Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Historical Development of Indian Music: A Critical Study c2: Preface

Historical Development of Indian Music: A Critical Study c2

Language
English

Preface

c2.1

Though this volume *Historical Development of Indian Music* is not in itself a chronological history of Indian music, yet it contains a systematic historical account of some of the essential features of Indian music that enrich the pages of its history. By ‘development’, I mean ‘gradual evolution’ or ‘progress’ in the sense of ‘unfoldment’ or ‘coming into being’ that remains latent in the womb of Nature, and so the word ‘development’ or ‘evolution’ here connotes the idea of manifestation of the unmanifested things, through a gradual process.

c2.2

There are some who believe that everything in this world remains always in a constant form, and there is nothing like evolution in the sense of change. But this is a kind of blind faith which has no logical and scientific basis. Because everything, in this world of change, is subject to movement, forward or backward. As for example, a tree remains at first in a seed form, and then comes out as a sprout, and gradually develops into a big tree. A man remains as a child before he attains maturity. So change is inevitable in this world of time-space-causation.

c2.3

We are fully aware of the golden proverb: ‘Rome was not built in a day’, but, in truth, not only Rome, but all the cities and countries, nay, all things in this world of phenomena, have also grown, built and shaped through a gradual process, and nothing is ever made or created accidentally or by chance. Something develops means it moves gradually forward, one step at a time, just as a man walks step by step. Indian Music has also developed through the same process. It passed through different strata of evolution, in different periods, primitive, prehistoric, Vedic, classical, mediaeval, and modern. It will move onward again, and will be modified in the near and distant future. The music of the most ancient or primitive period supplied materials for the development of the systematic and scientific music of the Vedic days. The Vedic music, *sāmagāna* again helped the onward progress of the *gāndharva* type of music, which in its turn, was again replaced by the formalised regional or *deśi* but classical music, with new nomenclatures and forms. So music undergoes changes through all ages, with additions, alterations, modifications, reconstructions, adjustments and readjustments, rectifications, and so on. We should maintain, therefore, a liberal and broad vision in the field of Indian music. The possibility of new orientation in forms and manifestation of this music should neither be discouraged nor overlooked or rejected, but we should draw inspiration from the glorious heritage of the past and the prestine ideal of Indian music.

c2.4

Modern science and researches have also helped our musicology to have a new and progressive orientation.

c2.5

Musicology is called the Science of Music, as it helps to understand or realize music in its true perspective and colour. It formulates laws and rules that lead music to its right path, and thus protects and preserves it in its pristine purity and glory as it were. The musicologists and musicians are fully aware that the notes or *svaras* (the word ‘*sva*’ means ‘by itself’ and ‘*ra*’ connotes the idea of *rañjana* which means ‘pleasing’) are the vital elements in the domain of Indian music, and that they design the *rāgas* that form its very basis, nay, the life-force or *prāṇa*. The musicology has moreover devised the microtones long before the advent of the Christian era, and framed the notes that are deeply saturated with emotions, and are nourished by their subtle sentiments. The *rāgas* are formed out of the permutations and combinations of the notes. The notes are, therefore, the norm or matrix of the *rāgas*, and as such the *rāgas* create impressions, and rouse the emotive feelings in the hearts of the sentient beings, and a wave of sublimity sweeps over them when they are sung. The note that generates the greater number of emotion and feeling, is called the sonant or *vādī*. The function of the sonant is to help the manifestation of the *rāga*. The sonant or *vādī* (*vadanāt* vādī, i.e. which speaks of, or determines, or makes manifest the rāga) is the prime thing, and plays a prominant part in Indian music. It helps the living beings to become conscious of their innate delightful nature. It also makes them conscious of their inherent divine energy that lies dormant in the subconscious mind. Samvādī means the consonant of melodic affinity between the notes, first and fourth, or first and fifth, that occurs at the distances of the ninth and thirteenth microtonal units. Samvādī is termed as the consonant, because it brings in the greatest affinity between two allied notes. Anuvādī is termed as the assonant, and it acts next to the sonant or vādī (anu + vādī, i.e. that comes after vādī, the sonant), while the other one is termed as the dissonant or vivādī, for its having a contrary tendency, bent upon destroying the state of equilibrium or the balance of the rāga, and is, therefore, unhelpful in perfecting the emotive feelings.

c2.6

The twenty-two microtones and ten essentials (daśa-lakṣaṇa) are indispensable for the fuller manifestation of the rāgas, and they are full of inner significance and value, in the science of Indian music or musicology. Besides, there are varṇas and alaṁkāras, mūrcchanās, and other musical ingredients. The varṇas are the musical effort or gāna-kriyā. They determine the ascent and the descent of notes of the rāgas that create the sentiments and emotive feelings (rasa and bhāva). The rāgas are so called, because they create enjoyability or rākti-bhāva, which originates from the sentiments that lie hidden in the tones and microtones. The alamkāras are the combind froms of the ascent and the descent of seven notes, and as such they are the varieties of the varṇas or musical efforts. The mūrcchanās evolve with the help of the notes in a cyclic order, and they create different shades or chāyās of the rāgas, having different emotions. The vistāra or elaboration of the notes creates ālāpa that makes the prabandhas or musical compositions and sthāyas or musical phrases of the songs (gītis) prefect and significant with the parts like ākṣiptikā, from which a rāga is thrown out or manifested in all directions, rāgavardhanī that makes the expansion of the rāga, etc. (vide Caturdaṇḍīprakāśikā, VIII. 1-11). The Saṅgīta-Ratnākara is mainly concerned with the ākṣiptikā in connection with ālāpa, and this ākṣiptikā is divided into four parts. The method of ālāpa makes a rāga fully manifest, with its aesthetic beauty and emotional appeal. Besides, there are other essential ingredients that are required to be observed to make the rāgas manifest fully, with their rakti and rasa bhāvas.

