Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c10.59

c10.59

Like Puṇḍarīk Viṭṭhala, Somanātha, offers in his *Rāga-vivodha* a series of original verses, describing 52 melodies. His descriptions are very terse, and sometimes enigmatic and unintelligible, but for the annotations that he himself provides on these texts. That the verses are not adequately descriptive is proved by the fact that in many cases the author has to indicate in his commentary—the name of the nāyikā, to suggest the emotive essences of the melodies described. Of the melodies visualised in the *dhyāna*-formulas, some are of peculiar interest, such as, the Pāvaka rāga, and the Mukhārī.