This volume contains the papers (and discussions) presented at the international seminar on Sarngadeva and the Sangita-ratnakara organized by Sangeet Natak Akademi at Varanasi in February 1994. The twenty-one contributions by leading scholars cover various aspects of the study of the Sangita-ratnakara: its historicity, its impact, its textual criticism, its concepts, its links with the oral tradition, and the reconstruction of musical instruments and dance forms based on information contained in the work. For researchers and scholars of India's musical traditions, this book provides an update and review of the current discourse on Sarngadeva's work not available elsewhere.
Professor Prem Lata Sharma, a musicologist, has made important contributions to the study of primary Sanskrit sources on Indian music since the 1950s. She has prepared critical editions of various works including the Rasavilasa (1952), the Sangitaraja (1963), the Sahasarasa (1972), the Ekalinga-mahatmya (1976, English translation with R.K. Shringy, Vol. I and II, 1978, 1989), the Sangita-ratnakara, and the Brhaddesi of Matanga (1992, 1994, with English translation and comments). She has also translated several notable works in Bengali.
Preface
The Sangeet Natak Akademi organized a seminar concentrating on the first, sixth and seventh chapters of the Natyasastra in Delhi in April, 1992. This was the first seminar devoted to a specific sastraic text. The second seminar was centered on Sarngadeva's Sangita-ratnakara, the most important text of Sangitasastra. This seminar was held in Varanasi in February 1994, although originally it was planned to be held in Devagiri fort, the place where Sarngadeva lived and worked.
The proceedings of the seminar on Natyasastra are being published separately. The present volume contains the proceedings of the seminar on Sangita-ratnakara (22-26 February 1994).
If one were to name a single author or text of sangitasastra which embodies the earlier tradition (laksana or body of terms and concepts) in remarkable detail, put together judiciously, and at the same time incorporates contemporary developments, which has been constantly referred to in musical and literary texts in the subsequent centuries, which has been profusely commented upon, which has not only been looked upon with awe and reverence but has also occasionally been the target of reproach born of frustration, which wielded great influence over the later textual tradition, one would undoubtedly name Sarngadeva and his Sangita-ratnakara of the early 13th century.
The above seminar was divided into five sections as follows: (1) Historicity and Interdisciplinary Approach (3 papers). (2) Indebtedness and Impact (3 papers); (3) Textual Criticism, Commentaries (1 paper); (4) Critical Appraisal of the treatment of Important Concepts and Forms (7 papers); (5) Reconstruction of Instruments/Forms of Music/Dance and Discovery of Links with Oral Tradition (7 papers). The total number of papers presented was 21. The introductory and concluding sections have not been included in the above list.
The third section contained a title 'The Scheme of Sangita-ratnakara and the Style and Diction of Sarngadeva' which was assigned to Prof. G.H. Tarlekar. He could not attend the seminar, but had sent his paper. While editing, it was found that this paper was a running survey of the contents of the text which was not intended in the title. With deference to the scheme of the seminar, it has not been possible to include this paper in this volume. Two more papers were circulated in absentia and these were Prof. Kunjunni Raja's paper on 'The Problem of Textual Criticism of Sangita-ratnakara and its Commentaries' and Prof. R. Sathyanarayana's paper on ' The Treatment of Prabandha in Sangita-ratnakara vis-à-vis Brhaddesi, Sarasvati Hrdayalankara-hara and Manasollasa'. Prof. N. Ramanathan has provided a supplement to the first of these under the title 'The Text of Sangita-ratnakara', adding an appendix containing a list of the manuscripts of Sangitaratnakara, prepared by his student, V. Premlatha.
Under 'Concepts and Forms', raga, tala, prabandha, abhinaya, nrtya-nrtta and rasa- only these have been taken up. The topic of raga had been assigned to Dr. Mukund Lath who had not sent a paper in advance but spoke extempore in the seminar. A transcript of his talk and the discussion that followed has been included. Later he had given a long paper on the history of raga (in Hindi) which has been included with its summary in English.
The most important omission is the topics cover under svaradhyaya, viz, svara, sruti, murchana, tana, alankara and jati. Incidentally, jati has been touched upon in the paper on raga and svara-nomenclature is death with under the section "Indebtedness and Impact". Since all the above topics of svaradhyaya have been discussed extensively in other forums over the years, and because of constraints of time, they were omitted. This omission could not be said to be unjustified.
Under the fifth section dealing with reconstructions and discovery of links with oral tradition, it was possible to take up only very selected topics that could serve as illustrations of the process involved in this work. Kinnari and flute have been taken up under instruments. Ekatantri and alapini could not be included due to constraints of time. Similarly, it has not been possible to talk of any drums. The treatment of gamaka, sthaya and alapti in the seminar was also incomplete because we could present only Hindustani music. Prof. Ranganayaki Ayyangar had been invited to provide the counterpart, in respect of Karnataka music, to Dr. Ritwik Sanyal's presentation, but she could not attend the seminar. Under dance, the reconstruction of Perani was presented. Under 'Discovery of Links with Oral Tradition', the use of gharghara. (dancing-bells) was discussed with regard to Kathak dance, Four papers were presented in Hindi and they have been included here with an English summary prepared by the editor.
It is evident from the above account that it is not possible to be exhaustive in the presentation of a comprehensive text like Sangita-ratnakara in a single seminar. All the same, it has been attempted to present illustrative material on almost all the aspects of the critical study of a text like this.
The seminar was coupled with evening performances on three days. These were so designed so as to have relevance with the theme of the seminar, as follows :
(i) Reconstruction of the dance-form, Perani, described in SR. This reconstruction has been done by Dr Nataraj Ramakrishna and was presented by his students.
(ii) Pancamahabhuta choreographed by Prof. C.V. Chandrasekhar; a unique attempt to present through dance the philosophical concept of the five elements. SR also deals with them while describing the genesis of the human body in the pindotpatti prakarana.
(iii) Santa-vani, choreographed by Dr. Kanak Rele, on song-texts composed by Sant Jnaneshwar, who was close to Sarngadeva both in space and time.
(iv) Dhrupad, which has direct connection with the prabandha tradition, was presented by Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar, assisted by Dr Ritwik Sanyal.
(v) Karnataka vocal music was presented by Shri T. N. Seshagopalan.
(vi) Vicitra-vina, which could be said to be the direct descendant of the eka-tantri vina described in SR, was presented by Shri Gopal Krishna Sharma.
(vii) Karnataka vina by Smt. Rajeshwari Padmanabhan.
(viii) The festival opened with a performance of pakhawaj by Shri Uddhav Shinde.
We owe a deep debt of gratitude to all the scholars who participated in the seminar and contributed papers.
Dr. Niharika Lal has provided valuable assistance in editing this volume. My sincere thanks are due to her. I am most grateful to Smt Usha Malik, Secretary, Sangeet Natak Akademi, for the keen interest taken by her in the publication of this volume. It is hoped that this book will evoke keen interest, not only in the study of Sangita-ratnakara, but also similar texts.
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