Music: form, tambura

[Srinivasan Pichumani]

	1. Is there any book/articles available which discuss this form or four
	elements in Indian music?  I havn't found any.

If you are looking for general books, this may be useful

	Author:         Nijenhuis, Emmie te.
	Title:          Indian music : history and structure
	Published:      Leiden : Brill, 1974.
 

	2. Is there any book/articles available that deals with the "drone"?
	       I havn't found any.

B.C.Deva's article "The Emergence of the Drone in India music"
(Journal of the Music Academy, Madras, 1952) is about the only
extensive one I have seen on this subject.  It is reprinted in
his book "The Music of India: A Scientific Study".

This book also carries a reprint of his other article titled
"Tonal structure of the tambura" from the same journal (1956).
	
	3. Contain "classical indian literature" any reference to the tambura?

The first article cited above says that the specific drone
instrument, tambura, is not found in literary or pictorial
sources till the end of Middle Ages (?). 

Certainly, other instruments like the vINa, yAzh, flute, etc 
were used as accompaniment to vocal music, and possibly served 
as a sort of drone too.  And there were other folk instruments
like the ek-tAr serving the same function.

But, it is not till the 15th, 16th centuries that, due to various 
dramatic changes, the tambura-style drone becomes indispensable.
Some of these changes are - music making based on a fixed tonic
rather than modally shifting the tonic, associating S permanently
with the tonic thus rendering it invariant and analogously the
fifth or P.

-Srini.