The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan c8.3

c8.3

¹ The word Râga does not appear to have been used in its present technical sense until a date later than has been generally supposed. It is worthy of note that in the oldest Indian musical treatise, the Bhârata Natya S'astra, the word Râga appears hardly at all; and no special adhyaya is devoted to it, as is invariably the case in all subsequent Sanskrit treatises. The employment of râga as understood in the Sangîta Ratnâkera and subsequently was evidently unknown at the time when Bhârata wrote. But in its place there was a system of what are called by Bhârata jâtis. This word, meaning literally genus, would seem to be of kindred meaning to the old Greek musical term γένος. Some centuries later, when the Sangîta Ratnâkera was written, the term râga appears to have been substituted for jâti.