UNITED STATES, January 4, 2016 ( The Hindu): Making a strong case for including classical Indian music in the school curriculum, renowned mathematician Manjul Bhargava said it “can help the country produce not just better artistes, but better scientists, judges, innovators and in general, better humans.” To drive home the point that music makes individuals highly creative, he quoted Steve Jobs, famous for his products that married top-notch aesthetics and engineering. “When asked how Macintosh had revolutionized computing, Steve Jobs remarked that it was because he loved to hire computer scientists who were also trained in fine arts, and who showed far greater innovative ability,” he said.
Addressing the Sadas of the Music Academy and conferring the Sangita Kalanidhi award on vocalist Sanjay Subrahmanyan, Mr. Bhargava, tabla player himself, said classical Indian music was mathematically deep and aesthetically complex and was an extremely expressive art. Mr. Bhargava, the R. Brandon Fradd Professor of Mathematics, Princeton University, said there was something about classical music that made one more creative even in other endeavors, reiterating that great mathematicians including Srinivasa Ramanujan and C.S. Seshadri had a classical musical background. Mr. Bhargava explained that what many people were not aware of was that Bharatha’s Natyasastra and Sharagadeva’s Sangita-ratnakara, the two groundbreaking works on music, were also groundbreaking works on mathematics.