Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c6.50

c6.50

After devoting a chapter to the *Jātis*, Matanga devotes a special chapter to the *rāgas*. Indeed, it is in this chapter of the *Bṛhad-deśī* that we first come across the word “*rāgas*” as understood in all later literature on Indian music. In the history of the *rāgas*, *Bṛhad-deśī* is, therefore, a very important landmark. Chronologically, the work stands between the *Nāṭyaśāstra* of Bharata, and the *Saṅgita-makaranda* of Nārada, that is to say, some time between the 4th and the 7th century.¹