c2.7

Now, what are the prabandhas and sthāyas? The prabandhas are the systematic musical compositions, bound up with different dhātus (music-parts), six aṅgas (limbs), five jātis, etc. The sthāyas are the musical phrases that create the shades or *chāyās* of the *rāgas*. Pārśvadeva and Śāraṅgadeva have fully described about the forms and nature of the *sthāyas* in the *Saṅgīta-samayasāra* and *Saṅgīta-Ratnākara*. Pārśvadeva observes (vide *Saṅgīta-samayasāra*, II.34-3) :

c2.8

गत्या गमकयोगेन रागेणान्येन केन वा ।
स्वरर्वृत्तिः स्वरवृत्तिष्ठाय इत्यभिधीयते ॥

c2.9

The cluster of notes is the basis of a musical effort or *varṇa* (*gāna-kriyā*), and this cluster of notes is no other than the musical phrase or *sthāya*. Pārśvadeva has further observed,

c2.10

तत्र स्थाय्यादिघर्णानामाश्रयः स्वरमण्डलः ।
स्थानमित्युच्यते तस्मिन्नुदाहरणमुच्यते ॥

c2.11

यथा वेलावल्यां ध नि स रि ग म प, छाया नटट्यायां स रि ग म प ध नि इत्यादि ।

c2.12

In fact, the *sthāyas* are the the shadowy forms (*chāyās*) or tonal structures of the *rāgas*. Śāraṅgadeva says: ‘रागस्यावयवः स्थायो’ (III. 97). The total number of the musical phrases (*sthāyas*) are 96, as described by both Pārśvadeva and Śāraṅgadeva. These 96 phrases are meant for the *gītis* or vocal music. There are also phrases or *sthāyas* for the musical instruments, and they are known as *rāgamagnā*: ‘रागम्ना वाद्यशब्दा येष ते वाद्यशब्दज्ञाः’ (SR. III. 119). Siṃhabhupāla has mentioned : ‘रागम्ना रागानुरञ्जिता ये वीणादिष्वेव बाहुल्येन प्रयोगा दृश्यन्ते, ते यन्त्रसम्बन्धिनः’। Now the ascent and the descent notes of the musical phrases, together with the musical efforts or *varṇas*, the sonant or *vādī* or *aṃśa*, the consonant or *saṃvādī*, etc. create and stir up the aesthetic sense, and enrich the emotional appeal in the hearts of the sentient beings.

c2.13

The question now arises whether we observe all these things for manifesting the *rāgas* in our present-day music. We think we do, to some extent, without knowing their proper use and value. We know that there are microtones in between the tones of the *rāgas*, and that they radiate aesthetic sentiments for creating enjoyability in our music, but we do not neither care to be conscious of them, nor do we know how and when to create adequate emotions and feelings through the tones. We know about the *varṇas* and *alaṃkāras*, but we, so to say, have forgotten their use and intrinsic value and colour. We know the importance of the sonant, the consonant and the assonant, but we do not know the art of their use, and even of their functions, when practising or demonstrating the *rāgas*. We read or hear about the musical compositions like *prabandhas*, different musical phrases like *sthāyas*, having emotional units, but we take very little care for reviving their real forms, beauty and value. These are not healthy signs for the re-orientation of music. So every one of us, who love music, and culture music, should strive his or her utmost to avert the impending calamity over our divine music. The secret of the practice of Indian music is maintained by the traditional way of understanding between the teacher and the disciple (*guru-śiṣya-paramparayā*), throughout the ages, and so, if this divine art is guided by the inspiration of the musical *śāstras* and intuitive teachers, its form and ideal will again be revived like that prevailing in the glorious past.

c2.14

However, constructive work in the field of musicology should always be welcomed, to strenghten the bed-rock of Indian music. Physics, physiology, psychology, history, iconography, and philosophy of music should be studied in their true perspectives, and their useful principles should be applied to music, where and when necessary, for the betterment of its form, volume and value. Musical theory in the West has already been developed in a dynamic way, because science has been put in to use in the field of its study. The fruit of such a dynamic scientific development is apparent in the lives of the great geniuses like Helmhotz, Miller, Einstien, Jeans, Sullivan, Lord Raybeigh, Alexander, Wood, Seashore, Revesz, Percy Buck, Wilmer Bartholomew, and other scientists and physicists. They have undoubtedly enriched, enlightened, and enlivened the researchical as well as experimental fields of the Western music. In India, the celebrated old masters like Muni Bharata, Kohala, Yāṣtika, Kaśyapa, Mataṅga, Pārśvadeva, Śāraṅgadeva, Vidyāraṇya, Puṇḍarika Viṭṭhala, Somanāth, Dāmodara, Govinda Dikṣita, Veṅkatamakhi, and others, and modern savants like Pt. Ārchekar, Paṇḍit Viṣṇu Nārāyaṇa Bhātkhaṇḍe, Sir. S. M. Tagore, Kṣetra Mohan Goswāmī, Rādhā Mohan Sen, Kṛṣṇadhone Banerjee, and others have enriched the lore of Indian music by their incessant researches and experiments.

