The Music of India/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II
LEGEND AND HISTORY
The beginnings of Indian music are lost in the beautiful and fanciful legends of gods and goddesses who were supposed to be its authors and patrons. The goddess Sarasvatī is always represented as the goddess of art and learning, and she is usually pictured as seated on a white lotus with a vīṇā, lute, in one hand, playing it with another, a book in the third hand and a necklace of pearls in the fourth.
The technical word for music throughout India is the word saṅgīta, which originally included dancing and the drama as well as vocal and instrumental music. The god Śiva is supposed to have been the creator of this three-fold art and his mystic dance symbolizes the rhythmic motion of the universe.
In Hindu mythology the various departments of life and learning are usually associated with different ṛishis and so to one of these is traced the first instruction that men received in the art of music. Bharata ṛishi is said to have taught the art to the heavenly dancers—the Apsarases—who afterwards performed before Śiva. The ṛishi Nārada, who wanders about in earth and heaven, singing and playing on his vīṇā, taught music to men. Among the inhabitants of Indra's heaven we find bands of musicians. The Gandharvas are the singers, the Apsarases the dancers, and the Kinnaras centaur-like performers on musical instruments. From the name Gandharva has come the title Gāndharva Veda for the art of music.
Among the early legends of India there are many concerning music. The following is an interesting one from them Adbhuta Rāmāyaṇa about Nārada ṛishi, which combines criticism with appreciation.
Once upon a time the great ṛishi Nārada thought within himself that he had mastered the whole art and science of music. To curb his pride the all-knowing Vishṇu took him to visit the abode of the gods. They entered a spacious building, in which were numerous men and women weeping over their broken limbs. Vishṇu stopped and enquired of them the reason for their lamentation. They answered that they were the rāgas and the rāgiṇīs, created by Mahādeva; but that as a ṛishi of the name of Nārada, ignorant of the true knowledge of music and unskilled in performance, had sung them recklessly, their features were distorted and their limbs broken; and that, unless Mahādeva or some other skilful person would sing them properly, there was no hope of their ever being restored to their former state of body. Nārada, ashamed, kneeled down before Vishṇu and asked to be forgiven.
The Vedic Index shows a very wide variety of musical instruments in use in Vedic times. Instruments of percussion are represented by the dundubhi, an ordinary drum; the āḍambara, another kind of drum; bhūmi-dundubhi, an earthdrum made by digging a hole in the ground and covering it with hide; vanaspati, a wooden drum; āghāṭi, a cymbal used to accompany dancing. Stringed instruments are represented by the kāṇḍa-viṇā, a kind of lute; karkari, another lute; vāṇa, a lute of 100 strings; and the vīṇā, the present instrument of that name in India. This one instrument alone is sufficient evidence of the development to which the art had attained even in those early days. There are also a number of wind instruments of the flute variety, such as the tūṇava, a wooden flute; the nāḍī, a reed flute; bākura, whose exact shape is unknown. 'By the time of the Yajur Veda several kinds of professional musicians appear to have arisen; for lute-players, drummers, flute-players and conch-blowers are mentioned in the list of callings.'
That vocal music had already got beyond the primitive stage may be concluded from the somewhat complicated method of chanting the Sāma Veda, which probably goes back to the Indo-Iranian age. These hymns of the Ṛik and Sāma Vedas are the earliest examples we have of words set to music, unless we except the Zendavesta, which may have been chanted. The Sāma Veda was sung according to very strict rules, and present day Samagahs — temple singers of the Saman — claim that the oral tradition which they have received goes back to those ancient times. A discussion upon the musical character of the Saman chant will be found in the next chapter. The Chhandogya and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishads (c. 600 B.C.) both mention the singing of the Sama Veda and the latter also refers to a number of musical instruments.
One of the earliest references to music is found in the grammarian Panini, who was probably alive when Alexander the Great was in Taxila (326 B.C.) In his comments upon the root Nrit — to dance — he mentions two persons named Silalin and Krisasvin as the authors of two sets of sutras on dancing.
