The passing of Carnatic vocalist Maharajapuram Santhanam in June precipitated the special feature in this issue, The Maestros Of Maharajapuram, although we had long planned such a feature. Santhanam himself had collaborated with us in preparing the basic profile of his father, but circumstances deprived us of similar collaboration when it came to the career of Santhanam himself.

We did publish articles on Santhanam's career and music earlier (Sruti 63/64) but the special feature in this issue is more comprehensive. Note that it encompasses the life, music and career achievements of Viswanatha Iyer and Santhanam both. The personalities and music of father and son were quite different— and this is brought out vividly in the feature. Santhanam's singing had special appeal to a large number of lay listeners who did not particularly care for the music of the bulk of mainstream Carnatic vocalists.

The attention is drawn in this context to two articles by Santhanam fans who describe what they found attractive in his music. There are two reports in the News & Notes section which also pertain to Santhanam (7-11).

Among other reports, there is one that gives information on— and gives rise to questions concerning- the manner in which an ongoing evaluation of a doctoral thesis is being handled without regard to established ethical norms and procedures (39-40). The pencil sketches of Viswanatha Iyer (front cover) and Santhanam (back cover) are by D. Narendran.