Dhrupad of the Dagars, Conceptual Foundations and Contemporary Questions by Ashish Sankrityayan deals with the history of the tradition of the descendants of Behram Khan, renowned today as the Dagars, and the conceptual foundations of their art, in the overall context of Indian music. It deals at length with the traditional system of pedagogy of the Dagars, and the changes that came about in teaching methods in the last several decades, and establishes through the documented teachings and explanations of the Dagars, and in particular of Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar, reportedly the last storehouse of knowledge of the tradition, that dhrupad is the culmination of a long process of development from the vedic chants, and differs in a fundamental sense from the forms that developed later, in the very concept of a note, of tonal relations, and of raga - that the music of the Dagars is based on the older shruti-grama-murcchana system, and the concomitant use of a system of sound, resonance, and gesture through what are called the vedic svaras: udatta, anudatta, and svarita, that got supplanted by the new thata or mela system based on twelve notes, around the seventeenth century, with the older system surviving as esoteric knowledge in a few traditions.

Hardbound with 836 pages and over 600 rare photographs, printed on art paper at Thomson Press, Delhi, price Euros 74 + Euros 24.50 packing and sending (Registered Airmail/Courier), includes a CD and a collection of digitised rare publications and manuscripts referred to in the work.

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for international buyers:

Euros 98.50 Book inclusive packing and sending (Registered Airmail/Courier) + Free CD and packet of digitised archival material

USD 120 Book inclusive packing and sending (Registered Airmail/Courier) + Free CD and packet of digitised archival material

For buyers in India:

Rs 6500/- by registered insured parcel and Rs 6150/- by registered parcel without insurance (+ Free CD and packet of digitised archival material), payment by bank transfer, please email sankrityayanATgmail for bank account details.

sample pages in high resolution in google slides, google photo album,

reviews of buyers - 1, 2, 3

Video presentation on the book

 

Book Presentation by Ashish Sankrityayan with sample archival recordings and stills hosted by Culturemonks/The Listening Biennial