A reference to a musical performance, which if it could be accepted as historical would go back further still is found in the Pali Pitaka (c. 300 B.C.) in which it is said that two disciples of Gautama Buddha (c. 480 B.C.) attended a dramatic performance, which of course would be musical.
The earliest reference to musical theory seems to be in the Rikpratisakhya (c. 400 B.C.) which mentions the three voice registers and the seven notes of the gamut. It is interesting to find that just before this time, Pythagoras in Greece (510 B.C.) worked out the musical system of the Greeks.
In the Ramayana (400 B.C. — A.D. 200) mention is frequently made of the singing of ballads, which argues very considerable development of the art of music. The poem composed by the sage Valmiki is said to have been sung before King Dasaratha by Rama and Lakshmana. The author of the Ramayana often makes use of musical similes. The humming of the bees reminded him of the music of stringed instruments, and the thunder of the clouds of the beating of the mridanga. He talks of the music of the battlefield, in which the twanging and creaking of the bows takes the place of stringed instruments and vocal music is supplied by the low moaning of the elephants. Ravana is made to say that * he will play upon the lute of his terrific bow with the sticks of his arrows.' Lakshmaṇa, entering the inner apartments of Sugrīva's harem, hears the ravishing strains of the music of the vīṇā and other stringed instruments accompanied by the faultless singing of accomplished vocalists. Rāvaṇa was a great master of music and was said to have even appeased Śiva by his sublime chanting of Vedic hymns.
The Rāmāyaṇa also mentions the jātis, which seem to have done duty for the rāgas in ancient times. They seem to have been seven in number and may perhaps have begun on each of the seven notes of the gamut. Among the musical instruments mentioned the following are the most important: bherī, dundtubhi, mṛidaṅga, paṭaha, ghaṭa, paṇava', and ḍiṇḍima among the drums; mudduka (brass trumpet) and āḍamhara (clarionet) among wind instruments; a vīṇā played either with the bow or with a plectrum, the vīṇā being the name for all stringed instruments.[1]
The Mahābhārata (500 B.C.—A.D. 200) speaks of the seven Svaras and also of the Gāndhāra Grāma, the ancient third mode which is discussed in the next chapter. The theory of consonance is also alluded to.
The Mahājanaka Jātaka (c. 200 B.C.) mentions the four great sounds (parama mahā śabda) which were conferred as an honour by the Hindu kings on great personages. In these the drum is associated with various kinds of horn, gong and cymbals. These were sounded in front of a chariot which was occupied, but behind one which was empty. The car used to go slowly round the palace and up what was called 'the kettle-drum road.' At such a time they sounded hundreds of instruments so that 'it was like the noise of the sea.' The Jātaka also records how Brahmadatta presented a mountain hermit with a drum, telling him that if he beat on one side his enemies would run away and if upon the other they would become his firm friends.
In the Tamil books Puṙanānūṙu and Pattupāṭṭu (c. A.D. 100-200) the drum is referred to as occupying a position of very great honour. It had a special seat called murasukattil, and a special elephant, and was treated almost as a deity. It is described as 'adorned with a garland like the rainbow.' One of the poets tells us, marvelling at the mercy of the king, 'how he sat unwittingly upon the drum couch and yet was not punished'. Three kinds of drum are mentioned in these books : the battle drum, the judgment drum, and the sacrificial drum. The battle drum was regarded with the same veneration that regiments used to bestow upon the regimental flag in the armies of Europe and the capture of the drum meant the defeat of the army. One poem likens the beating of the drum to the sound of a mountain torrent. Another thus celebrates the virtues of the drummer :
For my grandsire's grandsire, his grandsire's grandsire
Beat the drum. For my father, his father did the same.
So he for me. From duties of his clan he has not swerved.
