A Comparative Study of Some of the Leading Music Systems of the 15th, 16th, 17th & 18th Centuries c15: Raga Lakshanam

A Comparative Study of Some of the Leading Music Systems of the 15th, 16th, 17th & 18th Centuries c15

Language: English

c15.23 — 4 parts

Raga Lakshanam

c15.1

I shall now make a few remarks on the last of the works referred to in this paper. I am sorry I was unable to obtain a complete copy of this work. I could get only the Raga Adhyaya. Raga Lakshana appears to me to be a very important work. Its importance lies in the fact that it is the real authority for the current Southern system. The "mela" names and the swara names are exactly those found new in the southern presidency. We went through Swara Mela Kalanidhi, Raga Vibodha, Chaturdandi Prakasika and Saramrta but we never found the चतुःश्रुति 're' and 'dha' taking the place of the shuddha gandhara. We always had द्वि श्रुति रि and ध with shuddha ga and shuddha ma. Then again we never came across the name प्रतिम for the tivra 'ma'. The shuddha there was again the "mukhan" and not the present "Kamini".

c15.2

In the treatise under notice, you have the latest mela and swara names of the current Karnatic system. The janya raga rules again are exactly those referred to in the Telugu book Gayaka Lochen by Pandit Singaracharya. As the Swararnava is missing I am not in a position to tell you who the author is or when or where the book was written. It is now a printed book and the mining information may be obtained in course of time. The title of the book is taken by me from the heading the incomplete manuscript had when I copied it. It may turn out when the original manuscript is obtained that the title is something different. I give briefly the contents for what they are worth.

c15.3

मेलाविश्रामिषेत्र मेदानां तु द्विवतिः । शुद्धमध्यमसंज्ञके प्रतिमध्यमसंज्ञकम् ॥ शुद्धप्रकृतिविकृतिविमेलविधिः स्मृतः । अत्रपुसे श्रुतिवाक्यमितिरागर्थयः स्मृताः ॥

c15.4

अथ शुद्धमध्यममेलक्षेत्ररागाणां नामान्युच्यन्ते ।

c15.5

कनकांगी च रत्नांगी गानमूर्तिर्वनस्पतिः ॥ नाम्नामानवती तानरूपी सेनावती तथा । हनुमतोडिविरुयाना धेनुका परिकीर्तिता । नाट्यप्रियमियुक्तं कोकिलप्रियानामकम ॥ श्रोता रूपवती चैव गायत्रप्रियानामकम । बकुलामरण चैव मायामालवगौळिका ॥ चक्रवाकियिनोत्रं सूर्यकांतमितारितम् । हाटकाविप्रिम्पाता शंकरध्वनिनामकमः ॥ नटभैरवनामामी कीरवाणी ततः परम् । खराहप्रिया चैव तथा गौर्यमनोहरी ॥ वरुणप्रियमेलाख्यं मारजनिनामकम । चारुकेशी प्रमिदा च मरमांगी रविमेत्रि वै धारशंकरामरणं नगर्नदिनितो योगप्रिया रय

c15.6

c15.7

(About 106 Ragas in all.)

c15.8

In my opinion a happy fusion between the two great music systems of the country is most desirable. When it comes on the Hindusthani system will be considerably enriched. Hundreds of beautiful Ragas can be reintroduced here into our system by our leading living experts. The Southern System again will have an opportunity of adopting our northern graces in the Vadi, Samvadi, rules and thereby of making its music much more interesting. All this however, will be the province of Bhavi Sangeet and thus beyond the province of this paper.

c15.10

I shall now make a few remarks on the last of the works referred to in this paper. I am sorry I was unable to obtain a complete copy of this work. I could get only the Raga Adhyaya. Raga Lakshana appears to me to be a very important work. Its importance lies in the fact that it is the real authority for the current Southern system. The "mela" names and the swara names are exactly those found new in the southern presidency. We went through Swara Mela Kalanidhi, Raga Vibodha, Chaturdandi Prakasika and Svaramela but we never found the चतुःश्रुति 'ra' and 'dha' taking the place of the shuddha gandhara. We always had देशादि and तान्डि meaning the shuddha ga and shuddha ni. Then again we never came across the name मतिम् for the तीव्र 'ma'. The shuddha name was often the "mukhari" and not the present "Todi-mela".

