Forum for Research in Indian Music (FRIM)
FRIM is a body of academics and music practitioners dedicated to advancing critical, interdisciplinary scholarship in Indian music and musicology.
Overview
Indian musical traditions - spanning classical, folk, devotional, and popular forms - are underpinned by a vast and layered body of textual sources, theoretical frameworks, and evolving performance practices. Driven by the belief that both textual traditions and musical practices offer essential insights into the subcontinent’s rich sonic cultures, FRIM seeks to bring together researchers, practitioners, and students across disciplinary and linguistic boundaries.
The Forum is established to advance scholarly research in the field of Indian music, with a particular emphasis on:
The critical study of primary texts in Sanskrit and regional languages relevant to Indian music theory and practice;
The analysis of musical performance traditions, both historical and contemporary;
The promotion of interdisciplinary approaches to musicological research, including philological, ethnographic, historical, and analytical methodologies.
FRIM is envisioned as a site of intellectual and interpretive experimentation—rooted in philological care, historical depth, and analytical openness.
Initial Objectives
In its founding phase, FRIM proposes the following core activities:
Monthly or Fortnightly Text Reading Sessions that would focus on critical engagement with musicological treatises, commentaries, notational texts, and essays in Sanskrit, Persian, and regional languages. Foundational and underexplored texts will be examined in a collective and dialogic setting. These workshop-style sessions will present an inviting, congenial, and collaborative space for sharing and learning to revitalize close-reading practices and build a shared vocabulary for the study of Indian music.
Annual International Conference: FRIM will organise an annual international conference, bringing together scholars and performers from across India and abroad. The conference will serve as a venue for the presentation of original research, the exchange of methods, and the cultivation of emerging voices in the field.
Peer-Reviewed Journal: To further disseminate high-quality scholarship, FRIM plans to launch a peer-reviewed, multilingual journal focused on Indian musicological research. The journal will publish original articles, critical editions, translations, and theoretical reflections that align with FRIM’s vision.
Collaborative Projects and Working Groups: FRIM plans to encourage focused, long-term collaborations (e.g., critical editions of texts, bibliographies, performance and translation initiatives) that emerge organically from its sessions and gatherings.
Foundational Commitments
FRIM is guided by the following values:
Textual Rigor & Interpretive Openness
Dialogues between Practitioners and Scholars
Linguistic and Regional Diversity within the Indian Subcontinent
Interdisciplinarity across Musicology, Philology, History, and Performance
Engagement with Global Music Studies
FRIM invites interested scholars, performers, and institutions to join us in shaping this initiative. The inaugural conference - outlined below - will serve as our first major convening.