Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c6.205

c6.205

the Chaucer of Bengali literature. His early poems “Kṛṣṇa Kīrtana” (‘songs of Kṛṣṇa’), of which more than one early Mss. have now come to light, is a collection of songs, which were set to music and musical accompaniments. In two old Mss. (one of them dated 1237 sāl=1830 A.D.) recently discovered in the collection of the University of Calcutta.¹ Scholars have agreed to date this work in the second half of the fifteen century.² In these lyrical composition by Caṇḍīdās, each song is set to a rāga (melody) and tāla (time-measure) and the name of the melody and of the time-measure³ in which each song is to be sung are indicated at the top of each. The names of these rāgas are very interesting, as they introduce to us many new names not previously known Vāgaśrī, Rāgiṇī Maṅgala, Rāgiṇī Dimpanāśrī, Rāgiṇī Pāhiḍā, Rāga Vasanta, Rāga Vāḍārī, Rāg Ṣui (? Yui), Rāgiṇī Dhānaśī, Rāgiṇī Rāmagirī (? Rām-Kirī=Rāmakelī). The most surprising name in the list is the melody named ‘Ṣui’ and ‘Dhimpanāśī’, which has not, so far, been cited in any of the texts. It is quite possible that they were local Bengali melodies adopted in the pantheon of the rāgas.⁴