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lain Thought and Culture
detracting from the value of the perception itself We can, for instance, validly question is a particular rāga should indeed be called a morning rāga rather than an 'cvening' râga, without questioning the principle of assigning such affinitics 43
Music had developed into a consciously cultivated art at an carly period As a corollary it had also acquired a significant body of critical terminology The carly history of music-criticism, as of the thcoretical scheme of musical forms and structures, is obscure Alrcady in thc Nāradiya Siksa, critical criteria for cvaluating music acquirc an organised plan and vocabulary The Sikşā classifies and lists the gunas (merits) and dosas (faults) of performances much in the same way as the carly Alamkārikas classificd ibc gunas and dosas of poetry
The Thanamga cnumcrates eight merits and six faults It gives us just a string of critical terms without explaining them However, in many cases the terms are almost self-explanatory, thoughi, of course, we cannot recapture the nuances they must have possessed in a living musical milieu
The Náradiva Śikṣā lists ten gunas and fourteen doşas It also has short prose passages defining and explaning the gunas" Most terms in the guna-enumeration are common with the Thanamga list six to be exact--though there is a difference in the number of terms 45 But the doşa-lists in the two texts have a great divergence 46
The Nāt yaśāstra devotes a large section to the examination of gunas and doşas in music (ch 33) Merits and demerits of singing and instrumental playing are presented in the perspective of ancient theatre
43 Lively controversies occur ammong musicians regarding the morning or 'evening' properties of many rāgas, especially newly composed ones 44 The dosas are only listed, not expounded The Sıhsū as we have it has some textual lacunae and regularities The original text might have contained expositions of the dosas, too Nāradiya Sikşã, 1, 3 1-13, 45 The Sikşå list is gānasya tu dasavıdhagunavritisradyarla 'raktam pārpamalaikrtam prasanna í vyakram, vikrustam šlaksnam samam sukumaram madhuramiti gunah' Náradiya Silsa, 1, 3, 1 Thāvamga does not have prasadna vikruşta, ślaksna and sukumāra. Lastead it has avighutha and sulalıya 46, The Sikşā lists sanhitambhita(ma)nudghustamayyaktamanunāsih am
kākası aram sirası gatam tatha sthānawarjitam visvaram virasam caisā vislistam vşamáhatam vyakulam talahīnam ca gindoşāścaturdaśāh
Nāradiya Sihşa 1, 3, 11-12 Only three terms are in common with Thāramga (if we read 'bhitam' and not bhimam)' The Thanamga has 'duyam' 'rahasam' and utlälam which are absent from the Sikså list
