RAGALAKSANAM of Sri Mudduvenkatamakhin
KMS series No.58

Edited and Translated by : R. SATHYANARAYANA

2010, xvii + 376 pp., ISBN : 978-81-208-3408-8, Rs. 900(HB)

Ragalaksanam was composed by Mudduvenkatamakhin in Tanjore in the early 18th century A.D. It is an important text of Karnataka Music and appeared in an effervescent epoch in the development of this music system of which it deals with only ragas. 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 dandis in practice in his Sangitasudha.

Thus a line of four important musicians-musicologists-composer 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 and important phase of this great evolution.

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