The Madras Quartet: Women in Karnatak Music

A seminal and pioneering work delineating the struggles and triumphs of four contemporary women vocalists belonging to the Karnatak music tradition. The book traces the careers of Madras Quartet – M S Subbulakshmi, T Brinda, D K Pattammal and M L Vasanthakumari – not merely as consummate artistes with their own individual banis and genre music, but also as trailblazers who played a crucial role in the emancipation of women from a hidebound social set up.  The book highlights the tremendous influence of the Trinity of the 19th 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 a par with their male counterparts.