BOOK REVIEWS Sanskrit Play Production in Ancient India TarlaMehta Molilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1995 446pages, Rs400 DrTarlaMehta.throughher book,takesus into the dim past when the Sanskritdramatic tradi tion was prevalentalmostall overIndia, and it wouldnotbewrongtosaythatitwas thenation al theatre of India in ancient times. This tradi tion was patronizedbythecourtand the eliteof sophisticatedsociety. Side by side. there was a parallel dramatic tradition popularamongthe people.Bharata,in hisNatyashastra, called itthe Uttaratantra, and said that Kohala,hisdisciple,wouldwriteabout it.poly afewfragments ofKohala's workare available. There must have been a gooddeal ofgive and-take betweenthesetwo dramatictraditions. Bothwere basedon music,danceand abhinaya, and had some common conventions. But each possibletorecreateit, andsomeknowledgeable dealt with these elements in its own way. The scholarsaswellas this revieweragreewithh~r: highlyevolvedand sophisticatedSanskritnatya Out ofthe large amount oftraditional material was based on vakyarthabhinaya in which each in India (mentioned below) and in Asian dra sentenceor wordwas expressedin highlycodi matic traditions, it is possible to glean the~Ie­ fiedgestures,movementsandabhinaya(angika, ments which formed the basis for the staglIl.g vachika, sattvika and aharyav to evoke a techniques ofSanskritplays in the natya tradi· rasa. The populardramatic tradition was based tionofBharata. . on padanhabhinaya expressing broadly the In India, traditional practices havenot van' bhavaor apada. ished completely as they have in some o~~ ThereisawidespreadbeliefthattheSanskrit ancientcivilizations.We stillhaveourclassic natya traditionis lost. Dr Mehtathinksthatitis dances, ancient paintings and sculptures, dra- SangeetNatakNo. 119January- March 1996 BOOKREVIEWS 53 matic traditions such 3S the Kutiyattam of hackgound to theunderstanding of theSanskrit KeralaandBhagavatMela,etc.We alsohave a dramaand itspracticalandtheoreticalaspects. gooddealoftechnicalliterature ondrama,play In the recent past, some knowledgeable textsgoingbacktothe second century B.C.,the directorshavetriedtorecreate theNatyastyleof illuminating commentary on Shakuntala by Bharata intheirproductions.Theyhave meticu Raghava Bhatt. dance sculptures showing the lously avoided the proscenium theatre and its katanas mentioned by Bharata in the 9th-10th paraphernalia. They have shown that the play centurytempleofBrihadiswaraatThanjavur,in and thetheatreinwhich itisproducedare vital the lZth-century temple at Darasuram, and in Iyinterlinked.Dr TarlaMehta, who isaware of thetempleofChidambaram;and,above all, the theimportanceofthenatyamandapaofBharata, Natyasastratext itself on which most ofthese describesitinsomedetailandexplainsthepur performingandother artswere based.From all poses of the three types of curtains used. the these,the Sanskrit Naryatradition can reason onlyequipmentusedonthebarestage. ably be recreated. The music tradition of The Natyamandapa was divided into two Bharata is said to have been lost. Dr Tarla parts,theprekshakaniveshana(auditorium)and Mehta'sbookmakesan attemptinthis direction the rangamandapa.The rangaman.dapa includ andexplainsvariouselements of the composite edthe ranga(stage)and thenepathya(dressing IIiltya of Bharata such as music. dance, abhi rooms).Tberangahadseveralactingareassep naya, natyadharmi and lokadharmi, vritti and arated fromeachotherbypillars which werean pravruti.etc.thatwereemployedtoevoke rasa absolute architectural requirement. The stage inthespectators. areas-the rangapitha (main acting area), two Brahma, according to Natyashastra, took mattavaranis on either side of'the rangapitha. music from the Samaveda; and the traditional rangashlrshaat the back oftherangapithaand Sama~'t'dachantingis very muchalive in Kerala, mattavaranis, a vedika (platform) on the ran· Gujaratandotherregions.Thisneedstobeinves