Sambodhi 1983 Vol 12

Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 37

Narayan M. Kansari
Haridas, and others, we find devotional poetry set to the rhythunic tunes of music expressive of devotional fervour and philosophical mood. Here the meaning of the words of the song is never lost sight of, nor sacrificed for the sake of tonal artistry This is the way of singing more prevalent in rural areas, and popular amongst the masses. But when the words begin to serve as a mere hook to hang the melody on to it, and to exhibit tonal variety, richness of vocal training and artistic creativity, the further type of music, known as classical one, comes into being. The words and their meaning here recedes to the background progressivly to the extent of almost insignificance, and the tune prevails and predominates. Perhaps both these types of developments had evolved with regaids to Sāma recitations, and the direct development from some variety of them might have evolved into our Dhrupada. A further evolution from it at the hands of maestros of middle and early modern ages is not unimaginable, Originally the Dhrupada variety must have been very near to, and the direct discendent of, the Sama-gāna.
The gradual evolution of music with the corresponding shift of emphasis from words and meaning to tunes presupposes a progressive evolution from emotional to intellectul approach to music. And it would not be too rash to hazard a guess that the thousand recensions in which the Så maveda is traditionally believed to have been prevalent in the ancient times, were based on the thousand ways of the recitation of the Simi-songs. These recensions must have come into existence due to the difference in the style of the recitations, and to some extent in the variant readings of the basic Res as also the difference in ways of living and social and religious customs in different parts of India where the followers of the Sakhās lived It is further possible to guess that some of the recensions laid emphasis on the words, while the others tended to emphasize the tunes. And the roots of the basic division of the Indian classical music into North-Indian and South Indian possibly lie here rather than on the fundamental difference in the interpretation or understanding of Bharata's system of tabulisation (särani-paddhati) of the Srtis and fixation of the Suddha and Vikrta Svaras on them, as has been proposed by Pandit Omkarnath in his Pranaya-bharati.