Pour forth for him one other cup of palm tree's purest wine.1[2]
The early Tamil literature makes much mention of music. The Paripadal (c. A.D. 100-200) gives the names of some of the svaras and mentions the fact of there being seven Palai (ancient Dravidian modes). The yal (^'^i^) is the peculiar instrument of the ancient Tamil land. No specimen of it exists to-day. It was evidently something like the vinct but not the same instrument, as the poet Manikkavachakar (c. A.D. 500-700) mentions both in such a way as to indicate two different instruments. Some of its varieties are said to have had over 1,000 strings. The Silappadigaram (a.D. 300), a Buddhist drama, mentions the drummer, the flute player, and the vina as well as the ja/, and also has specimens of early Tamil songs. This book contains some of the earliest expositions of the Indian musical scale, giving the seven notes of the gamut and also a number of the modes and ragas in use at that time. The names given to the notes are not those current in the present day and are with one exception pure Tamil words Tivakarani, a Jain lexicon of the same period, gives quite a lot of information about early Dravidian music. It mentions two kinds of ragas; complete or heptatonic, and transilient or hexatonic and pentatonic, which were called respectively Pan and Tiram; it gives the twenty-two srutis, which it calls matra; the Tamil names of the seven svaras with the equivalent Sanskrit sol-fa initials, (Sa Ri Ga etc.); the seven Dravidian modes called Palai; four kinds of Yal and the names of 29 Pans, some of which are still found among the primary ragas of southern India. All this as well as frequent references to the science of music and to musical performances, both vocal and instrumental, in the Tamil books of this and succeeding periods makes it clear that musical culture had reached a high level among the Dravidian peoples of South India in the early centuries of our era.
The later centuries of the Buddhist period (a.D. 300-500) were more fertile in architecture, sculpture and painting than in music. The dramas of Kalidasa (c. A.D. 400) make frequent references to music and evidently the rajahs of that time had regular musicians attached to their courts. In the Malavikagnimitra a song in four-time is mentioned as a great feat performed at a contest between two musicians. The development of the drama after Kalidasa meant the development of music as well, as all Indian drama is operatic. 'The temple and the stage were the great schools of Indian music'
This was the time when in Europe Pope Sylvester (A.D. 330) and St. Ambrose (A.D. 374-397) began to elaborate musical theory.
The oldest detailed exposition of Indian musical theory which has survived the ravages of ants and the fury of men is found in a treatise called Natya Sastra or the science of dancing, said to have been composed by the sage Bharata. The date of this book is usually accepted as the early part of the sixth century. It is stated elsewhere that previous to this Bharata had composed the Natya Sutra or Aphorisms on Dancing, but these have not survived. There is only one chapter of the Natya Sastra (ch. 25) which deals with music proper. This contains a detailed exposition of the svaras, srutis, gramas, mflrchhanas, jatis. While the principles of his theory are still active in Indian music, the details of his system belong to the past and are not easily intelligible to the present generation. A translation of a portion of this chapter appeared in Mr. Clement's Introduction to Indian Music, and there is a complete French translation by Jean Grosset. The latter however is not quite an accurate guide, as it has taken the word svara — used by Bharata for the interval and only secondarily for the note above the interval — to refer to the note below the interval. This involves the correction of all his translation of note names.
An inscription found at Kudumiyamalai in the Pudukottai State of the Madras Presidency, which seems to belong to the seventh century, has many references to music. It mentions seven jatis and a few of the srutis as well as the seven svaras. The words 'antara' and 'kakali' are found describing respectively the sharp srutis of Ga and Ni, which is one of the peculiarities of the Southern nomenclature to-day. It is suggested that the inscription is really a piece for the Samagah to sing and that the peculiar marks on many of the note signs may be intended to indicate points of Saman singing.1[3]
The seventh and eighth centuries of our era in South India witnessed a religious revival associated with the bhakti movement and connected with the theistic and popular sects of Vishnu and Siva. This revival was spread far and wide by means of songs composed by the leaders of the movement and so resulted in a great development of musical activity among the people generally and in the spread of musical education. The old melodies to which these songs were sung are now lost, though Travancore claims to have preserved some of them in the ancient Travancore ragas such as Indisa, Indalam, Padi, Puranira. The beautiful strip of land on the south-west coast of India between the Western Ghauts and the sea, of which Travancore is now a part, was famed in the centuries before Christ for its commercial activities and its tropical products. This was then the homeland of the Chera kingdom which for a considerable period exercised sovereignty over the whole of South India. It was also the home of an ancient Tamil culture which rivalled the Sanskrit culture of the sacred cities of North India. It is, therefore, no wonder that we should find here a flourishing school of music whose traditions have persisted until this day. It is interesting to note that it was about this time that Gregory the Great was developing music in Europe for religious purposes.
