U. Srinivas is to Indian classical music what Yehudi Menuhin is to Western classical music. Like Menuhin, U. Srinivas was a child prodigy. He started to play the mandolin, a little-known instrument in India, when he was only six years old. His name has become synonymous in India with the mandolin and he is popularly called Mandolin Srinivas.

It was in August 1992, while on tour with WOMAD, that U. Srinivas recorded this album of traditional music. Even Europeans are surprised that such magical music can originate from an instrument which is normally a rather inconspicuous member of a Western orchestra. Like fellow Indian musician Shiv Kumar with the santoor, Srinivas has revived and raised an unknown instrument and given it a respectable status in classical music. The mandolin playing is very fast but at tim