Performing and Visual Arts

Lakshmi Sreeram is a musician in the traditions of Carnatic and Hindustani (vocal) Music.  She has trained under highly regarded masters of the two traditions and has performed widely to critical acclaim.

Lakshmi has a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Mumbai.  Her doctoral dissertation on the concept of Dhvani, as expounded in the 9th century text Dhvanyaloka by Anandavardhana, lies in the intersections of Alankara Sastra and theories of Sabda Bodha.  She has also trained in Bharatanatyam.

Lakshmi taught elective courses at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras as adjunct faculty.  On being awarded a Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence scholarship for 2019-2020, she went to the University of Colorado, Boulder where she studied Jazz Improvisation, taught Indian classical music and delivered lectures.

She put together 20 hours each of two online courses “Appreciating Carnatic Music” and “Appreciating Hindustani Music” for the National Project for Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), a Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platform.

She writes for the arts pages in The Hindu, Frontline, Firstpost, News9 and other media.

Lakshmi is interested in the principles underlying the performance traditions of Hindustani and Carnatic music and their different expressions in the two traditions.  She is also working on a theory of Epistemology of Raga using categories from theories of Sabdabodha and Alankarasastra.

Scholarly Papers

• Rāgabodha: A Śābdabodha-Based Framework for a Theory of Rāga in the Journal of the Indian Council for Philosophical Research, Volume 36, Issue 3, September 2019..
• On Talk of Modes of Thought in the Journal of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, Volume 13, Issue 2, January 1996.
• The Concept of Aucitya in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bombay, Volumes 60-61, 1991.
• Vyangyaartha as a Variety of Non-Literal Meaning in the Journal of the Institute of Asian Studies, Vol. 12, September. 1994.

Select Invited talks

• “Raga and Rasa – Beyond the Obvious and the Problematic”:  An online presentation for Indian Classical Music Society of Vancouver in August 2020.
• “The Crane Knows not the Glory of the Lotus:  Bhakti and Carnatic Music” at the Centre for South Asia, University of Wisconsin, Madison, in February 2020
• “Of Creativity in Raga Music”, paper presented at the seminar on “Creativity and the Khayal” at the Manipal Centre for Humanities, Manipal, in August 2019.
• “Ragabodha – a Sabdabodha Based Theory of Raga Cognition and Presentation”: Conference on Indology by Bharatiya Vidwat Parishat at Udupi, January 2019
• “Singing on the Razor’s Edge”, February 2018; opening speaker at the Graduate Conference of the Humanities Dept. of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras

• Raga Bageshree
• Raga Tilak Kamod
• Ragam Kedaragowla; Tyagaraja Kriti
• More music at: https://soundcloud.com/user-107624743

Core and elective courses including Khayal and Carnatic Vocal practice in the Dual Degree programme in Integrated Arts.