Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c11.12

c11.12

This practice of hunting deer by the lure of music is recorded in a picturesque Hindī verse, in the form of the deer’s wail in which the animal hungry for the music expresses itself ready to sacrifice its body in lieu of the prize of a musical treat: “When a single leaf rustles, I fly to the island of Ceylon; (but having heard the notes of your flute, I have offered to you my head as a present; you can sell my horns and turn them into coins, and roast my meat to eat, take my skin to make into rugs, but O! do please treat me to the music of your flute!”²