c15.11

In the treatise under notice, you have the least male and female names of the current Karnatic system. The raga name also are exactly those referred to in the Telugu book Gayaka Lochana by Pandit Singaracharya. As the Svaramela-kalanidhi is missing, I am not in a position to tell you who the author is or when or where the book was written. It is now a printed book and the missing information may be obtained in course of time. The title of the book is taken by me from the reading the incomplete manuscript had when I copied it. I may say that when the original manuscript is obtained that the title is something different. I give briefly the contents in what they are worth.

c15.12

मेळधिकारविभेद केवलं तु द्विसप्ततिः।
शुद्धस्वरप्रभेदेन मेलनानि भवन्ति च ॥
शुद्धजातिविभेदेन मेलनानि च पञ्चधा।
तदूर्ध्वं श्रुतिभेदेन मेलनानि पृथक् पृथक् ॥

c15.13

तत्र द्विसप्ततिमेळनानि यथा—

c15.14

तत्रैव शुद्धमेळानि तानि तानि पृथक् पृथक्।
तत्रैव शुद्धमेळानि तानि तानि पृथक् पृथक्।

c15.15

गांगेयभूविणी नाम वागधीश्वरिनामकं । शूलिनीनामविख्याता चलनाटा प्रकीर्तिता ॥

c15.16

प्रतिमध्यममेलकर्तृरागाणां नामानि ।

c15.17

सालगी राग इत्युक्तो जलार्णवमतःपरम् । नाम्ना झालवराळीच नवनीतमिति स्फुटम् ॥ गवावोधीति विख्याता सत्रप्रियमितीरितम् । पावनी लोकविख्याता रघुप्रियमितीरितम् ॥ शुमापंतुवराळीच षड्विधामागिणी तथा । सुवर्णागीतिविख्याता प्रोक्ता दीव्यमणीतिच ॥ धवलावरिविख्याता नामनारायणी तथा । कामवर्धिनीनामाच रामप्रियमितीरितम् ॥ गमनश्रंम इत्युक्तः स्मृता विशंभरेतिच । श्यामलांगीतिविख्याता षण्मुखप्रयिनामकम ॥ सिंहेंद्रमध्यमैचैव हेमवती सुनामकं । धर्मवतीतिविख्याता स्मृता नीतिमतीतिच ॥ कांतामणिसतथाप्रोक्ता ऋषप्रयिनामकम । लतांगीति प्रसिद्धा च वाचस्पतितीरीरिताः ॥ विख्याता मेचकल्याणी चित्रावरितस्तःपरम् । सुचरित्रमितिप्रोक्तं तथा ज्योतिःस्वरूपिणी ॥ धातुवर्धिनीविख्याता नासिकाभूषणी तथा । कोसलो राग इत्युक्तो रसिकप्रयिनामकम ॥

c15.18

These are the present 72 Thatas of the Southern Music System this day. The names of the 12 notes which form the foundation of the system are as under :—

c15.19

c15.20

I do not propose to give the Swaras of the 72 Thatas here on this occasion. There are more than five hundred Janyaragas given under these 72 Thatas with their Arohas and Avarohas complete, but I do not think it necessary to go into the details.

c15.21

I propose now to complete this long discourse, I have in the foregoing portion touched in a succinct way the sruti, swara, raga, and thata portions of about 16 treatises My object in this has been, as I said, to show that by a study of the ancient works, we will be in a position to effect certain very beneficial results so far as our present music is concerned I have, therefore, explained which our old books are, which of them are available, and where, and what the system shown in them is, I now propose to show how the study of these is of practical use to us.

