Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c6.143

c6.143

Sangīta-Samayasāra by Pārsvadeva: After Śārṅgadeva, the musical authority that claims our attention is Pārśvadeva. Born of Brahmin parents he was a convert to Jainism. He wrote a work entitled *Saṅgīta-Samayasāra*,¹ devoted to music and dancing. Very probably he was a contemporary of Śārṅgadeva, or lived shortly after him,² say, about the middle of the thirteenth century. Most probably he belonged to the group of musical authorities of Northern India, as he quotes Mātrgupta king of Kashmir, king Bhoja Pāramāra of Malva, king Someśvara of the Cālukya dynasty of Anhilwara (Gujerat), and king Pramārdi of the Candela dynasty. Pārśvadeva, who calls himself as a ‘Mine of music’ (*Saṅgītākara*), devotes a short chapter of 75 verses to the rāgas. He does not state what are the major rāgas, and he principally deals with the minor melodies under the various sub-divisions of rāgāṅgas, bhāṣāṅgas, upāṅgas and kriyāṅgas which he defines as follows: ‘Rāgāṅgas are so-called by the learned as they imitate the appearances (shadows) of rāgas. Similarly bhāṣāṅgas are imitators of the visages (shadows’) of bhāṣās. The upāṅgas are so-called by the learned by reason of imitating the visages of aṅgas.³