सङ्गीतदर्पण (दामोदर पण्डित - तंजौर सरस्वती महल संस्करण, सङ्गीत एवं नाट्य लक्षण)

Introduction
'Sangita Darpanam' or the 'Mirror of Music' is a
comprehensive treatise on all the chapters of Music including
Dance, written by 'Chatura Damodara Pandita', about the
16th century. The author belonged to a family versed in
Sangita and Sahitya. His father, Lakshmidhara is the author
of the well-known commentary called 'Srutiranjani' on 'Gita
Govinda' of Jayadeva, Lakshmidhara refers to some of the
text books on music that were extant in his time but now lost,
and he appears to have written a treatise himself on Bharata
Sastra. He belonged to Cherukuri in the Guntur District,
and was a Court poet of Tirumalairaya (1570-73) of Vijaya-
nagar. Born in such a family, Damodara soon acquired
sound scholarship and mastery over Music and Dance. From
the fact that Damodara was patronised by the Moghul
Emperor, Jehanghir, we can conclude that our author had
won wide renown as an authority on Music and Dance. It is
probable that the name 'Chatura' attached to his name is an
honorific title, although it is equally probable that it is a
family name revived by him.
Damodara had thus excellent opportunities for acquain-
ting himself with the musical modes of the South and
of the North. The author has given in this book a clear
and complete picture of the Sangita Sastra and Sampradaya
that was in vogue in his days. It must first be
remembered for understanding this work in its historical
setting, that this work belongs to the period of revival or
renaissance of our arts, after their complete oblivion, during the
dark peried in South India between 1300 and 1400. The exact
manner in which our artistic tradition was broken, and broken
irretrievably in the 14th century, has yet to be found out. But
it is a fact that in every branch of our culture, we notice a
complete break in the tradition during this period,. so much so
that those like Vidyaranya who sought to recover and revive