The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: South Asia : the Indian subcontinent

The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music is a monumental ten-volume reference series initiated in the late 1990s by Garland Publishing, designed to provide a comprehensive, scholarly survey of music traditions across the globe. The volume dedicated to South Asia, edited by Bruno Nettl and Alison Arnold, serves as a cornerstone of this collection, aiming to move beyond purely historical or biographical sketches to examine music as a vital social and cultural practice within the Indian subcontinent.

The design of the series reflects an editorial focus on ethnomusicological depth, pairing academic rigor with accessible synthesis. Contributors were carefully selected to represent a mix of Western and South Asian scholars, ensuring that the diverse traditions of Hindustani, Carnatic, and folk musics were addressed with local expertise. Upon its release, the volume was widely recognized by academic libraries and research institutions for establishing a new standard in the systematic documentation of world music, effectively bridging the gap between specialized research and broad regional study.