Synopsis The book represents a major attempt to place music in India in wider perspectives offered by numerous music-traditions which deal with theoretical frameworks of music. It is music theory, pitched at an ambitious high. In twenty-seven closely argued essays, the author touches diverse music-centered studies such as religion, philosophy, linguistics, poetics, theatre-arts, folklore, aesthetics, musicology as grammar, history, intercultural inquiries, area-studies, oral traditions, inter-art relationships, and Indology. He insists on keeping performance at the centre of his investigations and hence succeeds in avoiding dangers of dry pedantry-which may excessively depend on the written material and methodologies developing with it. Further, all essays are permeated with an intense Indianness, intent on voicing the Indian view-point. However, the writing steers clear of scholastic chauvinism because of the author's genuine and unwavering regard for the world of fundamental concepts and ideas, whether indigenous or foreign, that has governed Indian musical behaviour. The effort is an invaluable guide to students of Indian of Indian music and culture-presented as mutually dependent entities.