Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c12.3

c12.3

The patterns of Indian musical melodies claim to answer somewhat to these emotional abstract states or generalized forms of emotions visualized in dramatic forms with approximate "accompanying circumstances." The melody Toḍi [Plates XV-XX] is the emotional symbol of the "feeling of the country side." The human response to the call of nature is embodied in the image of Toḍi, the Indian pastoral symphony par excellence The melody of the early morning—Lalita, [Plate XXXVI] symbolises on the one hand,—the break of the night and the day, and on the other hand,—the separation of the lovers with all its pangs and sufferings told in all the poignancy of the dramatic situation. Here the, ‘emotion’ as well as its dramatic ‘setting’ or ‘circumstance’ or both indicated. In the version of Lalita [Plate XXXVII]—in which the offending lover returns at day-break after spending the night with a rival—the sorrows of love are given in an altogether different ‘circumstance’, or ‘setting’. Vibhāsa [Plate LXXXV], another of the early morning melodies,—pictures pangs of separation—in an analogous, though a somewhat different environment. The cockcrow is the sworn enemy of all love-carousals—and the melody is symbolised in the picture of a lover attempting to shoot the early cock with his bow and arrow. In a version of Lalitā [Plate XXXVII-D]—the feeling of the satiety of love (rati-tṛpti) is pictured in the symbol of a beautiful lady who has come out of her love-chamber early in the morning accepting the advent of the dawn as a logical termination of a chapter of love. Rāmakelī [Plate XXXII],—the melody of resentment, claims to concentrate within the orchestration of its peculiar notes—the emotion of an offended lady vainly assauged by her lover. Vasanta [Plate LX] in the dancing rhythm of its symphonic form, suggests the emotion of human-beings on the advent of the new spring. Likewise, —the manly and sonorous symphony of the Megha rāga [Plate LXV]—pictures the majesty of clouds—and the inevitable longings for love-union—that the rainy season invokes. Kānoḍā [Plate LI]—pictured in the image of a young lady—standing at the foot of the Aśoka tree—lean as a golden creeper and drenched in tears—is the lamentation of a heroine cut off from her lover by cruel fate. On the other hand, Bhūpālī [Plate LXXVI]—the evening melody,—is the silent joy of the lover as she meets her beloved at the door by her bed-chamber—with her present of flower-garland which she has been weaving for him during the long hours of the separation. In a version of Kāmoda, [Plate XLVIII] the melody suggests the rapture of love-dalliance symbolised in a pair of lovers, who on the pretext of picking lotuses, have selected the loneliest spot by the lotus-pond. And if in some of the morning melodies, passion and the sorrows of separation, receive undue emphasis, this is amply compensated by the conception of Bhairavī [Plate IV],--likewise a morning melody, which,--symbolized in the person of Pārvatī,--worshipping the image of Śiva--in a crystal temple, glorifies the unsullied purity of Love without Desire, and Passion purified by Renunciation. Such are some of the radiant images which flit across the vision of Indian musical imagination. Though rendered in obviously sensuous forms,--they transcend our sense-experience and transport us to a region of super-sensual ecstasy--an atmosphere of sublimated and spiritual emotion.