gashirshaforthemusicianslOsit,andtwodoors tigated and studied by scholars well-versed in for entries and exits of the performers, which musicology. were on either side of the kutapa (musicians' Bharatamentions fourtypesof 'languages' platfonn)-were used to showdifferent!ocales to be usedin a prayoga : The Superhuman (kakshYaJ)mentionedinthetextBywalkingout Language (Atibhasha). the Noble Language ofoneKaksnyatoanother.thelocalechanged. (AT)'abhasha), the Common Language Eachdoorwascurtainedandwascalledpara (Ja.tibhasha) and the Language of Other orpati/apatiandwasmanipulateddifferentlyby . Animals(Yonyantribhasha)(NatyaSastra, Vol. the performer according to his mood.The cur I. ltanslated by M. M. Ghose, P. 326). tain between the rangapithaand rangashirsha, ~uliyattamspeechand Swarasneedto bestud named yavanika,was a draw-type curtain and led to understand this aspect. The speech of was meant to conceal the nine purvarangas Japanese Noh which reminds me of Bharata's (preliminaries) whichwerenottobeseenbythe Atibha.shaalso needs to be studied in this con audience.Thethirdcurtainwasamovable,ne~­ ~x.l.Thustheattempt(0 recreatetheNatyatra ible curtainheld by hand by two persons.This di~)onofBhararahastobe madebymulti-disci wasusedin variousways-tohighlight achar ph?3J)'and multi-national scholars,particularly acter entry.conceal adeath scene,or conceala Asianscholars. characterwhowasto 'enterseated'asthestage Inrecent times.several attempts have been directions inplaysmention.On thisstage,with madetorecreatetheNatyastylebyintegratingthe justcurtains10helphim,theactor by'thepower above-rt:tentionedelementsintheoryandpractice. of his abhinaya unfolded the actions o.f the BookslikeSanskritDramainPerformanceedit trailokya(ThreeWorlds)andevo~edrasa1.0the ~ by Rachel Van M. Baumer and James R. spectator. which was ~he ultimate aim-e ~don, and The Concept ofAncient Indian siddhi-ofaplay-production. atre~y M. Christopher Byrski, and several The book underreview provides the nec.es Olhers,Will goalong way in creating the right sary background to a modem director wanting S-l GOVERDHANPANCHAL tostageaSanskritplayintheNatyatraditionof Bharata. DrTarla ~teh(a has analyzed the dif ferentapsectsoftheprayoga(production)tech niquetoaidhim.Shehasprovideddrawingsof the nat)'amandapa and some props,as well as costume designs in colour based on the Nutyashastric tradition with the manner of wearingthem.Withherwideexperienceinthe atre as an actress, she'has visualized some scenesfromdifferentplayswhichwouldalsobe helpfultomodem directors. TheSanskritplaysproducedwithoutaprop er understanding of the tradition have by and largefailed to create the desired impact-they haveactuallyfailedtoevoke therasawhich is the quintessence of Ml)'Q. The quest for this mustgoon,fortheSanskritdramatictraditionis animportantpartofourcultural heritage.This nan'a has influencedAsiandramatic traditions in general and could therefore be of help in understanding the theatrical traditions of our neighbouringcountriestoo. GOVERDHAN PANCHAL Nangiar Koothu: KulasekharaVarma.taking severaldaysforthe The Classical Dance-theatre completionofeachoneoftheacts.But~e.por tionknownasNangiarKoothudidnotoriginal of the Nangiars lyformapartofthedrama. Itwasadded1~ler1D order to afford apportunity to the Nangiar,a NirmalaPaniker woman who was given the roles of aU.