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PREFACE
The evolution of Samgita in India is like the course of the mighty Ganges. The Ganges flowed from the stately Himālaya, ran through hundreds of miles gathering the soil of the various regions. In its course, it has branched off into tributaries, and has been fed by smaller rivers. Ultimately it has merged with the ocean. Likewise, samgita originated in hoary antiquity, evolved through Vedic, Epic, Purānic and Classical ages. Since the time of its genesis, it was enriched by new ideas from age to age till at last it merged into what Ravindranātha described as mahāmānaver sāgar or the ocean of vast humanity. India has been the cradle of diverse cultures spread over the length and breadth of the huge sub.continent. The result is that what is called Indian music to-day is a composite art. It is difficult to distinguish between what is indigenous in Indian music and how much has been borrowed or is exotic.
It is intended, in the following pages, to present, in a succinct form, the salient features of ancient Indian music and dance. Such books as Prajñānānanda's Historical Development of Indian Music, Sambamoorthy's History of Indian Music, Ganguli's Rāgas and Rāginīs, M. Bose's Classical Indian Dancing, admirable though they are for the specialists and scholars, are too profound and detailed for the general reader. Such books as Danielou's Northern Indian Music are of regional interest, and do not deal with ancient Indian music alone. Books like N. C. Ghosh's Fundamentals of Rāga and Tāla with a new system of Notation, Peterson's On the Grāmas or Musical Scales of the Hindus deal only with particular aspects of Indian music.
There are many Sanskrit treatises on music and dance. Of these a large number of texts still lie buried in manuscripts beyond the reach of readers. The published texts are not accessible to many, because these are written in Sanskrit.
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