Musical Notations of ‘caturdaṇḍī’ and ‘suḷādi’ songs in Telugu Script in Thanjavur Manuscripts By K. Srilatha, Arati Rao 1 [Published in Vageeshwari, Oct 2019, Dept. Of Music, University of Delhi, Pg 67-73] 1 Introduction The Caturdaṅḍīprakāśikā (CDP) of Veṅkaṭamakhi (VM) written in the 17th century refers to the musical forms - ālāpa, ṭhāya, gīta and prabandha as the four pillars of music (caturdaṇḍī). The Thanjavur Maharaja Serfoji’s Saraswathi Mahal Library contains many manuscripts written in Telugu script that contain solfa notations of ālāpa, ṭhāya, gīta and prabandha songs. In several manuscripts containing these songs, ‘suḷādi’ song notations are also found. A preliminary examination of some of the notations indicates that many of these compositions seem to belong to the 16 th to 18 th centuries and were perhaps compiled by the Nāyaka and Marāṭha rulers of Thanjavur. In the absence of oral traditions dating back to that time period, these notations are an excellent source of information about ālāpa, ṭhāya, gīta, prabandha and suḷādi songs pertaining to that period. This paper attempts to give a brief overview of the musical information that is available in these notations as well as critical gaps in the information. The observations made here are based on recent research into the suḷādi (Rao In Press), ālapa, ṭhāya (Rao 2016) and prabandha (Srilatha 2019) musical forms. The objective of this paper is to provide information that may be helpful for research pertaining to musical notations of ālāpa, ṭhāya, gīta, prabandha and suḷādi songs. 2 A brief overview of the caturdaṇḍī and suḷādi songs As per the lakṣaṇa described in CDP, ālāpa has the sections called ākṣiptikā, rāgavardhanī, sthāyī, and vartanī. There may be upto four rāgavardhanī sections, each followed by a concluding section called vidārī. CDP describes ṭhāya with the sections sthāyī, makariṇī and muktāyī. More details about the lakṣana of ālāpa and ṭhāya in CDP and other texts are given by Rao (Rao 2016). VM mentions that his paramaguru