Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c7.1

c7.1

The differentiation of rāgiṇīs from rāgas is a topic of some complication. The evolution of the rāgiṇīs as a class of melodies to be distinguished from rāgas properly so-called is a matter of later history. The word rāgiṇī does not occur in the works of Dattila, Bharata, or in the Bṛhaddeśī. Rāgiṇīs are believed to be graceful, minor, diminutive, or abbreviated forms of rāgas. At an earlier stage, such as we find in the Bṛhaddeśī, they were looked upon as the derivatives of the root-rāgas, and as reflecting the character of the rāgas (Chāyā-mātrānuga). They are then designated as bhāṣās, and vibhāṣās, and antara-bhāṣās. And each of the several earliest grāma-rāgas, or rāga-gītis (see Appendix 3) had particular bhāṣā-gītis assigned to them. According to the definition of Mataṅga, ‘the bhāṣās were derived from the grāma-rāgas, the vibhāṣās spring from the bhāṣās, and the antara-bhāṣās were born of the vibhāṣās’.¹ In the nomenclature of this definition, and in the feminine endings given to these early derivatives of the root-rāgas, we have the seeds for the later classifications of rāgas and rāgiṇīs, picturesquely called as the wives of the rāgas, and the classification of rāgas and their derivatives picturesquely called as the sons (putras) of the rāgas. The three types of derivative rāgas, mentioned by Mataṅga, have names with feminine endings (strī-pratyaya).