The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan c9.3

c9.3

Speaking of this, Willard remarks: “To expect an endless variety in the melody of Hindustan would be an injudicious hope, as their authentic melody is limited to a certain number, said to have been composed by professors universally acknowledged to have possessed not only real merit, but also the original genius of composition, beyond the precincts of whose authority it would be criminal to trespass. What the more reputed of the moderns have done is that they have adapted them to their own purposes, and found others by the combination of two or more of them. Thus far they are licensed, but they dare not proceed a step farther. Whatever merit an entire modern composition might possess, should it have no resemblance to the established melody of the country, it would be looked upon as spurious. It is implicitly believed that it is impossible to add to the number of these one single melody of equal merit, so tenacious are the natives of Hindustan of the ancient practices.”¹