सङ्गीतरत्नाकर: प्रथम भाग (शार्ङ्गदेव - स्वरगताध्याय सविस्तार व्याख्या व अनुवाद सहित)

PREFACE
I was inspired to undertake the present project of
translating Saṅgītaratnākara into English by two factors viz.
the inadequacy of the available English translation of the 1st
chapter by C. Kunhan Raja, and the education and training
that I received from Dr. (Miss) Premlata Sharma, Head of
the Department of Musicology, Banaras Hindu University,
while I was her student for Diploma in Music Appreciation
during 1967-69. Even though the textual study of Saṅgīta-
ratnākara was not, strictly speaking, a part of the curriculum,
she was kind and generous enough to recognise the special
position of some of the students, who were also the members
of the staff of the department, and to extend to them the
benefit of her wide learning and research experience by way
of initiating them into the art of interpreting original Sanskrit
texts on music with the help of available commentaries, and
luckily I was one of them. So, even though I had been
working as Research Assistant in the Department of Musico-
logy and in the College of Music & Fine Arts prior to the
formation of the department in 1966, for about ten years or
so, Sanskrit texts on music could become meaningful to and
enjoyable for me only after I could avail of this opportunity
of learning the intricacies, the technicalities and the symbo-
lism of the language of Saṅgīta-śāstra from Dr. Sharma.
Hence, the need for a music-oriented, topic-wise, technically
precise English translation of Saṅgīta-ratnākara written in a
flowing prose style unhindered by frequent Sanskrit inter-
jections and accompanied by an elaborate and lucid com-
mentary, was felt by me not as a scholar of Sanskrit but as a
student of Musicology. A detailed note on the method and
the manner of the translation has been written separately
pointing out the peculiarities of the execution of the work.
In 1970, the University Grants Commission introduced
a scheme of writing university level books and monographs,