The Music of Hindostan c12.34

c12.34

At the end of the *Ragavibodha* are given fifty examples of the use of *gamak* in fifty separate *Rāgs*, and with the help of Herr Simon’s book (p. 182, note) and a knowledge of the Hindostani *Rāgs* it is possible to decipher these. The time, however, presents difficulty. The indication, and the only indication, for all the examples is the word *dinmātrā*, which means ‘general time’, and refers, no doubt, to the *Alāpa* or ‘preluding in the *Rāg*’. But timeless music is unappetizing and difficult to read; so bars have here been added, and the crotchets and quavers arranged on the assumption that a graced note is longer than one ungraced. It must be clearly understood, however, that these time-values have no warrant in the original. The example chosen is in the *Rāg Vasanta* (=spring). This *Rāg* is endeared by its associations, which, whether they arise from it or not, are those of its name. It has also a strongly marked character. It is the F-f scale with the G flattened: the C is lightly touched, and the salient notes are A and E, which it will be noticed alone bear the trill; the D of this *Rāg* is generally held to be natural, but is sometimes given as flat (see the list of *Rāgs* on p. 151, though it differs in some particular from each of the versions there given). Perhaps it may be possible to realize some of its strange beauty by playing over the notes without the graces three or four times till they are familiar, and then singing or whistling it with the graces; but until it is heard in its native land the strangeness will probably remain more credible than the beauty: