In our inaugural and first anniversary issues, we published articles on musical prodigies. We return to the subject of prodigies in a slightly different way in this our second anniversary issue. We carry a report on and a review of a special concert highlighting ragam-tanam-pallavi which Ravi Kiran gave under the auspices of the Sruti Foundation recently (52-53). We also present an article on The Carnatic Bani written by Flute Mali (37-39). There is something else special. We start a series which, over several months, will present material on the fiddle, as well as the fiddlers, in Carnatic music. In.this issue one article presents two views on the origin of the violin — one claiming that the violin is of Indian origin (16-17) and the other challenging that claim (18-20).

A second article tells you about famous Italian violin-makers as well as about violin-making itself (21). Another presents a wide-angle group portrait of those Carnatic musicians of the past who fiddled their way to fame (22-23). The fourth and the fifth articles in the special package offer a close-up view of one of the past masters of the violin, the late Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu (24-36). On the cover is a portrait of Naidu Garu, executed years ago by Vaidyanathan of Madras, reproduced by courtesy of the Maharaja's College of Music in Vizianagaram. In future issues, we will be offering articles, written from different angles, on the violin in Carnatic music, and also small close-ups and profiles of other leading violinists of the past and the present.

A profile of the late Mysore T. Chowdiah, for example, in the December 1985 bumper issue. While on the subject of violin. Id like to draw your attention to the further fallout from the Incident in Mysore involving the violin duo Ganesh & Kumaresh. The report on this is in the News & Notes section (7-14), which also includes reports by our staff on Kalamandir's Natya Nivedana, Learning Dance Theory, a music festival in Coimbatore honouring Sri Sri Raghavendra Swamy and on recent initiatives by two business enterprises in the field of music.

For dance enthusiasts, we offer a very interesting and informative article captioned The Dancing Feet (41-44) which tells how the feet are used in Kathakali to denote human traits; as well as a report on an interview with Milena Salvini who takes special delight in presenting Indian dancers and musicians at a small theatre in Paris called Mandapa (45-51).