Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c6.45

c6.45

The word actually used in the last passage is varṇa which cannot be taken as equivalent to rāgas. On the other hand, in the first passage, the term rāga is actually used in the sense of a song being set to a particular melody. This would certainly suggest that more than one rāga, in the sense we understand to-day, had come into existence and were current in practice. Whether they were still in the stage of grāmarāgas, or had been recognized and labelled by proper names it is impossible to say from the data of this allusion to the science of music in the Pañcatantra (5th century). From the above reference it is difficult to say,—if the six rāgas and thirty-six rāgiṇīs, popular in North India, had been evolved by that time. The passage refers to thirty-six classes altogether.