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No. 28.)
KUDIMIYAMALAT INSCRIPTION ON MUSIC.
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The characters seem to belong to the 7th century. They closely resemble those of the early Chalukya poriod. In particular, it may be noted that the letter e, as 'in Pallava inscriptions of this period, is almost identical with ba. Other peculiarities to be noted are, (1) the ase of a small ma below the line to indicate a final m in the first line of the heading of Section 1; (2) the two dots of the visarga are sometimes joined by a line, 4s in l. 2 of the same heading, and (3) the a-mātrā of hã in the same line is represented by a stroke above, and not to the right of ha. The dots above the letters, which mark the notation, are in several cases doubtful, and in the absence of a clue to their meaning (see below) I have only kept such as were broad and deep
The most ancient Sanskrit work, which treats of musie, is the Bharatiya-nātya-fāstra. This treatise, as it has come down to 18, shows signs of having been handled and re-handled, and all its parts are not of the same age. The chapters treating of music are among those which show this re-handling to & very marked degree, and for reasons which I have given elsewhere they cannot be assigned to an earlier period than the 4th century A.D. This work while defining different modes of music (jatis, does not give actual examples in notation, 80 that it is impossible for us to obtain a clear notion of the music of that period.
The next treatise available to us is the Sangita-ratnākara by Sārngadēva, written between A.D. 1210 and A.D. 1247. Though the author of this work gives examples in notation of the modes of music fatis) defined by Bharata, he evidently does 80 on the authority of some previous writer or writers, though he does not name them. This is clear from the fact that after giving such an example he adds that the music resembles some particular kinds (rāgas) existing in his own time. Incidentally it may be mentioned that these examples of jātis often do not agree with Bharata's definitions, so that they must be regarded as belonging to a later period. Anyhow in the Samgita-ratnākara we have, in notation, music belonging to the author's own period as well as that of some previous period; and examples of the latter the author must bave borrowed from earlier works available to him. As a matter of fact many writers on music intervened between Bharata and Sārngadēva, but though the latter gives a string of their names, their treatises are unknown to us except in a few scattered quotations given by later authors. In short, at the present day the earliest music in notation available to us is that given in the Sangita-ratnākara. Unfortunately the attitude of the author of this work is to explain away discrepancies by interpreting ancient rules 80 88 to make them agree with the actual practice of the day, as I have pointed out elsewhere, so that only a few of such discrepancies are actually noted by him.
In these circumstances, it is easy to imagine the great value of the discovery of any noted music belonging to a period earlier than that of the Samgita-ratnakara. The Kudimiyāmalai inscription supplies such music. The inscription is in characters of about the 7th century A.D., s.c. abont six centuries before särngadēva, the author of the Sangita. ratnakara. It is divided into seven sections corresponding to the seven classical rägas of the time, vis. (1) Madhyamagrama, (2) Shadjagrāma, (3) Shādara, (4) Sadharita, (6) Pafchama, (6) Kaifikamadhyama, and (7) Kaifika. Each section consists of a collection of groups of four notes, arranged in sub-sections of sixteen, each sub-section taking up one line of the inscription. Of course, only those cotes are used which are proper to the particular rāga. Each group in & sub-section ends in the same note. The rote in which a particular rāga most be onded is called the wāsa (final). That sub-section, which consists of groups baving the nyasa for their ending note, is put the last in a section. The other sub-sections are arranged Recording to the position of the ending note in the Hindu gamut sa, ri, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni : sub-section consisting of gronps ending in sa preceding one of groups ending in ri and so on. * Ind. Ant., Vol. XLI, pp. 158 f.
• Loc. cit.
See below.
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