Religious discourse uses ordinary language in an extraordinary way. This book surveys Western and Indian discussions of the nature and aspects of religious discourse. It presents the first cross-cultural elucidation of Advaita Vedānta as religious discourse.

Recent scholarship on the history of music in South Asia has examined the processes by which music as an art form was reinvented for nationalist purposes, yet, the disciplined study of music (and its aesthetics) remains only a few centuries old. Studying music through a historical lens has opened new approaches to interdisciplinary studies. Music as History in Tamilnadu examines how history can be interpreted through aesthetics and music and vice versa. Musicologists focus on the study of musical activity, while ethnomusicologists examine this activity first-hand using the 'field' research methods of cultural anthropology. The historian's task, then, is to interpret the musical past as part of cultural production and thereafter relate music to general historical trends. This collection of essays seeks to establish the interdisciplinarity between music (the Karnatak system) and the history of Tamilnadu, south India.

Tyagaraja 1767-1947 is the most celebrated of South Indian musician saints. This book explores some of the growth processes, the transmission patterns and the cultural creativity involved in South Indian bhakti traditions, using examples of Tyagaraja`s life story, songs and social signigicance as case studies.

Tyāgarāa (1767-1847) is undoubtedly South India’s most celebrated singer-saint. This book attempts to deepen our understanding of Tyāgarāa’s life and music with fresh insights. It explores Tyāgarāa’s philosophy of music and provides excellent English translations of a hundred and sixty of his greatest lyrics. For the first time in Tyāgarāa scholarship, the saint’s life and works have been contextualized in a sociohistorical framework. The author provides an exhaustive sociological analysis of Tyāgarāa’s Thanjavur and establishes links between Tyāgarāa’s works and the troubled history of his time. He analyses the making of saints in different religions and draws parallels between legends of saints built over decades.

Articles and lectures on Indic civilization.