Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c6.195

c6.195

A short but important treatise, bearing on the iconography of rāgas, Pañcama-sārasaṃhitā (sometimes called Pañcama-Saṃhitā) composed by an author called Nārada deserves notice. It survives in two Mss., one¹ in the collection of the Baṅgīya Sāhitya Pariṣad (the copy bearing a date 1700 Śaka=1778 A.D.). The second Ms. belongs to the Asiatic Society of Bengal² with a Colophon dated 1440 A.D. (1362 Śaka). It is the most important document for the history of the Northern rāga-system. It must have existed in earlier recensions, and appears to have undergone changes and modifications by later hands. In its chapter on Rāgas, it suggests that the melodies treated by the author have been current in the region to the north of the Vindhyā mountains and its immediate vicinities, including the region of Cutch