Dattilam

by Mukund Lath

The Dattilam is a remarkable treatise from the earliest known period of organised, systematic writing on music in India. The work can be placed in the same period as the Natyasastra and it presents to us a well develped sastra composed at the end of a long tradition of analytic thinking on music.The present edition of the Dattilam contains the text with variant readings, and English translation facing the original and a commentary on the text to facilitate its comprehension. Dr. Mukund Lath was born in Calcutta in 1937. He is a historian teaching in the department of history and Indian culture in the University of Rajasthan Jaipur. He has had an interest in music since his childhood and is a disciple of Pandit Jasraj. He is equally interested in the theory and history of Indian music and his A Study of Dattilam 1978 has been wiedely acclaimed among musicologists and scholars all over the world.