It is ironic that a country which equates musical sound, naad brahma, with God, has little literature in english on musicians. Between two Tanpuras by Vaman Deshpande is a welcome addition to the miniscule literature on Indian classical musicians. The book is based on the impressions created by musicians whom the author encountered in his musical journey. Little known facts about the doyen of yester years Ustad Alladiya Khan and his sons have been brought to light. The chapter on the wayward genius,Suresh Babu Mane, is touching. Mane battled with poverty while pursuing his musical talents. The book touchingly narrates how Mane practised alchemy in an attempt to get over his financial problems. Another impressive and informative chapter is on the current day diva Kishori Amonker. It traces in brief her rise to musical pinnalce after enduring many tribulation including loss of voice.The analysis of her singing style is refreshing and thankfully bereft of excessive technicalities.

The book is filled with interesting anecdotes about the musicians. With this labour of love Deshpande has done tremendous service to Indian classical music in helping the reader appreciate the lives of some of the musicians who contriuted their mite in keeping alive the musical tradition.

The subject of rivers in India may sound a little old hat. But this book really brings something new and valuable.

Unfortunately I read it over a year ago, so I don't remember every detail. But it was a book I was quite impressed with and lent to friends who were writing related papers at the time, so when I saw that no one else had written a review, I thought that I'd better.

To begin with, the author makes the simple point that rivers aren't primarily about purity/pollution, a typical dichotomy through which their religious significance is understood, but also about fertility/lack. That's new but not really a big surprise. But she goes on to talk about the Seven Sisters, goddesses who are present in certain water bodies, and who have the power to give a child and also to take one away.

She goes into them in a bit of detail, based on her interviews. They're often depicted as seven stones, or simply strokes of paint on stones near the water. Some people are loathe to talk about them, but she found a number of stories of rituals to the Sisters inducing them to give a child, or allow a sick child to live, or protect the children of a town from drowning.

If you're a bumbling student of Hinduism, as I've been, and you need all the help you can get finding information on what to write intelligent papers about, this book is not only highly interesting, but I believe it also marches into a subject area which is somewhat unexplored...of the really minimal symbols and representations of some small goddesses. I wish I could say more, but I'm not omniscient and I'm also a bit out of the field nowadays.

And for people who aren't struggling to write papers, it's just a very fine and readable book.

a competent and thorough survey of the field. an ideal, well researched book and a good introduction to the subject.

This book contains papers presented at a 1995 conference in Moscow called "Sixth International Conference on "Maharashtra: Culture and Society". The 18 short papers contained within the volume cover a multitude of topics, from grammar in the Rgveda to conditions within the family homes for women to design and materials of family gods. The papers are organized into the following subtopics: House and Home Reconstructed; Women in Their Parents' Homes and in Their In-Laws' Houses; Homes and Household; and Gods and Devotees at Home. The quality of writing is quite good throughout. Due to the varied topics, not all papers are likely to interest any given reader, but most scholars interested in Maharashtra will find at least one paper of great interest contained within the volume. Women's issues are particularly well-covered in the book, where it emerges that lives of Hindu women left a lot to be desired when compared to those of Muslim women, who had rights of inheritance and property ownership reserved for them. The book includes a joint index, but has separate bibliographies for each paper.