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Music in the Thanamga Sútra
165
has a vocal chord which is as distinctive as the lines of his palm Voice can thus form the basis of prognostication and it was part of the business of angayıdjā to 'read' voices
Not much literature on angavidyā survives, though it must have been a very popular vidyā We have fortunately one major ancient text in Jain Prakrit on the subject, cntitled Angavijä The work is classed by Jains as a canonical tcxt of the painna (prakırnaka) group and is assigned to the 4th century AD 48 The 37th chapter of this work speaks of lakşanas (the chapter is called Lakșanādhyāya) A laksana in this context meant the physical trait of a person such as complexion (vanna) gait (gan) and the like Svara is recounted as one of the laksanas The word 'svara' here is used in the sense of a sweet pleasant voice' and not to signify musical tones Persons who possess svara-or in other words people with pleasant voices—are according to Angavijā, the lucky ones, they attain to great power (issariya) or a like stature (issarıyasamāna), they acquire proficiency in speech (gahıyavakkam) and in the sciences and become well-known and farfamed Those devoid of svara are misfortunate in these respects 50
The svara-laksanas recorded in the Thanamga are niuch more specific Here the word 'svara' denotes a particular musical tone People with different svaras have different fortunes And unlike the Angavijā account, possessing 'svara' is not by itself considercd beneficial, much depends on which svara onc has dhaivata and nişāda arc certainly not the right notes to have But how is one to know the svara of a person? No criteria are given Perhaps, this, too, was a matter of psychic vision Some occultists believe that cvery person emanates an aura of a specific colour The svara of a person was, perhaps, similarly envisaged
Another curious passage occurs among the remarks on musical aesthetics The musical propensities of women are related to their looks and physical make-up The basic criterion is simple beautiful women sing beautifully, ugly ones make poor singers The attitude reflects the ancient adage--"yatrākslirtatra gunäh' ('excellence is where beauty is)
Women who are classed as syānā-a type universally lauded in ancicnt times are described as the most excellent singers Bharata, too.
49 See Dr Motichandra's introduction to Angavljja (
p 35, text published by the Prakrit Text Society, Banaras 1957 50 sarasampanne issariyam issariyasamanam kitrijasasampannam ca gahiyavakkam vijjabhāgi ya sarasampanne bhavati, sarahine etesim vivarri Argavijjá, ch 37 (P 174)
