Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c9.22

c9.22

(1) It was at one time believed that the scheme of colours—in the distinct varieties of the colour-notes of the different parts of personae of each representation are significantly indicated. In many of these personifications,—particularly those which have the many phrases of human love for their theme,—the principles of old Indian love-lore, and erotics, (*rasa-śāstra*) have been applied—and the personages have been conceived in terms of the classic conventions of ‘love-heroes’ and ‘love-heroines’ (*nāyakas* and *nāyikās*)—in all the rich variety of their moods and types. The introduction of these poetical ideas has not only enriched the significance of the musical expressions,—but has, also, helped to achieve a happy and a subtle unification of literary and musical ideas. It is a profoundly expressed truth—that music begins where the language of words fails. It is equally true that in some sense, music is a much more definite language than the language of words. And very properly, music has jealously guarded the frontier of its kingdom from the attack, or intrusion of the language of words. There is an interminable controversy—as to what extent the words of a song embarrass the expression of pure musical values. The intrusion of literary ideas in the world of music cannot but be disastrous to musical expression, and, as is well-known, the literary criticism of music is one of the most tragic things of life. The imageries and ideas borrowed from Indian poetics and love-lore and incorporated in the contemplative verses (*dhyānas*) describing the Indian rāgas, stand, however, on a very different footing. They are, by no means, a description of the musical values but an indication of the *rasa*—the nature of the emotions for which the melodies stand. They are not, strictly speaking, literary explanations but a co-relation and a paralellism with imageries which arose out of the experiences of life common to musicians and poets. It is really in the pictorial versions