A few specimens of Indian songs... [with] Victoria Samrajyan, or Sanskrit Stanzas [With a Translation] on the Various Dependencies of the British Crown, Each Composed and Set to The Respective National Music in Commemoration of the Assumption of Her Most Gracious Majesty The Queen Victoria of the Diamem - 'Indiæ Imperatrix' by [Indian Music.] Tagore, Sourindro Mohun - 1879 [and] 1882

Calcutta: Printed by I. C. Bose & Co., and Published by the Author, 1879 [and] 1882. Together two octavo volumes. Parallel text in Sanskrit & English. The second work with charming woodcuts of Indian instruments. Original Calcutta bindings of pebbled green morocco, spines and covers richly gilt, board edges and inner dentelles gilt, a.e.g. Printed in English and The first work with dedication (to Edward Robert Lytton... Viceroy and Governor General of India) printed in blue with red decorative border. Slightest surface rubbing to extremities, fine copies. First edition of the first work, Sceond edition of the second. A very handsome pair of volumes on Indian music, of particular interest to the study of the history of Raga; and more generally to the history of Indian culture in Colonial India. Tagore (1840-1914) was a leading Indian musicologist and patron of Indian music. A descendant of one of the wealthiest and most influential families in Calcutta (Rabindranath Tagore belonged to another branch of the family), he sponsored or co-authored some of the first general music treatises in Bengali. Such vernacular publications, produced and promoted by the Calcutta élite, were an important part of the renaissance in Bengali culture which took place in the 19th century. Tagore founded several schools of music in Calcutta beginning in 1871, and supplied music teachers and books to these and other public and private schools at his own cost. His publications ranged from music treatises in Sanskrit and Bengali to explanations of Indian music for a colonial audience. These publications were aimed at British and European orientalists both in India and in Europe as well as the Bengali intelligentsia centered in Calcutta He endeavoured to promote Indian music in the West as a symbol of India's classical heritage, comparable to European art music in artistic and academic value. (New Grove). Setting aside the content of these works, these books would be perfectly suited to a collection focused on bindings alone. Very scarce.