Abstract:
The inaugural speech from the 1995 Sangeet Research Academy (Western Division) Bombay conference on "Tradition and Change"

The difficulty at the very outset arises from the assured antinomy of tradition and change. The common notion that tradition resists change and change means breakaway from tradition do not hold true in music, at any rate in Indian classical music. In fact it can be safely asserted that our music tradition is intrinsically a tradition of change. You would discern continuities which proceed by internalising change. Tradition survives, continues and revitalizes itself through change. One is almost tempted to say tradition is change. In any case, tradition renews itself through change. It is as the ancients claimed punarnava, that is "yet again new". Shall we say this is a dynamic view of tradition which not only retains a sense of preservation, of rootedness, of stability but also of imaginative expansion, of deep daring and bold departures? The ancient wisdom is imbued with contemporary insights.  

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First Publication July 23, 1997 - This page updated October 8, 2004