Ragalaksanam (With Roman)

Ragalaksanam was composed by Mudduvenkatamakhin in Tanjore in the early 18th century AD. It is an important text of Karnataka Music and appeared in an effervescent epoch in the development of this music system of which it i deals with only raga. It collects, classifies, codifies and characterizes the entire music base of the Indian peninsula. The author was musician, musicologist and music composer of high order. His contribution to the world of music is twofold;
systematisation of the theory of raga content of his times and creating music to crystallise the character and scope of each raga described.

The author derived his inspiration from his great- grandfather, Venkatamakhin who revolutionised the theory and practice of Indian music through his scheme of 72 melas. His Caturdandiprakasika illustrates the four fundamental components (dandi) of music — gita, alapa, thaya and prabandha, which his paramaguru (teacher’s teacher) Tanappa postulated and illustrated. His own guru was his father Govindadiksita who made the first efforts to stabilize the four dandis in practice in his Sangitasudha.

Thus a line of four important musicians•— musicologists-composers of South India: Tanappa, Govindadiksita, Venkatamakhin and Mudduvenkatamakhin built up or reorganized a textual tradition which supported a living dynamic tradition of performed music in which hundreds of composers, thousands of performers and countless listeners endeavoured to continuously strengthen and nourish it. Ragalaksanam marks an important phase of this great evolution.

Prof. R. Sathyanarayana an internationally acclaimed authority on Indian music and dancing. He is broadbased in several physical sciences, humanistic and indological disciplines. He is widely acclaimed for his systematic contributions in the intra- disciplinal and inter-disciplinal bases of modern Indian musicology and danceology.

He has published numerous books, including critical editions, translations, commentaries, annotations, monographs, original creative works, and research papers on Indian music, dancing and other cognate subjects. He has received numerous academic distinctions (including doctoral degrees, fellowships, and honorific titles) awards and honours. He is a guide and examiner for doctoral examinations.

Prof. Sathyanarayana’s critical edition, translation, critical introduction and commentary etc. of Pandarika Vitthala’s Nartananirnaya, Caturdandiprakasika and Makhihrdaya have been published in the Kalamulasastra Series.

The Kalamulasastra series is aimed at bringing to light the primary textual source material hitherto unknown, unpublished or inaccessible both in original language as also in translation. This is symbolically conceived as a series of 108 texts at the first instance. Under this ongoing and long range research programme, the publication of the fundamental texts of Indian Arts is undertaken along with annotation and translations.

The critical edition of each text under this programme is prepared on the basis of several manuscripts, those being collated, transcribed, etc. along with the commentary of the source material, if any. So far, nine such texts on musicology have been brought out in this series and the present volume is another value addition. It is a matter of immense pleasure for us at IGNCA to publish this work on musicology under the Kalamulasastra series. The 18th century fundamental text, viz. Ragalaksanam, composed by Sri Mudduvenkatamakhin in Tanjore, is important to the development of Karnataka music.

Mahamahopadhyaya Dr. R. Sathyanarayana, a polymath of our times and an authority in the Held of Indian musicology and danceology, has critically edited and translated this text with copious commentaries and a detailed introduction. The edition paves the way for a better comprehension of this genre of classical music. The longstanding controversy of authorship of text has been resolved by Dr. R. Sathyanarayana on the basis of careful examination of all available data. It is hoped that the academic fraternity will be benefited by this endeavour. The IGNCA stands beholden to Prof. Sathyanarayana for his scholarly contribution to the field of Indian musicology in particular and to Indian Arts in general.

Ragalaksanam is a sequel to Caturdandiprakasika of Venkatamakhin and Makhihrdaya. The former is a definitive text of Karnataka music and the latter, a penetrative, perceptive and massive commentary on the same, both written by Prof. R. Sathyanarayana and published in the Kalamulasastra series. This triad is nodal to developing the history of evolution of the melodic content of Karnataka Music.

If Caturdandiprakasika may be regarded as forming the rearguard in the pageant of modern usage of ragas in Karnataka music, Ragalaksanam forms the vanguard of this procession. Together with the respective contemporary sources analysed and evaluated in these two texts as well as the intervening Makhihrdaya, we have a more or less continuous history, tradition and usage of ragas in Karnataka music till the middle of 20th century. The contribution of this period 1950 — 2009 only augments and supports its inheritance. A special feature of the present volume is the inclusion of available compositional material in all its variety and bulk from 1650 A.D. to 1950 A.D., even if only in enunciation. If the musical score of this material is fully discovered and is analysed in a historical method, a clearer picture of March of our music — in both theory and practice - of Karnataka music (ragas) would emerge. The book also carries critical Notes and a comprehensive Commentary on each Chapter named Vimarsa which is aimed to endow the original text both continuity and contemporaneity on a broad base.

Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts deserves to be congratulated and commended for this achievement. A similar treatment of tala and musical form as well as a contemporary history of Karnataka music are much needed and would be welcomed.

I thank the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi for including this volume in the Kalamulasastra series. I am beholden to its enlightened officers namely, Prof. G. C. Tripathi, V. S. Shukla, Dr, Sushma Z. Jatoo and Dr. Sudhir Lall for the unfailing help and courtesy extended to me during the production of this work. Sri N. S. Sharada Prasad marked the Index exhaustively. No words are adequate to express my gratitude for the long hours beyond midnight in which my son Sangita Vidwan R. S. Nandakumar and my disciple R. Pavan have toiled and struggled with the enormous index material and proof reading. Keerthan Graphics, Mysore has neatly executed the DTP work.