The songs published here were recorded by Mrs. Alice Coomaraswamy, who used the Indian name Ratan Devi professionally, with introduction and translation by Ananda Coomaraswamy and a foreword by Rabindranath Tagore.

Ratan Devi transcribed, with music and words, some of the songs -both classical and folk -she had learnt from her guru Ustad Abdul Rahim of Kapurthala. The thirty songs documented by her in staff notations are compositions of genres like dhrupad, khayāl, Ṭhumrī and dādrā, as well as folk-songs in Punjabi, Dogri, Kashmiri, etc., also Sūfi songs in Urdu, Persian and Kashmiri.

The present volume reproducing the above compilation as parts I and II contains a transcription of the staff notations into sā ri gā mā in Devanagari, a Hindi translation of the non-Hindi texts of songs and notes in Hindi and English on rāga, tāla and the text.

 

 

Available at:IGNCA, New Delhi.