Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c10.218

c10.218

While the Hindī versions helped to broadcast the message of Indian music and to a popular realization of the qualities of rāgas among an ever-growing circle of appreciation far beyond the narrow clique of learned experts, it was found that the meaning and significance of the rāgas were inaccessible to a large group of cultured men ignorant of the Hindī dialects. India has hardly seen more sincere and enthusiastic admirers of her music, than the enlightened princes of the Moghul dynasty whose patronage brought about very rich and significant developments in the art and the science of music. But the Moghul patrons took care to ascertain accurately the fundamental principles of Indian musical science, before proceeding to help towards its further growth and enrichment. And for this purpose, more than one authoritative treatises in Sanskrit were translated into Persian as the basis of a scientific investigation.¹ The most typical effort on this line, was the translation of the Sanskrit and Hindī treatises into Persian. The Rāga-darpaṇa, the Sangīta Darpaṇa, Sangīta Pārijāta, and the Hindī treatise Mān kutūhala were made available in Persian versions.¹ Led by Akbar, the grandeés of the Imperial Court, (Hindu as well as Mohamedan), became intelligent connoisseurs of Hindī Music, and developed an ardent curiosity to study music from all points of view. The popularity of the rāga-mālā pictures helped to stimulate and satisfy this curiosity, through pictorial and literary forms. The descriptions of the distinctive ‘images’ (tasvīrs) of the rāgas were demanded in Persian versions and musical interpreters learned in the two languages, were not wanting to answer the demand. Various illustrations of rāginīs had already been painted by Mussulman artists. A typical example is the Moghul version of Toḍī rāginī, wrongly attributed to Rizzā ‘Abbāsī. Though the attribution is wrong, the example proves the popularity of rāginī pictures amongst Mussalman artists.²