Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c10.229

c10.229

This laudable effort we owe to the enterprise of a Bengali music-theorist named Radha Mohon Sen who published his treatise in the Bengali year 1225 (1881 A.D.). He gives a summary of the different systems of rāgas according to the School of Hanumāna, Bharata (Brahmā), Somesvara, and Kallināth, and also cites the opinion of Tuph-e-t’ul Hind and other Persian treatises. He devotes a section of his work to the contemplative images of rāgas and rāginīs, which offer descriptive word-pictures of the different melodies according to the School of Hanumāna. Though not of much literary merit, the verses in long strings of couplets fulfil their purpose and convey to us the main outlines of the iconographic peculiarity, and the emotive personalities of the melodies. His verses, as a matter of fact, give us attractive physical portraits of the personified melodies rather than any subjective musical values. As will appear from the citations of representative verses from his work, they are based on Sanskrit texts, but are not accurate translation, but only free rendering, sometimes with many omissions, of important iconographic details and frequent additions of original imageries.¹ “Barārī: Barārī is the second rāginī (of Bhairava), a young damsel, who makes the four quarters effulgent with her radiance. Her tresses are new clouds—her robes are white: the flowers of the Wishing Tree are her pendants for the ears. Her face is the Moon without the marks (spots) of the deer. The ‘beauty’ has golden bracelets on her wrists. The breadth of her waist is very narrow her navel is deep like a lake, and her breasts are firm. The fragrance of her body is fascinating: the blind bees mistake it as that of lotuses.¹ In a pleasant mood she smiles and indulges in pleasantries with her beloved. The damsel shines as a full-toned melody, the string of notes being Sa, -ri, -ga, ma, -pa, -dha, ni: Her home is in the note 'Sa' she should be sung at the end of the day."²