Date: 17.12.2024 – Tuesday – 9.20 – 10.05 a.m.

Speaker : Dr V Premalatha

Title : Raga descriptions in the Brhaddesi of Matanga

Abstract :

Brhaddesi is one of the early texts in Samskrta, written by Matanga muni. The work is said to belong to the 6 th – 9 th centuries. This was first published in 1928 and later with a critical edition and an English translation in 1992 and 1994. It is said that Brhaddesi is the first Samskrta work to speak about the raga-s and the desi tradition of music, which had developed later to Bharata. The available text of Brhaddesi is incomplete but presents valuable information on the Raga-s of Matanga’s time and also the views of other great authorities. In this work, raga-s are classified based on
five giti-s and the characteristic features for each of them are then presented.

Modern scholars like, Premlata Sharma, Anil Bihari Beohar, R Sathyanarayana, Mukund Lath, Richard Widdess and N Ramanathan have undertaken serious research on the contents and significance of Brhaddesi. Raga being the most vital element of present day classical music system, an inquiry into the references and descriptions of this early Samskrta textual source, becomes highly pertinent. The present paper is an attempt to understand the basic concepts with reference to the description of raga-s in Brhaddesi and to bring out the views of modern scholars with regard to the raga-s of Brhaddesi.