Nakodar and scholarly training

Prem Lata Sharma was born at Nakodar in Jalandhar district. Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalayam’s music course describes her study of languages and literature, including postgraduate work in Hindi and Sanskrit, and training at Banaras Hindu University with Omkarnath Thakur. Her career there included teaching and leadership of music research, followed by work as vice-chancellor at Khairagarh. Her institutional roles also included the vice-chairmanship of Sangeet Natak Akademi. The account places textual study at the centre of her contribution: musical knowledge required attention to Sanskrit treatises and the concepts through which earlier writers explained sound and performance. It also records her supervision of research students, editorial work and the organisation of seminars around major musical texts. Teaching and scholarship were connected parts of that career.[1]

Theory, practice and aesthetics

Her own 1963 essay, Traditional Indian Musical Aesthetics, shows the questions she pursued. Sharma argued that technical musical theory should be interpreted through its aesthetic purposes. She criticised Bhatkhande’s approach for separating theory from that foundation, while also arguing that his opponents had not adequately answered the aesthetic problem. For her, conformity to technical rules did not automatically fulfil music’s deeper aims. She proposed examining the spiritual values she understood to underlie traditional theory. This was an intervention within musicology, rather than a neutral description of everything Indian musicians believed or a verdict binding later performers.[2]

Editing and publication

A later Sangeet Natak Akademi report credits Sharma with commissioning and editing a Hindi translation of Dahyalal Shivaram’s Gujarati Shri Sangeeta-Kaladhara. Anil Behari Beohar and Chetana Jyotishi Beohar were the translators. Its eventual publication documents the continuation of an editorial project after her death.[3]

IGNCA’s catalogue lists Sharma with a 1994 edition of Thirty Songs from The Panjab and Kashmir.[4]

Sources & notes

Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.

  1. Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalayam, Directorate of Distance Education. MAMUD 4.01 Research and Contemporary Music, Musicologists: Prem Lata Sharma section ↗ · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: Course header and complete Sharma section printed/PDF 35–37. Accessed 2026-11-02.The complete named musicologist section was inspected. Its author and first publication date are not established; inconsistent chronology and superlatives are excluded.Return to Nakodar and scholarly training, paragraph 1 ↑
  2. Prem Lata Sharma; Journal of the Music Academy, Madras 34(1963),83 onward. Traditional Indian Musical Aesthetics ↗ · Source date: 1963 · Locator: Actual signed title/byline printed 83 / PDF 87; selected complete printed 83–86 / PDF 87–90. Accessed 2026-11-02.The signed essay’s opening and selected argument were inspected in the actual journal. Its cultural comparisons remain the author’s attributed interpretation.Return to Theory, practice and aesthetics, paragraph 1 ↑
  3. Sangeet Natak Akademi. Annual Report 2006–2007: New Publications ↗ · Source date: report year 2006–2007; publication date not established · Locator: Title / PDF 1; “Publication—New Publications”, printed 28 / PDF 27. Accessed 2026-11-02.The actual report title and selected publication account were inspected, including a rendered page. Editorial, original-author and translator credits remain distinct.Return to Editing and publication, paragraph 1 ↑
  4. Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. IGNCA Booklist: Thirty Songs from The Panjab and Kashmir, row 326 ↗ · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: Column headings on PDF 3; row 326 on PDF 16,1994 edition and Author/Editor credit. Accessed 2026-11-02.The catalogue headings and identified row were inspected. The complete musical edition and its songs were not read.Return to Editing and publication, paragraph 2 ↑
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Record PH-PEO-0075 · English edition · human review not performed