The Madras Quartet : Women In Karnatak Music

This is a seminal and pioneering work delineating the struggles and triumphs of four contemporary women vocalists—M.S. Subbulakshmi, T. Brinda, D.K. Pattammal, and M.L. Vasanthakumari—belonging to the Karnatak music tradition. The book traces their careers not merely as consummate artistes with their individual banis and genre of music, but also as trailblazers who played a crucial role in the emancipation of women from a hidebound social setup. The book highlights the tremendous influence of the ‘trinity’ of the nineteenth century in giving a new format to art music which helped—although only peripherally—to accommodate women in it. The daughters and granddaughters of the early pioneers were to carry forward the struggle to establish themselves on par with their male counterparts.