The Narada Siksha, wrongly connected with the name of the great rishi, was probably composed between the tenth and twelfth century. It shows considerable development upon the Natya Sastra in its raga system and in a number of matters agrees with the Kudumiyamalai inscription where that disagrees with the next important treatise, the Sahgita-Ratnakara. Some scholars think that the Narada Siksha comes much later than the twelfth century.
The first north Indian musician whom we can definitely locate both in time and place is Jayadeva, who lived at the end of the twelfth century. He was born at Kendula near Bolpur, where lives to-day the poet laureate of Bengal and modern India. Kendula still celebrates an annual fair at which the best musical pieces are regularly performed. Jayadeva wrote and sung the Gita Govinda, a series of songs descriptive of the amours of Krishna, and so belongs to the number of India's lyrical songsters connected with the bhakti revival. Though each song has the name of the raga and tala to which it was sung these are not intelligible to-day to Indian musicians. At that time these songs were known as Prabhandhas. The Glta Govinda is a charming lyrical composition, as may be realized to some degree in an English translation of it by Sir Edwin Arnold under the name of The Indian Song of Songs. In these songs Radha pours forth her yearning, her sorrow and her joy and Krishna assures her of his love.
We come now to the greatest of ancient Indian musical authorities and one who still inspires reverence in the minds of India's musicians. He was called Sarrigadeva and lived in the former half of the thirteenth century (a.d. 1210-1247), at the court of the Yadava dynasty of Devagiri in the Deccan. At that time the Maratha empire extended to the river Kaveri in the south, and it is probable that Sarngadeva had come into contact with the music of the south as well as with that of the north. His work, the Sangita-Ratnakara shows many signs of this contact. It is possible that he is endeavouring to give the common theory which underlies both systems. The result is that a great deal of controversy has arisen as to the exact system described in the book and even as to the reading of the ragas which he describes. No scholar has been able to give a thoroughly satisfactory account of these. The work deals with the whole range of musical form, and composition and gives a very detailed account of ancient musical theory. It also mentions a number of musical writers between Bharata and the author, but none of their works survive to-day. The fundamental scale {suddha raga) of Sarrigadeva is Mtikhart, the modern Kanakahgi, which is the sitddha scale of Carnatic music to-day.
The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are the most important in the development of the Northern school. It was the time of the Muhammadan conquest. Many of the emperors did a great deal to extend the practice of music and most of them had musicians attached to their court. From this time dates the introduction of Persian models into Indian music, and we also find the differentiation of the northern and southern schools becoming more marked. Amir Khusru was a famous singer at the court of Sultan Alla-ud-din (a.d. 1295-1316). He was not only a poet and musician but also a soldier and statesman and v/as a minister of two of the Sultans. The qavali mode of singing — a judicious mixture of Persian and Indian models — was introduced by him, and several of our modern ragas are said to have been originated by him. The Sitar, a modification of the vTtjaj was probably first introduced by him. There is a story told of a contest between Amir Khusru and Gopal Naik, a musician from the court of Vijayanagar. While Gopal was singing a beautiful composition, Khusru hid under the throne of the king and afterwards imitated all the beauties of Gopal's melodies and even surpassed them. Muhammadan historians relate that, when the Moghuls completed the conquest of the Deccan they took back with them to the North many of the most famous Southern musicians, in the same way that they took toll of the Indian architects and sculptors for their new buildings.
