A Comparative Study of Some of the Leading Music Systems of the 15th, 16th, 17th & 18th Centuries c13.1

c13.1

We shall now take up for discussion the Chaturdandi Prakasika written by Pandit Vyankata Makhi. The work was written about the shaka year 1560, that is to say about thirty years after Somnath's Raga Vibodha. Vyankata Makhi is admittedly a Southern writer. Chatur dandi prakasika is still respected as a great authority in the southern presidency. Pandit Subrama Dixit of Etayyapuram, who died only five or six years ago was the last exponent of the Chaturdandi system. Vyankata Makhi claims to have finally decided the twelve note-system in the South. It is also his claim that he was the first to lay down the seventy-two mela-kartas or melody-types for Raga classification. You are aware that in the Swara Mela Kalanidhi and in the Raga Vibodha, the vikrita swaras recognised were more than five. It is true that Rama Amatya knew of the school which was ready to accept "mrdu" or "chyuta" ma and "mrdu" or "chyuta" sa as representing the antara ga and kakali ni, but the "mrdu" notes were not definitely discarded.