~ Natana Kairali,lrinjalakuda, 1992 femalecharactersintheplay,toshowherhi~ onictalents.Underroyal ordersandinrecogm 104 pages, price not stated tion of the remarkable acting ability of the Nangiar.thestoryofKrishna wasinuoducedas NangiarKoothuisnotaseparateform"ofdrama the opening part orthe secondact orSUb~ production.It isactuallytheintroductorypanof Dhananjayam. It was to be narrated .) the second act of the famous Sanskrit play Kalpalatika,amaidencompanionoftheherOine Subhadra Dhananjayam by Kulasekhara Subhadra,whowassentonamissiontolook,for Vanna,arulerofKeralawho livedbetweenthe the missinggatrika (aspecially madeb~s: yean 976 and 1036 A.D. Detailed production withthetennamesofArjunarecordedonIt. manualsfor theenactmentofSanskritplays in presented to Subhadra by her .elder b~lh~ the formof Kutiyattam, as wasand still is in Krishna).Themanuscriptof thetextconsists vogueinKerala,werepreparedduringtheperi about 240 shlokas, of which 217 have be<" odof KulasekharaVarmawiththeactivecoop printed in the Malayalam book Nangiar~ erationof"Tholakavi',agreatscholar-poetwho Koothu compiled by P.K. Narayanan N~blari wasequallyleamedinSanskritandMalayalam whowasateacher inthe Kutiyattam section0 inadditiontobeingaversatilehumorist. Kalamandalam. lit SuhhadraDhananjayam;withalltheactsin Shlokas from the Bhagavatham. ,e proper order, was staged during the time of Geethagovindam of Jayadeva, and KaJi~s BOOKREVIEWS SS Shakuntalam, etc. are includedin the text along also for training in that dance", This is only a with a large number of originally composed conjecture, for the Nangiars were not profes shlokasinordertomakethe narrationcoherent sionals. They were only the female players in andsuitable for presentation on the stage with Kutiyattam who also recited the shlokas and dramaticeffect.Assuch NangiarKoothucannot played Kuzhithalam (cymbals) as rhythmic haveclaimtobeaseparateclassicalart form; it accompaniment on the Kutiyattam stage. They isonlyapartofKutiyattam. used to get trained undertheolder Nangiars in Thoughtheauthorhastakenalot ofpainsto the family, andnotanyotherguru. collectdetailsofseveraldanceforms that exist The section 'NangiarKoothu and Theyyam edin Kerala in the old days, she often forgets Koothu' (pp. 36-38) seeks to establish a far that Nangiar Koothu is not a separate dance fetched similarity between the two perfor form.She also attempts to prove that Nangiar mancesonthegoundthatbothareperformedby KoothuisbasedontheNatyashastra. Thefact is womenandthatthereareafewpointsofresem that Kutiyattam itself is not based on the blanceindress. Theauthorcomestotheconclu Natyashastra whether in Aharya, Yachika. sion: "The resemblance between Theyyam Vadya(theaccompaniments),inthe useofragas Koothu and Nangiar Koothu are (sic) a strong formusical recitation of shlokas, in details of evidencein supportoftheviewthattherootsof ahbinayaandmudraorin the movementofthe our classical dance forms areancient folk and eyeballstoexpressemotions. ritualdances". .Again, Nangiar Koothu has nothing to do Nangiar Koothu is not adance formand it withpure dance. It uses lasya and tandava in has no folk roots. Nor is the matter under the supportofabhinaya,whichplaystheprimerole. subtitle"OrissaandKerala'(pp.41-42)relevant InPadapurappad(preparationofthe annyfor an in abookon NangiarKoothu. Sowiththenext expedition), Nayattu (hunting expedition). section 'NangiarKoothu andKrishnattam' (pp. Mallayudham (duel with wrestlers), 42-44). Kamsavadham,and inJarasandhayudham,alot The fourth chapter, 'Attaprakaram of of.tandava-type movements are employed. NangiarKoothu',givesaconciseactingmanual Thou?h Nangiar Koothu is enacted by the for NangiarKoothu production. The shlokasin Nangiar,awoman, itcalls for alot ofmasculine Sanskritare giveninNagari script,andareuse movementsofthelimbsofthe body. ful material for Sanskrit-knowing readers. But .The author says (p.39): "A careful and only about one-fourth of the text is include~. minute study of these two art forms This mightserve asanincentive totheenth.usl (~ohiniyattamand Nangiar Koothu) will con astic reader to look for the fulltext to gam & VInce us that both Mohiniyattam and Nangiar fuller understanding ofNangiar Koothu litera Kocthuhaveevolvedoutofveryancientdance ture. formsthatwereverypopularin Kerala".Thisis A~attempthasbeenmade tof~iliarizethe Incorrect,asNangiarKoothuis neithera dance reader with the names of the vanous ragas. KcisitaverypopularshowinKerala.Nangiar (They are called swaras by the Ch~~ars and oouiu was performed in the presence of a Nangiars,and transmittedbyoraltradlt1?n.Not smallnumber ofspectators in Koothambalams subjected to notation, the swarascontinue to (pl~Yhouses)inalimitednumberoftemples as maintaintheirchaste originalformandareable aritual, Itwasneverperformedinpublicplaces toconveytheemotionsperfectly.) . ortoseekpopularityorpopularappreciation. The three appendices provide us:eful mf~r­ Under the title 'Nangiar Koothu and mation.The bookisprintedneatlyWIthoutnus ~~thapadiyattam' (pp.39-41),it is stated:"Ifa takes in spelling, the pictures given are.clear, . tyasastraexperthadComefromKanchipuram and the get-upofthebookisquiteattractive. andstayed at the Zamorin's palace at Callcur, ~omposed a dance form based on Geetha NoVl~dam.then he must have surely taken the S.GANESAlYER anglars (professional danseuses of Kerala) $6 S.GANESAlYER Meaning in Music Roshmi Goswami Indian Institute ofAdvanced Study, Shimla 107pages, Rs 100 -~ ~- v. ••< , This book is riddled with so many defects of .~.;.:.~..."--'~, variouskindsthoUIhadto make quitean effort ~r. in looking for its good points. Luckily, I could - .'.:.,,,, ''.I.:" ,:,>. "",' ~ findsome;anditiswithafeelingofreliefthatI :~:i-:2·;:::~~.:-:~~::'~,.-'_ openthisreviewonanapprobatoryn?te. To begin with, I must compliment the .~.~. authorsonchoosing asubject ofcontemporary ~..~~~- ?., <,--<.- .... < -~.-'~' •• relevance. Our musicians and rasikas, very ~. i - "---.•' rarely, ifever, speak ofthe meaning of music, • ........ whichisnotthesamethingas theimportofthe t~.rlofasthiiyi-antariitwosome. Indeed,inmy 45 years' experience as a rasika I have never '-~'.' heard anyone admiringa good musical perfor ,. RoshmiGoswamt • " mance bysaying: 'Whatameaningfulrecital' ! Weuseotherpredicatesforthepurpose,say,the following : sweet, expressive, fluent. orderly, tightly structured, robust, poignant, But mOSI aestheticians intheWesttoday surely prefer to newness?Ifyes. howare we toaccountf~dx speakofthemeaningofartorofmeaninginthe factthatinIndiaarisingyoungrepresentativeri arts,rather thanofthebeautifulinart;andinso aghariinii is often admired for singing ~.com far asdetailedand rigorous aeslhetical thinking position strictly ace~rding 10 the (traditIOnal! on the arts is being done today much more by way of his father and even remoter ancesrco: them than by scholars in India, it is the due (See,here,the author'sownremark:"thec~ meeting of a need to reflect on the concept of of the various ragas is normally acomposl~ meaninginrelation to music. Bethat asitmay, handed down from generation to generauo~ the authorof the present work is probably the composed by great masters of music". p.63 first[0 makethisattempt fromtheviewpointof Are Ajoy Chakraborty ofCalcu'!" and Madh: Hindustani music, and this issurelyCreditable. Mudgal of Delhi to beput outside the pale Further, though none of them may be said to genuinely creative artists simply bec3U~ ~ provideanyrevelation,thefollowingremarksof replicate,to anicety, the singing (res~cuve~ the author are quite sensible; and they surely of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali and Pandit Kum admitofemphasis: Gandharva? Is a young rasika who may ,: have heard the two deceasedm~s~s-an:be cannotthinkofthemas models imitated-r-tthe I."Thefirststep inacriticalappreciation isan dubbedascriticallyobtuse ifheexultsover intelligent'wide-eyed' exposuretoanumberof singingofChakraborty andMudgal? instancesofgenuinely creativean" (p.67). Thisissurelytrue.)saysointhe lightofmy own past experience as a music critic. But, at 2......White thespiritual andthe ":oral~: Lhis point. some questions too may be pUI and tainlydislinguishable, the o~lrava~lable~. reflectedon. Whatexactlyismeant bygenuine on of authenticily ofthe spiritual ISth~ be creativity in the art of music? A measure of The spiritual cannot at the same !imef.1S immoral.Immorality deprives'spirituality0 1 BOOKREVIEWS 57 "trycore"Ip.70). the same as the suggestion that a raga mort's Thisisquitedefensible.byandlarge.Evenif ceaselessly; and it is surely odd to couple the thespiritualistakeninanessentiallysubjective two.Bur.asIhopetobringoutlater,suchawk sense,orasapartfromobservableconduct- say wardnessofsequenceisarecurringdefectofthe intermsofwhattheGitacallsdaivisampadaor book. 