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A few words of advice to readers: Listen to as much music as you can and find friends
who share your interest. Discuss what you know and you will almost always
end up adding to your knowledge. There is no question that is so silly that it does not
deserve to be asked.
The art of identifying ragas cannot be learned from a book and it usually takes years of
listening before one begins to identify ragas reliably. Patience
and perseverance are the key words here.
Inspiration for this work was provided by my uncle Valavanur N. Jambunathan (who
was born of parents who were neither musicians nor musicologists
and who did not have the benefit of any musical education,
whatsoever), who is our family musical resource. Further
encouragement was provided by my cousins, especially Basu (S. Baskaran, Dubai, U.A.E.),
and many others who expressed interest in a document such
as this. Special thanks are due to my brothers of the Atlanta
Panchapandavas, Drs. Mahadevan (Nashville, Tennessee), Gajanan
(Knoxville, Tennessee), Chander (Washington, D.C.) and Kannan (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
for aiding me in my discovery of love for classical music and (especially to
Mahadevan) for reviewing and contributing to the material in
this book.
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