About Sruti

Sruti: India's Journal of Classical Music and Dance

Overview

Sruti is an English-language monthly magazine devoted to the performing arts, with a focus on Indian classical music and dance, published from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Founded in 1983, it is widely regarded as the country's leading journal on Indian classical music and dance — the journalist and historian S. Muthiah described it in 2011 as the country's leading journal in the field. The magazine is published by The Sruti Foundation, a charitable trust dedicated to promoting excellence, preserving valued traditions and encouraging innovation in Indian music and dance. From its office at 9 Cathedral Road, Chennai 600086, Sruti covers Carnatic and Hindustani music, Bharatanatyam and other dance forms, theatre, artists, institutions and the cultural policies that shape the performing arts in India.

Founding and the First Issue

Sruti was founded in 1983 by N. Pattabhiraman, who had returned to India after a career abroad, bringing with him a command of English composition and a willingness to engage in sincere criticism and controversy. The first issue appeared in October 1983. Its inaugural cover featured the Carnatic music doyenne D. K. Pattammal alongside the child prodigy Mandolin U. Srinivas — a pairing that announced the magazine's twin objectives of preserving tradition and encouraging innovation, and that created a considerable stir in artistic circles. The magazine was without parallel among English periodicals of the time, and arguably remains so. The early years were financially difficult: Pattabhiraman preferred to build a subscriber base rather than take loans, and the magazine received minimal support from corporations.

The Sruti Foundation

The publication of Sruti is one of the activities of The Sruti Foundation, a charitable trust whose stated aims are to promote excellence, preserve valued traditions and encourage innovation with regard to Indian music and dance. The Foundation publishes the magazine from its premises at 9 Cathedral Road, Chennai 600086, and the magazine is printed in Chennai at Lokavani Southern Printers on Greams Road. The Foundation's board of trustees has included N. Sankar as chairman, along with V. Vaidyanathan and Sukanya Sankar, with an advisory board including the musicologist N. Ramanathan. The magazine's editor is S. Janaki, who serves on the Foundation's board ex officio, and the publisher and printer of record is P. U. Aravind. The Foundation acknowledges financial support received by way of a grant from the Sangeet Natak Akademi in New Delhi, India's national academy for music, dance and drama.

Ownership: The Sanmar Group

After the death of founder N. Pattabhiraman, the journal went through a difficult period, though it continued under staff members who rose to take over its leadership. In 2006, the magazine was acquired by the Sanmar Group, the Chennai-based industrial conglomerate. The acquisition gave Sruti the institutional backing it had lacked in its early years, and the magazine has continued publication under the new ownership, maintaining its editorial character and its monthly schedule. The Sanmar Group's stewardship placed the title within a corporate structure while preserving its identity as a specialist arts journal run by people drawn from the world of music and dance.

Editorial Ethos and Campaigns

Sruti has defined itself by high standards of authenticity, objectivity and sophisticated writing based on thorough research, combined with a healthy respect for individuals and institutions and an equally healthy irreverence toward what it calls holy cows. It is not an academic journal, though it carries scholarly and technical articles from time to time. Among its early triumphs was a systematic campaign for the restoration of the ragam-tanam-pallavi — the demanding improvisational centrepiece of the Carnatic concert — which had become conspicuous by its absence from the concert platform. The magazine has run sustained campaigns in favour of good taste, decorum and performance excellence, and many practices that are now recognised as established norms in the performing arts, especially in South India, have been attributed to Sruti's advocacy over the decades.

Content and Coverage

Each monthly issue carries a mix of artist profiles, interviews, reviews, features and commentary on the performing arts. Sruti's profiles of leading exponents of music and dance have been described as pathbreaking in the annals of Indian journalism, and its special projects to document the teaching methodology and stylistic characteristics of leading schools of dance and music are regarded as significant contributions to the field. The magazine covers Carnatic music, Hindustani music, Bharatanatyam and other classical dance forms, theatre, and the institutions — sabhas, academies, universities and government agencies — that sustain the arts. It reports on current events in the art world, publishes interviews with artists, and provides a forum for debate on questions of tradition, innovation and cultural policy.

Readership and Audience

Sruti's readership spans the full ecosystem of the Indian performing arts. Its target audience includes lay music and dance enthusiasts, connoisseurs, practising musicians and dancers, teachers, scholars and students of the fine arts, the institutions and organisations active in the field, and officials of government agencies concerned with the arts. This broad but specialised readership — from the casual rasika to the professional artist and the cultural administrator — has given the magazine a unique position as a meeting ground for the different constituencies of Indian classical art. Subscriptions are available in India and abroad, with online subscription and renewal offered through the magazine's website, sruti.com.

Subscriptions and Contact

The magazine's subscription details are published in each issue's masthead. For readers in India, a one-year subscription has been listed at Rs 1,020 including postage, with payments accepted by demand draft, cheque, bank transfer or money order drawn in favour of The Sruti Foundation; foreign subscriptions have been listed at US $72 for one year including airmail charges, subscribable online. The editorial and subscription offices are at 9 Cathedral Road, Chennai 600086, with telephone contact at +91-44-28128080. The magazine maintains an internet edition at sruti.com and has used a blog platform for additional online content. Subscription-related queries and editorial submissions are handled through dedicated email addresses published in the magazine.

The magazine has marked its major anniversaries as milestones for the art world. Its 25th year was noted in the national press in 2008, and in December 2012 Sruti entered its 30th year, an occasion marked by remembering founder N. Pattabhiraman on what would have been his 80th anniversary. These anniversaries have been occasions for the magazine to reflect on its own history — from a financially precarious independent journal built on subscriptions to a stable institution under the Sanmar Group — and for the wider cultural community to acknowledge its role. The Hindu's 2008 profile of the magazine described the daring and dedication behind its survival, a theme that has recurred in writing about the title.

Legacy and Standing

For over four decades, Sruti has chronicled the Indian performing arts through periods of profound change — the expansion of the December music season in Chennai, the globalisation of Indian classical art, the rise of new media, and the ongoing debate between tradition and innovation. Its combination of rigorous reporting, fearless criticism and deep documentation of artistic practice has made it an indispensable record of the field. Historians of Indian journalism cite its artist profiles and its institutional memory of the music and dance worlds as unmatched. As India's leading monthly devoted to classical music, dance and theatre, Sruti continues to serve the artists, scholars, students and lovers of the performing arts who have sustained it since that first October issue in 1983.