The Ragataraiigini, composed by Lochanakavi, probably belongs to this period. The major portion of this work is devoted to the discussion of a number of songs by a poet named Vidyapati, who flourished in the fifteenth century at the court of Raja Siva Singh of Tirhut. The author also describes the current musical theories of his day and groups the ragas under twelve thats or fundamental modes.
The development of the bhakti revival in North India and Bengal under Chaitanya (a.d. 1485-1533) was accompanied by a great deal of musical activity, and it was at this time that the popular musical performances, known as Sankirtan and Nagarkirtan were first started.
The Emperor Akbar (a.d. 1542-1605) was a fervent lover of music and did much for its development. During his reign ragas were considerably modified under foreign influence and, though some of these modifications transgressed the established practice, they were on the whole to the advantage of music and helped to give to Northern music some of its more pleasing characteristics. Durbari or chamber music was introduced in the time of Akbar, and from that time developed side by side with the music of the temple and the drama.
Haridas Swami was a great Hindu saint and musician who lived at Brindaban, the centre of the Krishna cult on the banks of the Jumna, in Akbar's reign. He was considered one of the greatest musicians of his time. Tan Sen, the celebrated singer of Akbar's court, was one of his pupils. Many interesting stories are told of Tan Sen, whose name is still fragrant throughout India and 'like whom there has been no singer for a thousand years.' One of these tells how the Emperor after one of his performances asked him if there was anyone in the world who could sing like him. Tan Sen replied that there was one who far surpassed him. At once the Emperor was all anxiety to hear this other singer and when told that he would not even obey the command of the Emperor to come to court, he asked to be taken to him. It was necessary for the Emperor to go in disguise as the humble instrument-carrier of his singer. They came to the hermitage of Haridas Swami on the banks of the Jumna, and Tan Sen asked him to sing but he refused. Then Tan Sen practised a little trick and himself sang a piece before his old master, making a slight mistake in doing so. The master at once called his attention to it and showed him how to sing it properly, and then went on in a wonderful burst of song, while the Emperor listened enraptured. Afterwards, as they were going back to the palace, the Emperor said to Tan Sen, 'Why cannot you sing like that?' 'I have to sing whenever my Emperor commands', said Tan Sen, 'but he only sings in obedience to the inner voice.'
Raja Man Singh of Gwalior, one of the greatest of Akbar's ministers, was also a great patron of music and is said to have introduced the dhrupad style of singing. The Gwalior court has maintained its high musical traditions to the present day.
The disciples of Tan Sen divided themselves into two groups, the Rabatiyars and the Bthkars. The former used the new instrument invented by Tan Sen, the rabab ; while the latter used the bin, as the vlnS- is called in the north. Two descendants of these are living to-day at Rampur, a small state which has been famous for many centuries for its excellent musicians. The representative of the Bihkars is Muhammad Wazir Khan, whose paternal ancestor was Nabi Khan Binkar at the court of the Emperor, Muhammad Shah ; and Muhammad All Khan is the representative of the Rababiyars.
The heroic Mirabai (c. 1500), wife of a prince of the Udaipur clan and famous poetess and musician, and Tulsi Das (1584), the singer and composer of the Hindi Ramayana, are representatives of musical culture in North India.
Pundarika Vitthal was probably another musician of Akbar's reign. He lived at Burhanpur in Khandhesh and may have been asked to go over to Delhi when Akbar took Khandhesh in 1599. Pundarika wrote four works Snadragachandrodaya, Ragamala, Raganianjarl, and Nartanamrnaya : these have recently been discovered in the State Library of Bikanir. It appears that the music of Upper India was getting into confusion, and Pundarika seems to have been asked by the Raja Burhankhan to bring things into order. Pundarika was a southern pandit, as he himself states, calhng himself 'Karnatika', or belonging to the south ; and so he had come to know both the northern and southern systems. He adopts the suddha scale of the south and describes many northern rcigas. In describing his rdgas he seems to make use of only fourteen srutis in the octave, and uses only twelve frets for his vlna.
