Essay name: Musical Instruments in Sanskrit Literature
Author:
S. Karthick Raj KMoundinya
Affiliation: University of Madras / Department of Sanskrit
The essay studies the Musical Instruments in Sanskrit Literature and its relationship with the South Indian musical tradition. The study emphasizes the universal appeal of music and documents how it pervades various aspects of life, art, literature, painting, and sculpture.
Chapter 2 - Origin and evolution of Music and Musical instruments
38 (of 99)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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The Janaka r膩gas are also called as Melakart膩 r膩gas. There are 72
Melakart膩 r膩gas based on the permutation and combination of the 12-
svara sth膩nas. Thus, among the first six melakart膩 r膩gas, the first five 5
svaras remain common - sa, ra, ga, ma, pa while the last two svaras have
combinations of (i) dha, na (ii) dha, ni (iii) dha, nu (iv) dhi, ni (v) dhi, nu
and (vi) dhu, nu.
The six r膩gas are named as Kanak膩ngi, Ratn膩ngi, G膩namurti,
Vanaspati, M膩navati and T膩nar眉pi respectively.
2.15 The T膩la System in South Indian Music
R膩ga and T膩la are fundamental to Indian music. Some idea about
the r膩ga has been given in the previous section. A brief note on the T膩la
system is presented in this section.
The T膩la system of South Indian music has several unique
features. The time measures used in South Indian music are
innumerable and varied and they occupy an important position in the
system. T膩las organize rhythm in music. All aspects of percussion are
bound by a constantly repeated metric cycle of beat called T膩la.
The T膩las are not just recurrent time cycles; they rather have their
individual structure and influence on music. Just as a r膩ga extols the
bh膩vam (mood) of the song, so does the t膩la, which reveals the mood of
the The word T膩la - is said to be derived from the combination of
the words T膩n岣峚vam & L膩syam. Tan岣峚vam is the dance of Lord Siva
and L膩syam is the dance of Goddess Parvati.
song.
