Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c9.1

c9.1

There is a doctrine inherent in the Indian theory of melodies which helps one to understand the fundamental psychic values of rāgas, and to apply them to requirements of particular emotional situations, or interpretations. It is believed that each rāga, or rāgiṇī has its peculiar psychic form, corresponding to its sonal body over which the former presides as the nymph, deity, or the devatā (presiding genius, or god) of that particular melody. This deity, or image-formed dwells in the super-terrestrial regions,—the world of musical symphonies,—from which it can be invoked and induced to descend to earth through the prayers of the musical performer with the aid of a definite symphonic formula peculiar to each melody. This idea is, evidently, coloured with the doctrine of image-worship as known in the Hindu-Brahmanical religious thought. By the earnest prayers and spiritual exercises (sādhanā) of the worshipper (sādhaka), the divinity comes down and incarnates in the form of the image for the benefit of the worshipper. Each image has its definite means of approach, the vīja-mantra, a method of prayer through the ‘seed-formula’, and the deity only answers to prayers couched in the mystic words, or letters prescribed for each, each letter-formula having the mysterious power,—the inherent quality of invoking a particular deity. The application to the theory of Indian music, this doctrine of image-worship, i.e. the idea of invoking the presiding deity, or the spirit of the divinity by means of a dhyāna-formula,—an evocative scheme of prayers for contemplation,—has led to the conception of the forms of rāgas and rāgiṇīs in dual aspects viz., as audible Sound-Forms, and as visible Image-Forms—nāda-maya rūpa and devatā-maya rūpa. This doctrine, inherent in the theory of rāgas, is casually alluded to in the earlier texts, but is not clearly enunciated in any text before the *Rāga-vivodha* (Pañcama viveka), where, after indicating the appropriate hours of melodies, the author describes the two-fold forms (*rūpa*) of melodies¹:—"That is called *rūpa* which by being embellished with sweet flourishes of *svaras* (notes) brings a rāga vividly before one's mind. It is of two kinds—*Nādātma* (one whose soul or essence is sound), and *Devamaya* (=*devatā-deha-mayam*, one whose soul, or essence is an image incarnating the deity), of which the former has many phases, and the latter has only one" (M. S. R. Aiyar's translation; the words in bracket have been added for elucidation). The author then describes his symbols (*sanketa*) for his notations, and describes the melodies in terms thereof, and thereafter remarks:² "Having (already) expounded the many sound-forms of those rāgas, we will now proceed to relate in proper sequence, the image-forms of each and every one of them."