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

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and I took the earliest opportunity of putting forth a proposal
of writing an English translation of Saṅgīta-ratnākara in three
parts related to music (i. e. excluding the chapter on dancing)
under the expert guidance and supervision of Dr. (Miss)
Prem Lata Sharma who readily agreed to sponsor the
proposal. And the U. G. C. too was kind and gracious
enough to grant me a Research Fellowship for three years to
undertake this project.
I am happy to say that as the result of the combined
efforts of the U.G.C., which provided me the material means
to pursue my researches and writing unhindered, the autho-
rities of the Banaras Hindu University who granted me leave
to work on the project, and Dr. Prem Lata Sharma who has
very affectionately, very carefully and very meticulously
nursed the whole product, and Messrs. Motilal Banarsidass,
who readily agreed to publish this work, it has become
possible for me to present this first volume comprising
Chapter I related to the treatment of svara, in the service of
the learned scholars and the learning students; and I hope it
will be found to be of greater help in understanding Śārṅga-
deva, whose work Saṅgīta-ratnākara is a landmark in the
history of Saṅgīta-śāstra.
Though the translation was originally planned and
written out with an elaborate commentary and critical as
well as literary annotations with a view to making it self-
sufficient, it has been considered necessary, convenient and
useful to give the Sanskrit text as well along with it. This
was considered necessary firstly because the translation is
presented in a topic-wise order dealing with homogeneous
ideas and concepts in convenient paragraphs in order to
make the reading more intelligible and easy to grasp, and
secondly because it was found unavoidable to modify some
of the readings of the text as published by the Adyar Library
in view of the technical accuracy of the readings available
in the Ānandāśrama edition or other comparable texts like
Saṅgītarāja of Rāṇā Kumbha and so on. Thus, the Sanskrit

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text has also been partly re-edited in so far as the arrange-
ment of some of the verses has been modified to correspond
with the paragraphs as arranged in the translation and also
in so far as some modifications have also been made in the
text here and there, though very sparingly.
The present project envisages the translation of six out
of the seven chapters of Saṅgīta-ratnākara divided as follows :
Volume I : Chapter I
Volume II : Chapters II to IV
Volume III : Chapters V & VI
I am happy to disclose that the Ms. of Vol. II is also
almost ready. It will not be before long that it is presented
for publication, while work on Volume III as well is in
progress.
It is not for me to say that the task of translating
Saṅgīta-ratnākara (Vol. I), that I had set to myself quite
unwittingly in my enthusiasm for doing something worth-
while, could hardly be accomplished by me single-handed,
since it not only demands great proficiency in Sanskrit and
English languages but also an insight into the musical con-
cepts of Saṅgīta-śāstra, and besides the publication of such a
work naturally involves co-operation of many able workers.
I am, therefore, greatly indebted to my seniors and friends
who have lovingly rendered every possible help in bringing
the work upto the mark, though here I can make notable
mention only of those few but for whose contribution this
work could not have been published in its present form.
I do not find any words indeed to adequately acknow-
ledge the contribution of Dr. (Miss) Premlata Sharma under
whose expert advice and able supervision the whole work has
been executed and who, out of her love for learning, volun-
tarily offered to write an introduction to the translation. In
fact, whatever I have been able to do is primarily because
of her, since without her initiation and continued co-ope-
ration, nothing could have been finally accomplished. I am