This article or section has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page. It does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve it by citing reliable sources. Tagged since July 2009. Very few or no other articles link to it. Please help introduce links to this page from other articles related to it. Tagged since July 2009. It may need to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Tagged since July 2009.

These are books on Carnatic music considered authoritative^[who?] and necessary for a serious study of Carnatic music and its evolution. Most of them are in Sanskrit, and some even date from before the Christian era. A list of them are available below.

• Sangeetha Ratnakara - Sarngadeva
• Sangeetha Sampradaya Pradarshini - Subbarama Dikshitar
• Sangeetha Chandrikai - Manikka Mudaliar
• Swaramela Kalanidhi - Ramamatya
• Natya Shastra - Bharata Muni
• Chaturdandi Prakasika - Venkatamakhin
• Sangeetha Makaranda - Narada
• Raga Vibodha - Somanatha
• Raga Lakshana - Shahji
• Sangeetha Sudha - Govinda Dikshitar
• Sangeetha Swaraprastara Sagaramu - Nadamuni Pandithar
• Sangraha Choodamani - Govindacharya
• Sangeetha Sudhakara - Haripala Deva
• Sangeethasara - Vidyaranya
• Sri Tatwanidhi - Krishnaraja Wodeyar III (with iconography)
• Swara Chudamani - Krishnaraja Wodeyar III
• Sara Sangraha Bharata - Krishnaraja Wodeyar III (dance)
• Sangeeta Kalpadrumam - Muthiah Bhagavatar
• Geeta Gopala - Chikka Devaraja Wodeyar