c15.22

As the subject matter of our present music is of the same nature as that of the ancient music, the division and classification of that subject matter as adopted in those texts will come in handy for systematising our present music These can be used as a basis for improvement according to our present conditions

c15.23.1

I think that in our present text books, we can safely leave out of consideration that portion of our ancient text books which deals with the physiological theories of the production of sound But we will take the division of the gamut into 22 srutis adopted by these works for our gamut, and fix on it our shuddha scale, same as has been done in those works. It is well-known that our shuddha scale is the Bilawal scale, while that of some of the works is the Kali scale, and that of others is the Mukhari scale. If the sruti intervals of the ancient works are such as do not satisfy the modern principles of acoustics, these can be determined by modern science, and standardised by consensus of opinion If this is done, then the basis of the structure of our music will be standardised and uniform.

c15.23.2

The process of describing swaras in terms of srutis, vikrita swaras with reference to the shuddha swaras, thatas or genus modes in terms of the swaras and ragas in terms of the thatas etc which has been used in the ancient works can be adopted for our present system But the indefinite method of describing the shuddha swaras used in the texts will have to be improved on by describing the swaras in terms of the length of the speaking wire, of vibrational values, when there is a consensus of opinion as to these When the swaras have been standardised, (are determined,) we can also fix on the number of parent modes under which the existing ragas can be classified and grouped This is to be done by deciding mathematically the number of possible permutations and combinations as has been done by Vyankata Makhi, in his Chaturdandi Prakasika, and then taking from them such as will best fit the present derivative modes When the number of the parent modes has been determined by consensus of opinion, we have to proceed to the classification of the existing ragas under the parent modes, and in this we will be following our ancient treatises Only, we shall fix the classification having regard to the similarity of swaras, vadi note, peculiarity of development and other features between the parent mode and the derivative raga and not arbitrarily, or blindly following the ancient works.

c15.23.3

Still, the rule followed in the ancient texts that a derivative Raga must be having the same scale as the parent mode, the only difference being in the swaras deleted or added still remains. In the ancient texts, we see an absence of information which is necessary to enable one to make an accurate differential diagnosis of derivative ragas coming under the same parent mode. There the differentiation is made in aroha, avaroha, vadi, time, graha, amsha and nyasa. This differentiation can be amplified by mentioning also the "pakads", or catches, the similarity or dissimilarity of any particular raga, as compared with another derivative of the same thata, whether it is a "purvanga" or "uttaranga" raga, (that is whether its development is in the upper or the lower tetrachord), what vivadi note can be used in it and when and how, how it compares with a similar raga mentioned in the ancient texts, or in vogue in the Karnatik system, and so forth. We can also see our text books have illustrations of the "alapa" developement of a raga, set to tala and notation according to modern methods of scoring. As it is impossible to reduce to notation all the graces, meends, slurs, gamaks, and other alamkaras, the notation may be supplemented by vocal records of practical experts, which records should be indexed and registered, and thrown open to the student studying with the help of the notations.

c15.23.4

If research is able to determine the meaning of the pictorial descriptions of the ragas, (and I must mention that there are to be found works on the chromatics of sound, such as Field on the Chromatics of Sound), then these pictorial representations can be incorporated in our text-books to be, as expounding the aesthetic and psychic possibilities of the raga. The ancient works do not throw any light on the principles of the compositions of tunes or songs, so that every one has to fall back on a limited stock of "ustadi" songs, the correctness of which no one can be sure of as they have never been noted and have only been handed down from generation to generation. If these principles are determined, and standardised, incorrect versions of "ustadi" compositions can be corrected, and also new compositions made. By a study of the works relating to the southern system, we can compose songs for the northern musicians in the ragas which are sure there but have not found a place in the northern system, and thus induce, at some date, how distant soever, a fusion of the two sister systems of music.

c15.24

In short, having by the study of the texts ascertained the groundwork of the system, constructive activity can improve on that groundwork and adapt it to the prevailing conditions of education. It is therefore, of great use to study those texts and to obtain from them a thorough insight into our music as it was.

