Thirty Songs from the Panjab and Kashmir

Ratan Devi, Ananda Kentish Coomaraswmay and Rabindranath Tagore, Thirty Songs from the Panjab and Kashmir: Recorded by Ratan Devi; with introduction and translations by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and a foreword by Rabindranath Tagore, London: Old Bourne Press, 1913

vii; 76 pp with one black and white plate frontispiece and one black and white plate with captioned tissue guard; original hardbound
11.4 x 8.8 x 0.5 in (29 x 22.5 x 1.5 cm)

Limited Edition of 405 copies.

The songs published in this book 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. It is the genius of Ananda Coomaraswamy that brings together classical, semi-classical and folksongs in this volume.

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 are unique, since it puts together songs of various levels of creativity - classical genres are represented by Dhrupad, Dhamar and Khyal, semi-classical by Thumri, Ghazals and Qawwalis, as well as folk songs in Punjabi, Dogri, Kashmiri, etc., also Sufi 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 Sa Re Ga Ma in Devanagari, a Hindi translation of the non-Hindi texts of songs and notes in Hindi and English on Raga, Tala and the text.

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