________________
No. 28.)
KUDIMIYAMALAI INSCRIPTION ON MUSIC.
229
viously that Bharata speaks of four gītis only, viz. the magadhi and others, which are quite different from these five. The alleged quotation proceeds further thus,
mukhi tu madhyamagramah shadjal, pratimukhë tatha garbhë sādharitas-ch-aiva hy=avamarshe tu pafchamah || sa mhare kaifikah pröktah pūrvararige tu shädavan (vah) I chitrasyafadasanigasya (1) tv antë kaifikamadhyamah fuddhānā ih viniyogo=yan brahmanā samudahritah ||
These verses lay down the rules as to when the seven fuddha rägas are to be nged in a nataka (drama), and these are the very seven rägas in which the music of this inscription is written. Though these verses are quoted by Kallinātba as from Bharata, that work has only got the following:
tatas cha kävyabandhëshu manābhāvasamasrayam grāmadvayan cha kartavyan yatha sadharanasrayam | mukhē tu madhyamagrämah shadjah pratimukhë bhavat sadharitam tathā garbhi vimarsē chuaia pafichamam || kaitikai cha tathā kāryam gāna[i*] nirgra(rva)hanë budhaihi samnivrittaśrayam chuaiva rasabhavasamanvitam II
In the first place let it be noted that only five names, likely to be understood as being those of the above mentioned ragas, occur in these verses. Secondly, the manuscript AS reads madhyamah for pañchamam, which further reduces the number. The manuscript A, I may remark, is on the whole more trustworthy than those on which the printed edition is based. Thirdly, it must be remembered that none of these names occur as belonging to rāgas in the special chapters of the work treating of music. All this at once makes one think that the names, as used here, do not belong to rāgas at all, and this conjecture is borne out by the explicit statement contained in the first floka, which Kallinátha has not quoted. From this bloka it is evident that the rules in the following verses are not for the use of rägas of those names, but for the two grāmas and the sādhārana mentioned in an earlier part of the work. Thus, music in the madhyama-grama is to be used in the mukha portion of a nataka and again in vimarsa (or avamarsha), music in the shadja-grāma in the pratimukha, music in the sādhārana (sådhåritam is thus a mistake for sādharanam) in the garbha, and music in the kaifika in the nirvahana.
It is thus clear that the seven rdgas of this inscription did not exist in the time of the Bharatiya-nätya-fāstra. When they came into existence is not known, the present inscription heing their earliest record. They occur in the Samgita-ratnākara, a treatise of a much later date (see above), and in a work called the Nāradi-fikshā, the date of which is not known, but which is presumably based on a certain work of Närada, referred to in the Sangita-ratnākara. What is more, the Sikshā mentions only these seven rāgas, whereas the Řatnakara mentions many others, thus showing that the former represents music of an earlier period.
I shall now proceed to discuss whether the music of the inscription agrees with the definitions of the seven rägas as given in the two works. It must be remembered that out of the various modifications of these rāgas given in the Ratnakara, we have to deal with the fuddha variety only, 0.g. fuddha südhārita, śuddha kaisika, eto. In the Siksha there is no mention of any modifications.
I. Madhyama-grima.-According to the Ratnakara this raga contains the halali (B of the European music, if o represents the shadja) instead of the nishada (Bb). According to the
1 Loc. cit., p. 151, Bharatah panar magadhy-adayat chatarra era gitir uklasin. See p. 406 (ed. Kävyamala).
See Ind. Ant., Vol. XLI, p. 158, n. 2. For sadharana and kaikka see Bharatiya-nätya-fästra, pp. 306-309. For the five sandhis (mukha, pra. timukha, etc.), see pp. 211-212.