Prof. Milind Malshe represents the IIT, Mumbai. His presentation in Prof. M. B. Emeneau's Centenary International Conference on South Asian Linguistics is titled "Languages of Music: Search for an Indian Perspective".

       In the first part, Languages of Culture and Cultures of Language, Malshey explains the term 'language' using the definitions from Saussure, Barthes and Bakhtin and indicates clearly, "culture has many languages and music is one of them." He also explains the derivation and meaning of the word music in different language contexts.

      The second part of the paper deals with antinomies of 'culture' and 'language' where he deals with language in the Saussurean perspective. By way of explaining this point he brings out the concept of antinomy by quoting the arguments of Adorno and Frederick Jameson. He terms the Indian music as multi-musical in the background of multilingualism, multi-ethnicity, multi-culture and multi-religion existing in India .

      The concept of discussion is The Search for Unity in Diversity in Indian Music emphasizes that dance and music as arts which bring in deeper unity underlying the surface plurality. He gives many classic examples from Kapila Vatsayana and Ritwik Sanyal about the notion of music and dance being preserved in the traditional context of India .

      In conclusion, the aesthetics in Indian music is discussed primarily in this paper, with references to dance and poetry also. The multi-musical nature of India is brought about well in this paper.

      In the discussions that followed the session, chaired by Prof. Christian Matthiessen, Prof. Hans Hock opened the deliberations by enquiring if the Muslim practitioners were involved in the Rasa Theory to which Prof. Malshe answered in the affirmative. Prof. Venkat Rao observed that what Prof. Malshe dealt with is not religious rather more to do with the senses but pre-religious and hence, it would be better to go to the real source. Prof. Pabitra Sarkar asked why Indian music was referred to as ethno-musical to which Prof. Malshe replied that it was a notion by Sanyal.