Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c6.40

c6.40

In editing this inscription P. R. Bhandarkar¹ remarks: “It is clear that the seven rāgas of this inscription did not exist in the time of Bhāratīya Nāṭya-śāstra. When they came into existence is not known, the present inscription being the earliest record.” There is no doubt that these seven rāgas, even if they existed at the time, are not indicated in the Nāṭya-śāstra. But a glance at the seven melodies will show that they are identical with the seven melodies described in the Nāradīyā Śikṣā, quoted and translated above. In the last named text their compositional forms are verbally described, while in the inscription their “skeleton notes are given for the benefit of students” (śiṣyahitārthāya kṛtaḥ svarāgamaḥ). Excepting two viz. ‘Pāncama’ and ‘Kaiśika’, none of the others in their names seem to suggest any of the rāgas known in later texts. There is no doubt that here we have the rāgas in their nascent stage, crudely described with reference to their salient notes, long before they came to be associatd with any season, region, or cult, and assumed proper names.