Navaratna, Deepti
(2025)
The Alchemy of Mysuru, Music and the Maverick Genius of Dr. Raja Ramanna.
In:
D. K. Srivastava and V. S. Ramamurthy (Eds.). Raja Ramanna: A renaissance man.
World Scientific Publishing Co., pp. 243-249.
ISBN 978-981-98-1442-8
Full text not available from this repository.
| Abstract: |
The Enlightenment and Romanticism were two ideologically opposed movements that shaped the intelligentsia of the 18th century. While Enlightenment placed an impetus on science, knowledge, reason, method, objectivity, logic and evidence, Romanticism highlighted the significance of art, experientialism, imagination, spontaneity, individuality, creativity and empathy. Although dislocated from these movements in terms of time and space, fast forward to a century later, one finds beautiful synergies to both these approaches to life in Mysore. Princely Mysore forged a syncretic culture where the multiplicity of such pursuits was seen as desirable. Leading by example were the Wadiyar kings themselves, who in addition to being adroit statesmen were scholars, musicians and philosophers in a long line of pedigree monarchy. The Maharaja of Mysore, His Highness Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, who was piano guru-bandhu to Dr. Raja Ramanna cautions against the stereotyping of Eastern spirituality and Western materiality: “It has become far too common to describe the two predominant viewpoints of the world as Western and Eastern. It has become the vogue these days, in keeping with the mania for labelling everything, to label the Western view as materialistic and the Eastern as spiritual. This is to rest on a false foundation. Perhaps, we may admit that there is much of truth in it, that by and large, the West has been more concerned with outside things pertaining to the world of matter more than with the inner things of the spirit. Equally well can the charge be sustained against the East that it became obsessed so much with the inner side of life that it forgot the existence of an external material world. Therefore, such generalizations do no one any good – least of all to the protagonists of such views”… |
| Item Type: |
Book Chapter
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| Subjects: |
International Strategic and Security Studies Programme > Others |
| Date Deposited: |
13 Apr 2026 08:38 |
| Last Modified: |
13 Apr 2026 08:38 |
| Official URL: |
https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1... |
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| Funders: |
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| Projects: |
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| DOI: |
https://doi.org/10.1142/9789819814435_0026 |
| URI: |
http://eprints.nias.res.in/id/eprint/3309 |
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