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Literary References to the Sarangi
[As that bustle was drowning the notes of the Sārangi, they moved to the shrine of Padmāvati and continued to sing there'.]
In the third reference, it is said that when the two Vidyādhari-s saw the extremely handsome Vidyadhara princess, Sena and Vişeņa, they were so wonderstruck that the Sārangi-s dropped from their hands.3
ताओ-वि ताण स्वं पिच्छतीओ तहाहया तण । सार गीओ कराओ पडियाउ-वि जह न चेयति ॥६४॥ (1,64)
[‘They, too, gazing at their handsome form were so struck by it that they were not even conscious of the Sārangi-s dropping from their hands.')
Another similar work of Jain religious tales takes the Sārangi still a century earlier. There are two references to the Sārangi in Jineśvarasūri's Kathākoșaprakarang. composed in 1052 A. D. (1108 V. S.).
The first reference occurs in a passage describing a dance performance in the tale of Sūrasena, illustrating the religious merits of Jina worship. The relevant verse is as follows:
वीणा-तिसरिय-सार गियाइस मीसकागलीगीय । गिज्जइ वेणुरवा-वि हु उच्छलइ तदतरालेमु ॥
(Kathākoșaprakaraņu, p. 30, 1-30) ["Kākali song, blended with the notes of the Viņā, Trisarikā, Sārangi etc., was sung. The notes of flute, too, shot up intermittently through these notes'.]
The second reference occurs in the tale of Simhakumāra, illustrating the religious merits of singing a hymn to the Jina. The concerned passage4 is otherwise also quite important in the context of the history of the science of music.
While classifying various types of music, the Sārangi is mentioned among the stringed instruments as follows:
faayazıt'azz' I ' l-a'fa-Agit, au-Ach, 94–ATY' 71 तत्थ तति-समुत्थ वीण-तिसरी-सार गियाइ अणेमविहं ।