Rama Amatya, a southern musician, gives us the first detailed exposition of the southern system in the Svaraniela Kalanidhi, written about the year A.D. 1550. This work contains the first collection of Indian ragas which are adequately described. All of them belong to the Carnatic system and have shadja as their tonic. It seems that, in the south at least, ragas have now been worked out from a common tonic, indicating that instrumental music had greatly developed.
Following this comes the Ragavibodha, one of the most important works on Indian music, written in A.D. 1609 by Somanatha, a Telugu Brahman of the East coast, probably of Rajamandry. He was evidently a practical musician as well as a scholar and_poet. The book is written in masterly couplets in the Arya metre. It starts with the theory of musical sounds and goes on to describe the different vtnas in existence and how to use them. The names and positions of the twenty-two srutis are given. Somanatha belongs to the southern school and classifies the ragas into primary and derivative (Janaka and Janya) as is done in modern south Indian music. He also gives a number of melodies developed from the ragas. A translation of this work was appearing in the Indian Music Journal when it met with an untimely death.
Another important work of the southern school which was written about the same time is the Chaturdandi Prakasika^ whose author was Pandit Venkatamakhi, son of Govinda Dikshit and pupil of Tanappacharya, who is said to carry his giiriiparampara (scholastic succession) right back to Sarrigadeva himself. This work gives the basis of the present-day southern system and also of its raga classification. The ragas are arranged under seventy-two primary ragas, called Melakartas, with a large number of derivative ragas attached to each. This author makes use of the twelve semitones only in describing the ragas.
In the northern school Sahgita Darpana, or 'the mirror of music,' is a popular work written by Damodara Mi^ra about A.D. 1625, when Jahanglr was Emperor. This book has become as unintelligible as the Sangita Ratnakara, from which the author has freely copied most of his materials for the chapter on svaras. He has added a chapter on ragas which is copied from some unknown author. Various pictorial descriptions of the different ragas are given.
There were many good musicians at the court of Shah Jahan (1628-66), among them being Jagannatha, who received the title Kaviraja; and Lai Khan v/ho was a descendant of Tan Sen. We are told that on one occasion Jagannatha and another musician named Dirang Khan received from the Emperor their weight in silver, which amounted to about Rs. 4,500.
During the reign of Aurangzeb music went out of favour in the royal court. A story is told of hov/ the court musicians, desiring to draw the Emperor's attention to their distressful condition came past his balcony carrying a gaily dressed corpse upon a bier and chanting mournful funeral songs. Upon the Emperor enquiring what the matter was, they told him that music had died from neglect and that they were taking its corpse to the burial ground. He rephed at once, * Very well, make the grave deep, so that neither voice nor echo may issue from it.'
The SahgJta Parijata, one of the most important works of the northern school, was written by Ahobala Pandit in the seventeenth century. It was translated into Persian in the year 1724. Ahobala seems to have had access to both the Ragataraginl and the Ragavihodha. The stiddha scale of the Parijata is the same as that of the Tarahginl. Ahobala recognizes twenty-nine srutis altogether in the octave, but he rarely uses more than twelve to describe his ragas. He gives altogether 122 different ragas. The Parijata is the first work to describe the twelve svaras in terms of the length of the string of the Vina, so that we are able to reproduce to-day the notes that he used.
The next author of importance is Bhavabhatta, who was attached to the court of a raja named Anupasinha. His ancestors came from the province of Abhira in Malwa and his father was Janardanabhatta, a musician at the court of Shah Jahan. It is possible that he was the great musician of that name who obtained the title 'Kaviraja' from the Shah. The family may have belonged to a southern stock, as he shows considerable acquaintance with the southern system of music. He classifies all the ragas under twenty thats (primary ragas) and his Buddha scale is Kanakangi, the suddha scale of the south. He seems to have attempted to arrange the northern ragas according to the southern system.
