[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Architecture and art](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art) › [A Comparative Study of Some of the Leading Music Systems of the 15th, 16th, 17th & 18th Centuries](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.bhatkhande-comparative) › c2.2 # A Comparative Study of Some of the Leading Music Systems of the 15th, 16th, 17th & 18th Centuries c2.2 A Comparative Study of Some of the Leading Music Systems of the 15th, 16th, 17th & 18th Centuries c2.2 - **Language:** English ### [c2.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.bhatkhande-comparative.c2.2) In the midst of this reformation a few Granthas expounding the system of music in vogue in their respective times were written. Two of these, Ahobala's Sangeet Parijat and Somnatha's Ragavibodh had already been published when Prof. Bhatkhande took up the study of the Granthas. This does not however mean that they were understood by anybody. In their anxiety to link up the ancient system of music with that current in their own days the authors of these Granthas have rendered themselves difficult to understand. E. G. Somnath explains his music scale in terms of Shrutis as the ancients did. As to what was his exact interval of the Shruti he is mum. He bases his theory on a chromatic scale which is current today in the south as Mukhari and describes his flats and sharps with reference to this scale. In the north even perhaps at Somnatha's time a diatonic scale had already been adopted as the standard scale. Ragavibodh was therefore difficult to the northerners to understand. Similarly Ahobala dutifully accepts the Shrutis and Moorchhanas of the ancients and describes them in elaborate details in the Swaradhyaya. When however he comes to the Ragadhyaya he quietly selects from the Swaradhyaya whatever had a practical bearing on the music current in his time and throws the rest of the bundle overboard. - [Previous: c2.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.bhatkhande-comparative.c2.1) - [Next: c2.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.bhatkhande-comparative.c2.3) - [Up: c2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.bhatkhande-comparative.c2) ## Linked texts (2) - [Saṅgītapārijāta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.art.sangita.sangraha.sangitaparijata) — Ahobilasūri 1600, Sanskrit - [Rāgavibodha](https://indike.org/pramana/in.art.sangita.raga.ragavibodha) — Somanātha 1584, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.bhatkhande-comparative.c2.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.bhatkhande-comparative.c2.2) · Pramāṇa