'richesof the spirit'c-c''the available criterion" ofauthenticity. in respectof most ofthe 'rich 4. "Altnough Tovey is right (in saying} that es',willprobablyremain moral, Even obhoyo. didacticart assuchmayhaveverylittleaesthet whichheadstheGita list,cannotbe freed from ic merit, morality does not necessarily have to themoralrequirementthatfearlessnessmaynot be didactic; a moral message need not be beallowedtospill over into foolhardiness, and expressed or conveyed in the formof anoven. thatthefearof straying into evil ways he duly message . . .My contentionisthatgreatmusic keptin mindeven after the experience of His ormusicofanyvalueisthatwherethe'what' is grace. interwoven into the 'how' and my attempt would be to show that spiritualityandmorality 3."Whereasthepossibilities ofa riiga areinfi inaragais(orthethespiritualandthemoralin nite,theriigaalwaysremainsunfinished.Andit aragaare1]experientially 'perceived' or 'felt' is the quality of 'eternal flow' of incessant intheexpositionofaraga"(pp.70-11,firstital movementwhichisthequintessenceorpriinaof icsadded). allmusicspeciallyoftheraga.and inthissense Now.thisextractsurelyembodiesameasure onecannotplausibly talk about 'completing' a oftruth.Moralitycanindeedavoidbeingdidac raga"(p,71). . tic. The daily conduct of arighteous mandoes Here,onewould perhaps like to replace the not preach any sermons; its significance or 'the' (whichimmediately precedes raga at two moral qualityremains 'interwoveninto' howhe places)with 'a';bUIsurely no one who knows acts; but it may yet profoundly influence the Indianmusicwoulddisagreewith theviewthat lives of those who are close to him.Similarly. araga always"remains unfinished".But what whatever be the significance of music, It is doesthisqualityofremaining unfinished really inseparable from how its elements are orga ~an1 Only this, that the number of composi nized; it is inseparable from how its elements uo~,figurations andeffectsthata raga admits areorganized;butitcanyetstealintous-c-with of IS, In principle, infinite. Indeed, though outbeingloosenedfromirslocusinanyway.So coontJess compositions have been sung and far, what the author says (or implies) makes playedbyourmusicianssay,inindividualbasic admirable sense. But the suggestion thatsome ragas like Yaman Kalydn and Bhairava-e moral and spiritual contentis(always)therein nobodywouldsaythatnewcompositionscanno raga music"ofany value"issurelyn~ttrue,to morebecreatedintheseragas.The authorher fact. ThereisplentyofHindustanimusicwhich selfappears to see this truth; I say so because isofsome value,becauseitdoesnotstrayfrom ?u ~heopensthesentence undercomment by say the grammatical norms of raga and tiila. t mgthatthepossibilities ofa raga are infinite. which hasnothingspiritualormoralaboutit.I Buthowarewetorelate these words.meaning maypassoverthesuperfluityof'experientiaJl( ~lIy,towhatimmediatelyfollowsthem: "andit before 'perceived'; but I just cannot abstain IS the quality of 'eternal flow', of incessant from protesting against the allthor'~. settled movementwhich islhequintessence of all opinion that inthe"meaningfulexposrnonofa owfi"!US.I.C"1• Speci.ally because it has.b•e•en pUI ragathevariouselementsofmusicalexpre~ion Ithm tnverted commas 'flow' may well be are combined organically to create a musical ~en. t~ convey the rather unusual meaning, entity which issupremelyedifying, and..',has COntinultyof remaining incomplete" but what profound...spiritual sig~ificance"(~lurb:Ita!