About this time Purandara Vitthala wrote many beautiful songs in Kanarese, which are used to-day by the pupil as exercises at the beginning of his musical studies.
According to Sir S. M. Tagore, Muhammad Shah (1719) was the last Emperor to have famous musicians at his court. Among them were Adaranga and Sadaranga, two great Binkars. During this period the singer Shori perfected the Tappa style of Hindusthani singing. New types of song and music were also introduced, many of which were pleasing combinations of the Hindu and Persian styles.
In the early British period Indian music was generally confined to the courts of the leading Indian princes, as most Europeans regarded it as primitive and unscientific. There were, however, scholars like Sir William Jones and Sir W. Ousley and amateurs like Captain Day and Captain Willard who made a considerable study of it.
In South India, the Maratha king of Tanjore, Tulajaji (A.D. 1763-1787) encouraged musicians by gifts and grants of land, so that they came to his court from the whole of India, and Tanjore became one of the most important musical centres in India. This king was also the author of an important treatise entitled Sangita Saramritam.
The Nagmat-e-Asaphi, written in A.D. 1813 by Muhammmad Rezza, a nobleman of Patna, is a critical work on northern music. He pronounces the various northern systems of classification to be out of date and has no use for the raga-ragini-putra basis upon which they build. He gives a new system of his own which brings together into groups ragas which have similar features. This work is the first authority to take the Bilaval scale (similar to the European major mode) as its suddha scale. This is the suddha scale of the north to-day. The author tells us that he wrote the book after consulting the best artists available in his day. It is said that his raga lakshanas (definitions) are still of use for Hindusthani musicians.
About this time Maharaja Pratap Singh of Jaipur (A.D. 1779-1804) called together a conference of musical experts and artists in Jaipur in order to arrange for a standard work on Hindusthani music. The book which resulted was called Sahgita Sara or 'Epitome of Music.' The literary talent available does not seem to have been of a very high order, but it preserves for future reference the opinions of a body of musicians upon current thought and practice. Here also the suddha scale is Bilaval, which by then seems to have been recognized as the regular Hindusthani suddha scale.
Sangita Ragakalpadruma written by Krishnananda Vyasa and published in Calcutta in 1842 collects together all the masterpieces then available of Hindi composition.
It should be remembered that all these authors use some form or other of the Sanskrit sol-fa notation which is the basis of the notation adopted in this book. (See Introduction).
While the northern system was thus trying to find a new basis of classification, the south was going ahead in musical composition. Tanjore was for many years one of the most important musical centres of India. It was here that Tyagayya or Tyagaraja, the great singer and poet (c. 1800-1850) composed and sang his songs, and gathered around himself a band of disciples who have continued his tradition till the present day. His charming kritis and kirtanas are still sung all over the south. He was a creative musical genius and his compositions mark a definite advance in south Indian musical development. One who remembers him describes him as 'a tall lean man with a brown complexion.' He was revered as a perfectly sincere and selfless man. His father was Rama Brahman, who was also a musical composer of some repute. The rishi Narada is said to have appeared to Tyagaraja and to have presented him with a rare musical treatise entitled Svararnava. His teacher was Sunthi Venkataraman. Music and religion were woven together in his life, and his songs were the outpourings of a real devotion. They were said to have been composed on Ekadasl days, when he fasted all day long. Tyagaraja introduced Sangatis — peculiar variations upon a particular melody — into his music. Each variation, while retaining the important features of the original melody, becomes more and more elaborate. Originality was the distinguishing mark of all his compositions.
Govinda Marar was another well-known southern musician of this period. He lived in Travancore, a native state with a long and honourable musical tradition. Govinda Marar was known as Shatkala Govinda, because he could sing a piece in sextuple time. A story is related of his meeting with Tyagaraja. A number of musicians including himself were seated with the master when a pallavi (chorus) in the raga pantuvarali was sung round by all. Govinda, using his own peculiar tambur which had seven strings, sang it in shatkala (sextuple) accelerated time. Tyagaraja was so astonished that he gave him the name of Govindaswami and composed a song in his honour which began, 'There are many great men in the world and I respect them all.'
