Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c6.261

c6.261

pices of three successive royal patrons. The first one Sadrāga-candrodaya was written some time between 1562 and 1599 under the service of the Faroqi Prince Burhan Khan of Khandesh which was incorporated in the Moghal empire after the seige of Asirgarh in 1599.¹ In this work he deals with both the Southern and Northern systems of rāgas and classifies them under nineteen thāṭs or parent-scale, viz.: Mukhārī, Mālava-gauḍa, Śrī, Śuddha-naṭṭa, Deśākṣī, Karṇāṭā-gauḍa, Kedāra, Hijeja, Hamir, Kamode, Toḍī, Abhīrī, Śuddha-varāṭī, Śuddha-rāmakrī, Devakrī, Śāraṅga, Kalyāṇa, Hindola and Nāda-Rāmakrī. Out of these nineteen original (mela) rāgas, he attributes to five of them their respective derivative forms (janya-rāga). (See Appendix 18). As Prof. Bhatkhande remarks, "the Hindusthānī musician will find this classification very interesting. He will find many of his own rāgas in the list. Some of these latter seem to have retained their original svaras (notes) to this day." The work is, therefore, of great significance for the data provided for the history of the rāgas. It is noteworthy, that when the author composed his works, the recognized melodies in the north far exceeded the limits of an exhaustive enumeration as is evident from the author's remark: "Owing to the rāgas being innumerable it is impossible to describe each individual ones, I am reciting, here, some of them, following a particular school."²