· arewet0makeofI.ncessantmovement•inrespect ics added). The exposition of a dlffic~h or offaragQ'.Thethaught that a raga r.sa matri.x aprachalit riiga may well .be meaningful o eXhaustlesscreativepossibilities is not at all because of its grammatical subtlety; 11 may 58 S.K.SAXENA strike us byvirtue ofits skill in avoiding tres man's basicrelatedness to the ....,orld lUOIUlII pass into cognate ragas; itselements may also him",(p.xii,italics added) be organically put together. say. partIy by what,Iask,isrhetruthofMan ?Andif.. observing samviidittva; and yet it may utterly essential excellence that the author sees iJ. failtowear aspirituallookand to make us feel music--that is, its ability to give us "'profound elevated.What ismostcommonly admired ina insightsinto Mann- isnothingbutthepowercl KhayaI recital is the fluency and varietyofits thisantoexpress man'sbasicrelatednesstod'.t drut taans; and. in respect of instrumental world around him (mark theor). howcanshe music.a similarwidth ofappealmay be attrib also takefor grantedthe view thatmusicis"an uted to atidrut figurations, and to occasional abstract auditory form"? (p. 2),and affirm(as spells of juga/bandi of the Sitar/Sarod player sheclearlydoes,p.xi)that "classical music." with the Tabla accompanist. But in neither of couldbeunderstood independentlyofits:socio thesecases doesone see any moral orspiritual culturalcontext"? Ifitistheessential function quality. ofmusic 10express man's basic relatednessto the world around him. will not our understand Totum nowto the questionable side of the ing of theart be inadequate,ifnotperverted,in workunderreview,Ifinditimpossibletoignore case its socio-culturalcontext is not dulytahD the followingdefects: into account? Consider,again, what"man'sbasicrelated I. Avoidable mistakes, because of poor copy ness to the world around hlm't-c-ofwhichthe editingandproof-reading(Insomecases,Ihave author speaks nonchalantly-c-couldreallybe.I putthecorrectform within brackets,beforethe thinkitisanobvioustwofoldprocessofadapta· pagenumbers): tion: turning some space into a congenial On p. 9, in the secondpara,the following two dwellingplace,andgettingalongwellwithpeo sentences ha..'ebeenrepealed.atonceand ~'er­ ple. Does music say or suggest anythingin batim: "Opinions ••. issue" "Some deny . •• respectofanyofthese twobasicrequirements? views", 'Somemething (something), augumen tative (argumentative), p.vii; he (the) appear 2."Anemotivesignificanceisinextricably~ (appears. p. xxii); his (this, p. 1. first line) upwithatiiga[blurb]...Thereisaveryintimae 'specifity' (p.19).Hesper's(Hospers',p.27,151 relationship between music and emotion..II: hne);rage (raga. p.33),ascend (ascent, p.38), emotive significance is inextricably bound with lange's (Langer's. p. 53); dccandence (deca the music Itself . . . The expressive powerof dence).;vajit(v~it,p.81);concen,begining(p, musicissuchthatevenwithouthavingalltheek 84); hstnes (listens, p.87); without (p.89), ments of meaning of an emotional expression. Meand (means, p.89, footnote); wha ('What', music canexpressemotions" (pp.xxi-xiii), . p.95);ambd(and,p.1(0). Here, bythe"intimaterelationship"ofmuse Confusion intheuseof 'is'/'are': withemotiontheauthor seemstomeananeas: "Eac~.~~idesothersvaras,usekomal•....(p, saryrelation betweenthe two.Now,lamsure 39). ItISInthealapathattheluminosityofthe Iyawareofthetime-honoured viewoftherela SW.lra.f arebrought out" (p.38)."However, 00 tion between raga and rasa. But inpractice.. matterwhattheemotivesignificanceofindivid doesnotholdtruetoday.Thereisplentyofgood ualsvarasare ..."(p.46).....Properapplication Hindustani (raga) music which is admired.(($ ofsvarasoccupyacrucialplace.