MuttuswamI Dikshita and Syama Sastrl were both contemporaries of Tyagaraja. The former belonged to the Tinnevelly District and invented a new system of Indian notation which makes use of the diflferent vowel syllables to indicate the various vikrits of each svara. Ettiyapuram Subrama Dikshita, his great grandson, has also written in Telugu a very important work on the southern system, which endeavours to apply the principles of Sarngadeva to modern music.
Many of the rajahs and princes of Cochin and Travancore were good musicians, among whom the most brilliant was Perumal Maharaja, whose compositions are in six languages : Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindusthani, Marathi.
In Bengal, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, Sir S. M. Tagore produced a number of important works on music. His Universal History of Music is a work of considerable value. The Bengal pandits, including Tagore, adopted the old Hindusthani raga-ragim-putra classification for their ragas.
Dr. Rabindranath Tagore is a relative of Sir S. M. Tagore and exercises the most potent influence to-day upon music in Bengal. He has left the beaten tracks of Bengali music and has made new paths for his melodies. His songs have rare musical and poetical qualities and are known all over Bengal.
The Indian rajahs and princes still have in their service many famous musicians, but unfortunately many of them depend almost entirely upon tradition in the rendering of ragas and melodies. There seems to be no generally accepted system for Hindusthani music, though efforts are being made to-day by many scholars to work one out. The southern system, as readers will have guessed, is far more carefully systematized, and perhaps errs on the side of rigidity.
During the last few decades the scientific study of music in India has made great advances. Musical schools and associations have sprung up all over India; and to-day we find them in existence in such widely separated places as Bombay, Poona, Bangalore, Lahore, Gwalior, Baroda, Tanjore, Mysore, Trivandrum, Calcutta. The Gandharva Maha Vidyalaya, as the Bombay school is called, was first established in Lahore by Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar in 1901 and then in Bombay in 1908. It has its fine head-quarters in Sandhurst Road and is supported by Maharajas and government officials. The staff consists of forty teachers, both men and women, twenty-nine of whom belong to the Bombay branch; and its income is about Rs. 30,000 a year. Both vocal and instrumental music are taught, either individually or in classes. The school in Calcutta, under the name of Sangit Sangha is a recent institution, and experiments are being made along the lines of the combination of the Indian and European systems.
The most noteworthy recent development has been the series of All-India Conferences, inaugurated in the year 1916 by His Highness the Maharaja of Baroda, which led to the establishment of an All-India Music Academy in the year 1919. The Conference has been held annually since 1918, and has done a great deal of useful work in stimulating interest in and promoting the study of Indian music and in the systematization of Hindusthani ragas. It has made possible the discussion of musical problems by a gathering of artists and experts drawn from the whole of India, a free interchange of thought and opinion by musicians of all races and climes in India, the attempt to find an adequate notation to express the beauties and refinements of Indian ragas and melodies, and finally the establishment of this All-India Academy. The Academy is under the patronage of many of the leading Indian princes and has the support of men like Mr. N. V. Bhatkhande, who are giving themselves to the development of Indian music. It aims at providing facilities for collective and individual research, and for the collecting and preserving of the best classical compositions, and hopes to bring about a uniform method of arranging the ragas and systematizing the melodies for the whole of India. The Academy of Music hopes, in co-operation with its sister organizations, to promote the development of a living musical culture, having its roots in the soil of India and expressing itself in nobler and more beautiful forms, so as to enrich the lives of both rich and poor.
- ↑ See Music in Ancient India, by C. Tirumalaiya Naidu.
- ↑ 1 From Pura-porul Venbd malai, Pope's translation.
- ↑ 1 See Epigraphia Indioa, vol. xxi, pp. 226-37.