Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c9.7

c9.7

mechanical reproduction of its symphonic structure can put life into the melody and make it alive. And unless it is alive in the song, or instrument, it does not fulfil its purpose. A rāga or rāgiṇī is something more than its physical form,—its symphonic structure,—its ‘body’. It has a ‘soul’ which comes to dwell and inhabit in the ‘body’. In the language of Indian poetics, this ‘soul’—this principle is known as the rasa, flavour, sentiment, impassioned feeling, or simply, passion, or aesthetic emotion. It is this emotive principle, the presiding sentiment, or passion, which is evoked by the peculiar combination of the notes, the svaras. For, according to the Indian theory, each svara, or note has a peculiar emotive value, symbolised by its presiding deity (svarāṇām devatā), and has its interpretive seer, sage, or expounder (ṛṣi).¹ Particular notes (svaras) have peculiar quality of interpreting particular emotions. Thus, the notes ‘sā’ and ‘ri’ (c and d) are said to be appropriate for interpreting the emotions of heroism, wonder, and resentment; the note ‘dha’ (a) is suitable for emotions of disgust, and terror; the notes ‘ga’ and ‘ni’ (e and b) are suitable for emotions of sorrow, and the notes ‘ma’ and ‘pa’ (f and g) are suitable for emotions of humour and love.² And it is the vādī-svara, the speaking or the dominant note which determines the character of the rasa, or the flavour or the emotion of the melody. The devatā or the image-form is the svarūpa, or the incarnation of the rasa of the rāga. A successful performer (sādhaka) must be familiar with the image-form as well as the sound-form. The one is the means to the achievement of the other. And educated interpreter makes the spirit of the melodies live, while an untrained one is