Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c6.13

c6.13

(1) According to an old tradition, Dattila is supposed to be one of the five Bharatas (Nandī, Kohala, Dattila, Bharata and Matanga) who made the science of music and dramaturgy current in the world. Dattila is sometimes associated with Kohala, and they were supposed to have collaborated in a work known as Dattila-Kohalyīam. Kohala being undoubtedly an earlier authority than Bharata, who quotes Kohala, it follows that Dattila is earlier than Bharata. This view is supported by two scholars who have recently investigated into the relative positions of the early authorities on music: (i) V. V. Narasimhachary “The Early Writers on Music” (The Journal of the Music Academy, Madras, October, 1930, p 259) and (ii) V. Raghavan: “Some names in early Sangita Literature” (Ibid., Vol. III, 1932, No. 1 & 2, p. 12): “The present text (of Bharata) is later than Kohala and even Dattila”.