Indian Antiquary Vol 41

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 164

160
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JULY, 1912.
of the many writers on music mentioned by Sârigadeva, Kohala was perhaps chronologically the next great author after Bharata, for, at the end of the Bh, we find the prediction that "Kohola will tell the rest of the nd!ya. Matanga seems to be comparatively a recent writer, and, to judge froin the available quotations, appears to have rendered the same service to music in his own time as a compiler, which Sarigadeva bimself did at a later period. Thas he is found to quote Bharata, Kobala, Kasyapa and Dargåsaktiand reconcile diffrent opinions.
3. Somanatha's Ragavibodha -The date of composition of this treatise is given at the end by the author himself as Saka 1531 i.e., A. D. 1609.
4. Ahobala's Samjita-pdrijata.-This work was translated into Persian in the year 1137 A. H. or A. D. 1724.3 It will be seen hereafter, that this work represents a later stage in the devclopment of music than the last treatise, and I have assigned it, therefore, to the latter hall of the 17th century approximately.
Preliminary Remarks. The following elementary considerations, though they ought to be well-known to students of the theory of tuasie, do not seem to be recognised by many of the authors, whe have written on the subject of Hindu music, and this is my excuse for introducing them here. The modern European diatonic scale recognises two modes, the Major and the Minor: The major mode c d e f g a b c
9 5 4 3 5 15
- 7 3 2 3 8 The minor modec deb | 9 a b o'
9 6 4 3 5 15
If the vibration frequency of the note c be represented by 1, the vibration frequencies of the other notes are represented by the numbers written under them.
The interval between any two notes is expressed by the quotient of their vibration frequencies and not by their sabtraction ; thas the interval between f and a
is
a nd not
Indicating the intervals between successive notes, the major mode may be
written as follows:
9 8
10 9
16 15
9 8
10 3
9 8
16 15
• Bh. p. 445, sloka 18, where it is: fecara ought to road' hier: Fyfare. Also p. 45, v. 24, where i is a misreading for HTC
M3. A. confirms these corrections. This prediction, vis, that the rest not dealt with here will be treated by Kohala, plainly shows that this roasting of the Bh was done after Kohala, a later author, had written his work.
It muy incidentally bo mentioned that in Bårågadeva's enumeration of writers on musio (8. R., pp. 5-6) the name T a oscurs, whioh is the name of a single man (8. R., p. 164). As printed in both editions of the
8. R., the reader is apt to imagine and to bo two diet net writers and women. The Samgita. parijata, which is careless in such mattera, actually mentions IT as an author. Similarly, the S. P. notwith standing, perhaps FHTETT of 8. R. is the name of a single individual, but I have no evidence, as in the other case, to support the ounjecture.
. Anecdotes of Indian Music by Sir W. Ouseley, reprinted in Raja S. M. Tagore's Hindu Music from Various Authors (1862).