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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
Source material for study of the evolution in practice of the forms of music in Indian classical tradition are meagre, although prescriptions for the various types of prabandha abound in the treatises on music. The reason is not far to seek. An essential feature of Indian art music has always been that it is acquired orally from a teacher and transmitted in turn in like manner. It is true that a non-diastematic notation, varying somewhat from one area of the country to another, has been observed, but its purpose traditionally was to present exercises and to facilitate the committing to memory of certain passages. To the present day, no musician would perform from a ‘score’ although, with the advent of radio and the concomitant interest in ‘orchestras’, it should be noted that the music performed is frequently written down beforehand and distributed to the performers.
2 Form of musical composition: a term borrowed from literature. For these, vide Śārngadeva, Saṅgītaratnākara, IV, Adyar, ed., II, 187 ff.Google Scholar, and Dāmodara, , Saὅgītadarpaṇa, V, Mahal, Sarasvati ed., 1952, 60 ffGoogle Scholar. The former dates from the thirteenth century, the latter from A.D. 1625.
3 Formerly in Pudukottai State. A fragmentary inscription at Tirumayyam contains an allusion to music only.
4 Epigraphia Indica, XII, 28, 1913–1914, 226–37Google Scholar. The text used in this paper is that in Sathyanarayana, R., Kudumiyamalai inscription on music, I, Mysore, 1957Google Scholar.
5 Moreover separating from the main inscription the label parivādinī inscribed in the same characters.
6 Catuṣprahāre suarāgamāh. Among relevant dictionary meanings of āgama are: science, collection (of precepts), manual, meaningless syllable. Vide Monier-Williams, , Sanskrit dictionary, second, ed., p. 113, col. 2Google Scholar.
7 Matanga, , Bṛhaddeśī, ed. by Saatri, K. Sambasiva (Trivandrum Skt. Series, No. 94), 1928, 87Google Scholar: Mukhe tu madhyamagrāmaḥ ṣaḍjaḥ, pratimukhe bhavet garbhe sadharitaś caiva avamarse tu pañcamaḥ. saṃhāre kaiśikaḥ. proktaḥ pūrvarañge tu ṣāḍavaḥ citrasyaṣṭādaśāņgasya tv ante kaiśikamadhyamah.
He is referring to these as being suitable for the various parts of the drama. Note that neither in the above, nor in the inscription, do the items appear in logical sequence, presumably, in the case of Bŗhaddeśī, for metrical reasons. For example, Pūrvaranga is the penultimate listed. Note that both start with madhyamagrāma, not ṣaḍja-. Siṃhabhūpāla, commenting on Śariigadeva, , Saṇgītaratnākara, II, vv. 21–2Google Scholar, Adyar ed., II, 20, cites couplets virtually identical to the first two quoted above, ascribing them to Bharata.
8 e.g. Kaiśikamadhyama, from the ma-grāma: cf. Nāradīyaśikṣā, I, iv, 11Google Scholar.
9 e.g. Bhandarkar, in Epigraphia Indica, XII, 28, 1913–1914Google Scholar, and Vipulananda, , Yāḷ nūl, Tanjore, 1947, 340Google Scholar.
10 Sathyanarayana, , op. cit., p. 63Google Scholar, table.
11 Bhandarkar, op. cit.
12 Such overlapping was widely postulated at a later period, and also obtains in the 12-semitonal nomenclature of Govinda Dīkṣita and others up to the present day; see the table in the next paragraph.
13 Bhandarkar, op. eit., states that the Kuṭtumiyāmalai notation is not connected with this, however.
14 Sathyanarayana, , op. cit., 59 fGoogle Scholar.
15 Aṭi. on Cil., III, 11. 16–17 gives: ka, ½ māttirai; e, 1 mā.; u, 2 mā.; and ∴, 3 mā.
16 Bhandarkar, op. cit.
17 Minakshi, C., Administration and social life under the Pallavas, Madras, 1938, 258Google Scholar.
18 Sambamoorthy, P., Dictionary of South Indian music, II, Madras, 1959, 344–5Google Scholar.
19 cf. his inscriptions in Tiruchirapalli and Pallavaram caves.
20 Minakshi, , op. cit., 249Google Scholar.