c15.25

The first of these, the *Gospel of the Hebrews*, was used by the Jewish Christians of Palestine, and was probably a version of the Gospel of Matthew, though it contained some traditions not found in our canonical books. The *Gospel of the Egyptians* was used by the ascetic sects of Egypt, and was marked by a strong tendency towards mysticism and asceticism. The *Gospel of Peter* was used by the Docetists, and taught that Christ did not really suffer, but only appeared to do so.

c15.26

These gospels, and others like them, were not accepted by the Church as a whole, and were gradually lost or suppressed. The Church, however, felt the need for a standard collection of writings that would serve as a guide for faith and practice. This led to the formation of the New Testament canon, a process that took several centuries to complete.

c15.27

The first step in this process was the collection of the letters of Paul, which were widely circulated among the churches. Then came the four Gospels, which were accepted as the authoritative accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus. The Acts of the Apostles and the other epistles were gradually added, and finally the Book of Revelation.

c15.28

By the end of the second century, the core of the New Testament was generally accepted by the Church. The process of canonization was not a formal act of a council, but rather a gradual recognition by the churches of the writings that were most valuable for their life and worship. It was only in the fourth century that the canon was formally closed by the councils of the Church.

c15.29

The formation of the New Testament canon was a crucial event in the history of the Church. It provided a standard of faith and practice that helped to unify the Church and to protect it from the influence of heretical sects. It also ensured that the teachings of Jesus and the apostles would be preserved for future generations.

c15.30

The emperor, who had been the first to propose the measure, was the first to feel the effects of it. He was soon convinced that the *fiscus* could not be supported by the ordinary taxes, and that the extraordinary contributions, which he had so imprudently abolished, were necessary for the defence of the state. He was therefore obliged to re-establish them, but he did so with such modifications as rendered them less oppressive to the people. He also took care to distribute the burden more equally, and to exempt the poor from the payment of the most grievous taxes.

c15.31

The reign of Constantine was also marked by the establishment of a new system of administration. He divided the empire into four prefectures, which were governed by prefects of the praetorium. These officers were invested with the most extensive powers, and were responsible only to the emperor. This system, which was intended to secure the tranquillity of the empire, had the effect of increasing the power of the governors, and of rendering the administration more corrupt.

c15.32

The conversion of Constantine to Christianity was an event of the greatest importance, not only for the empire, but for the whole world. It was the beginning of a new era, in which the Christian religion became the dominant power in the state. The emperor, who had been a pagan, became a zealous defender of the faith, and he did everything in his power to promote its growth. He built churches, endowed them with lands, and granted them many privileges. He also took an active part in the theological controversies of the time, and he did not hesitate to use his authority to enforce his own views.

c15.33

The policy of Constantine towards the Christians was not, however, entirely disinterested. He saw in the new religion a powerful instrument for the consolidation of his own power. He hoped that by uniting the Christians under his protection, he would be able to secure their loyalty, and to use them as a counterpoise to the pagan party. In this he was successful, and the Christian church became a pillar of the imperial throne.

c15.34

The reign of Constantine was also a period of great literary and artistic activity. He encouraged the arts and sciences, and he founded a library at Constantinople, which became one of the most famous in the world. He also patronized the poets and historians of his time, and he did much to promote the study of the Greek and Latin classics.

c15.35

The death of Constantine was a great loss to the empire. He had been a strong and capable ruler, and he had done much to restore the unity and prosperity of the state. His successors, however, were not able to maintain the same level of authority, and the empire soon began to decline. The seeds of decay had been sown, and the time was not far off when the Roman empire would fall.

Linked texts (3)

Caturdaṇḍīprakāśikā — Veṅkaṭamakhin 1620, Sanskrit
Svaramelakalānidhi — Rāmāmātya 1550, Sanskrit
Rāgavibodha — Somanātha 1584, Sanskrit

A Comparative Study of Some of the Leading Music Systems of the 15th, 16th, 17th & 18th Centuries c15: Raga Lakshanam

Contents

Raga Lakshanam

Linked texts (3)