c2.15

Still it remains for us to march forward, by adopting and assimilating new and novel means and methods to improve our divine music. A new era of scientific outlook has dawned upon the horizon of the world of investigation and research, and the social envoirnment and atmosphere have undergone revolutionary changes, and as such we shall investigate again into the things of the past, in the light of modern research. The old Sanskrit treatises should be surveyed from modern scientific outlook, and a constructive view should always be maintained with creative approach. Superstition, bigotry and fanaticism should always be shunned for the shake of truth, and we must have liberal and broad vision in every walk of our life..

c2.16

It is gratifying to learn that the Deccan College of Poona has already started its experimental research upon music, under the able guidence of Dr. Sankaran, Dr. B. Chaitanya Dev, and others. The Indian Institute of Science at Bāṅgālore is also making new researches on music. Interesting experiments are also going on in the Universities of Jubbalpore and Ānnāmālāi, where the chemists and botanists are studying the effect of music on the properties of matter and plants. The same experiments have already been started in the laboratories of Bell Telephone Company, Harvard and Iwoa Universities, in the West. A. H. Swinton, Prof. A. M. Mayer, Frank E. Lutz, and others have also made researchs on the musical sounds of the insects, and some of their research works have been published in the *Bulletin* of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, U.S.A. All these works and researches reveal hopeful sign for the future prospect of the world music.

c2.17

Now, I offer my heartfelt thanks and deep sense of gratitude to Hon'ble Dr. B. V. Keskar, the Union Minister of the Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, for a learned and thoughtful Foreword, which has undoubtedly raised the prestige of this book.

c2.18

I also pay homage and obesiance to my revered music teachers, Ācarya Harinārāyaṇa Mukhopādhyāya of Devanāthpurā, Banaras, Saṅgītācārya Pāñch Kari Banerjee, my elder brother, Nikuñja Bihārī Dutt, the noted disciple of Saṅgita-ratnākara Aghore Nāth Chakravurty, Saṅgita-Nāyaka Gopeśwar Banerjee of Viṣṇupur, Jñanendra Prasād Goswāmī, and others, from whom I learned Dhruvapada and Kheyāl, for years together. The sweet remembrance of Banaras, where I used to take lessons in music from the renowned Dhrupadiyā Harinārāyaṇa Bābu, study in *Navya-Nyāya* from Paṇḍit Vāmācaraṇa Bhaṭṭācārya, Nyāyācārya, and *Advaita Vedānta* from Swāmī Jagadānandajī Mahārāj of the Rāmakrishna Advaita Āshrama, inspires me even to this day, like ‘music that vibrates in the memory when soft voices die’.

c2.19

My thanks also goes to Shri Subodh Kumar Chatterjee, B.A., Shri Upendra Kumar Dutt, Srimatī Mīrā Mitra and Dr. Bāsanti Choudhury, M.A., B.T., D. Phil, for going through the manuscript and proofs, and for helping me in many other ways.

c2.20

I also owe much to Dr. D. M. Sen, Secretary, Education Department, Government of West Bengal, Dr. V. Rāghavan, Head of the Dept. Sanskrit, University of Madras, Prof. Thākur Jaidev Sing, Chief Producer, All India Radio, Delhi, Shri Suresh Chandra Chakravurty, Sangīta-śāstrī, Paṇḍit S. N. Ratanjaṅkar, Vice-Chancellor, Indirā Kalā-Saṅgīta-Viśva-Vidyālaya, Khariāgarh, M. P., and Shri R. L. Roy, Dean of the Faculty of Music, University of Delhi, for encourging me in many ways in my research.

c2.21

It is needleds to mention in this connection that some of the topics of this book were previously published in some of the journals, though they have been thoroughly revised and sometimes rewritten for this book. My thanks goes to Shri K. L. Mukhopādhyāya of the 6/1A, Bañchārām Akrur Lane, Calcutta, for publishing this volume. My thank goes to the renowned artist Shri Devabrata Mukhopādhyāya of Calcutta, for making design of the book, and for many other suggestions for the better out put of the book. My indebtedness goes also to the Pooran Press, for neatly printing the book and to Archaeologiacal Dept. Government of India, New Delhi, for supplying me some of the plates of the veeṇā, and for giving me permission to print them.

c2.22

SWĀMI PRAJNĀNĀNANDA

c2.23

Ramakrishna Vedanta Math 19B, Raja Rajkrishna Street, Calcutta-6. March, 1960.

Linked texts (3)