Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c6.319

c6.319

A text datable about 1665 A.D., and which became very popular in the North is the Saṅgīta-Pārijāta by Ahovala Paṇḍita¹ having been translated into Persian by Pandit Dīnanāth in 1724 A.D. The translation bearing the seal of the librarian of Emperor Mohamed Shah (1719-1724) is still in the collection of the Rampur State Library. The most important feature of this work is the fixing of the exact places of the śuddha and vikṛta notes in terms of the lengths of the sounding string of the vīṇā, in the same manner as that of Hṛdaya-kautuka. Ahovala does not appeal to give any classification of the rāgas under any types of parent-scale (ṭhāṭ) or otherwise, although he claims to describe the rāgas according to the characteristics laid down by Hanumān.² But occasional references to ṭhāṭas seem to indicate, that in his time, classification of rāgas under ṭhāṭas had become current in the North. He gives a list of 122 rāgas, which he describes with accurate notations.³ He groups them according to the time and watches (prahara) assigned to their appropriate periods for singing, dividing them into three groups, for the first, second or third watches, while a string of 19 rāgas are grouped together as suitable for all hours ("sarvadā ca sukha-pradā").