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Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Thought. 3. Sound. 4. Chant. 5. Theater. 6. Sastra. 7. Pitch. 8. Time. 9. Form. 10. Song. 11. Style. 12. Afterthoughts. Notes. Glossary of Sanskrit terms. Bibliography. Index. Tables: 1. The six Orthodox systems of Indian philosophy. 2. The forms of the Atman according to the Maitri Upanisad. 3. Two perspectives on sound production, according to the Krama system of Kashmir Shaivism. 4. The twenty-five mute consonants of Sanskrit. 5. Three ancient conceptions of musical sound. 6. The Sanskrit morphophonemes. 7. The seven Svaras. 8. Correspondences to the seven Svaras. 9. The gana Elas as a cultural map of medieval Indian. 10. Coordinates of style from Matanga's Brhaddesi. 11. Coordinates of musical style in the Sangitaratnakara.  

"Offering a broad perspective of the philosophy, theory, and aesthetics of early Indian music and musical ideology, this study makes a unique contribution to our knowledge of the ancient foundations of India's musical culture. Lewis Rowell reconstructs the tunings, scales, modes, rhythms, gestures, formal patterns, and genres of Indian music from Vedic times to the thirteenth century, presenting not so much a history as a thematic analysis and interpretation of India's magnificent musical heritage. "In Indian culture, music forms an integra l part of a broad framework of ideas that iucludes philosophy, cosmology, religion, literature, and science. Rowell works with the known theoretical treatises and the oral tradition in an effort to place the technical details of musical practice in their full cultural context. Many quotations from the original Sanskrit appear here in English translation for the first time, and the necessary technical information is presented in terms accessible to the nonspecialist. These features, combined with Rowell's glossary of Sanskrit terms and extensive bibliography, make Music and Musical Thought in Early India an excellent introduction for the general reader and an indispensable reference for ethno-musicologists, historical musicologists, music theorists, and Indologists."

[Lewis Rowell, Professor of music theory at Indiana University, has written extensively on Indian music and on the philosophy of music.]