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INTRODUCTION,
XI
C. I. E., the then Resident of Hyderabad Mr. Shastri obtained a note on H. H. The Raja Saheb of Gadwal through Mr. M. A. N. A. Hydari, B, A., Judicial Secretary, Hyderabad. Thus Mr. Shastry got the loan of the manuscript through the kind influence of the Raja Såheb to whom are due the sincerest thanks of all lovers of Indian music.
Description of the Manuscript. The manuscript is written in Devanagari characters on old Ahmedabad paper of a yellowish tinge. It consists of 32 folios, the size of the folio being 102 51 inches and each side of the folios containing 9 lines. The handwriting is fair and the headings of the subjects in the body of the text are written in red ink the colour of which has not faded, though the manuscript was written in the Shake year 1599 ( A. D, 1677 ) that is 243 years ago. On the last three pages the copyist has painted 9 different designs of a rosette in black, yellow, red and green colours.,
The manuscript begins as follows:--- श्रीमहागणपतये नमः । श्रीसाम्बसदाशिवाय नमः । श्रीनादब्रह्मणे नमः । The colophon is as follows :
इति सङ्गीतमकरन्दः समाप्तः । शुभमस्तु । शके १५९९ शालिवाहे पिकलनामसंवत्सरे आश्विनमासे शुक्लपक्षे विजयादशम्यां विद्यापुरमहानगरे श्रीमन्महागणपतिदासकृष्णाजीदत्तेनेदं सङ्गीतमकरन्दाख्यपुस्तकं लिखितम् । महागणपतिर्जयति ॥
From this colophon it is evident that the manuscript was copied in Shake 1599 (A. D. 1677 ) by one Krishnaji Datta who was a devotee of the deity Mahâganapati and lived in Vidyapura.
This Vidyapura is no other than Vijayanagara which was the capital of the late Vijayanagara Empire and which is now in ruins. The present manuscript was discovered at Gadwal which, though now a feudatory of the Hyderabad State, was in former times a feudatory or a part of the Vijayanagara Empire. It is probable that after the complete ruin of Vidyapura alias Vijayanagara the manuscript must have come to Gadwal which is not very far from the ruined capital. For this information I am indebted to my friend Mr. J. S. Kudalkar of Baroda Central Library.
