘shah’ – meaning King and ‘nai’, an age-old wind instrument of the Perso-Arabic belt, an import from Iran or a desi folk instrument? Another myth shattered. Sheikh Chinna Moulana (1924-1999), a well known Nagaswaram player who received the Padma Shri, had a musical lineage that showed how some Muslims gained expertise in this wind-instrument, when Nagaswaram has been traditionally associated with Hindu devotional music.<br /><br />Bharatanatyam <br /><br />How did the four brothers of Thanjavur in the early 19th century under the munificence of the Thanjavur Durbar of Maharaja Sarforji-II systematise the complex system of Bharatanatyam as widely performed today? <br /><br />Such rare vignettes of information and seeking answers to the minutest of questions spanning 2,000 years of the Indian Musical traditions of music and dance, - including details of all forms of dance, raga, tala, gharana, treatises, technical terms, instruments as well as short biographies of musicians, Gurus, saint-poets and composers from Kashmir to Kerala have gone into this comprehensive and immensely vast encyclopedia.</p>