••"(p.46). its sweetness,fluency,shapeliness.grammatical accuracy,andorderliness,andnotatallbecause fl. Unclear, unconvincing. disorderly ofitsemotionalquality,which isjustnot~ writing/thinking: Itisalsoasheerbiasto believethatexpressl~e­ I."Theartsexpress'truths' whichareinextrica ness is theessenceofgoodmusic.Whatdoesa bly bound up with the truth ofMan. Music, drut gat by the Sitar maestro, Ustad Vilayal more than ~y ~ther ~onn of art perhaps,gives Khan, express? Nothing;it only looksshapely. us profound insights into Man--oritexpresses sparkling.sweet. BOOKREVIEWS S9 3."Musical expression is a completefonn of blocked"(p.73). expression....emotionsare expressed in music butthe way it isdone is unique ... [here] the IV.Wrong/inadquatepunctuation: emotionsappeartobebuiltintothe very fabric (Note:Ihaveputanobliquelinewhereaneed ofthemediumitself'(p. 19,firstitalics added). fulmark of punctuation is missing.Where this Ifinditdifficulttodefendor evento under hasnotbeendone, the mistakeliesinputtinga standthisremark.A 'complete form ofexpres markatthe wrongplace). sion' can only bethat which expresses every· "l.S. Grewal Who/despite his busy schedule. thing-e-thar is, every content of experience always had time to listen to . • :' "Some of andperfectly.Bur,upontheauthor'sown view, them/however/lhavejusttothankindividually" musicexpressesemotionsonly.Indeed, nobody (p.vii). "Those who maintain, that a definition would say thai music is a good medium for ofmusic..."(p.I). expressing philosophical thinking. How, then, "Onthe otherhand/therearethose"(p.I). can music be said to be a complete form of "Similar views were held byothersaswell,for expression?Evenifwethinkonlyoftheexpres instancelBharatas"(p.33). sionoremotions,can such expression bedone "Likeaconcept' (p.37). quiteaselaboratelyandfaithfullyin musicasin "In Adana/on the other hand/occurring in its literature? appointedplace"(p.37). 'Infact/inadanathe movement...' (p.39) 4."Aragacanbe articulated in aninfmitevari 'In fact/when gharanas are classified . . elyof ways and even within the comparative (p. 40). rigidity of the dhrupad style". (p. 53, second 'Traditionally/Indian names were never...• italicsadded). (p. 46). The italicized words make it plain that, according to the author, the infinitely varying V.Inadequateattentiontoconceptsofrhythm: articulationofaragaismoreeasilypossible in "InTablapatterns[quaiyedas]thewayinwhich Khayal-singing than in the Dhrupad style. But the sam is approached increases expectancy. 10theglossaryshealsosaysthatiiliipa"isgiven Some tabla patterns and a littleafter or before the highest place in Indian music for in it the thesum,i.e.•tablapatterns canbeateetorana characleristicsofthegiven raga is [sic] unrav gat. Itis awilfuldeviation forbyoverstepp!ng died and the mood of the raga established" or nottouchingdie sam,i.e.bythevery design (p.IOI). of refusing 10 comply. the idea of the sam IS . Now.,nsofarasiJlapaismuchbetterknown heightened" (p.74). . . In the context of Dhrupad than in that of Thisisquestionableinmanywa~s:FirstlWyI:'!II' KbayaJ- itbeing common to speak of iilapo is undiscriminating to equate quaiyedas Dhrupad-Dhamar as one--how can one com Tablapatternsingeneral.YettheauthordoesIt plainof"the comparative rigidity of the dhru intheglossarytoo(p.105).Ob\·i~sly.shedoes padstyle" fromthe view point of raga-render not know whataquaiyedareally IS. An elabo Ing? The fact, indeed, is that iiliipa of the rate and methodically organized pattern, a ntu:'~dmannercanprovide a far more varied quiJyedil(this ishow / would like to spell the prOjection of the beauty, extent, dignity and world}is distinguished by the fact that~e ~er­ ~uroraragathantheKhayal style,where minalsyllables of its two ~gm~nts ~ Similar \\ords and loons may easily distract attention in sound, thoogh not quilt identical IIIcontent. fromthecharmoftheragaitself. suchas~. ~ Thede..'iceissimilar towhatiscalledend-rhymes inpoetry.Furthc!, 1IJ:Incompletesentences' inthecaseofsome speciallyintricatequayedas mU~ician what strikes the rasika specially is thebul th~t "Emotions whichthe internalizes and caplun'ng . they (brow up with delightfulsuddenness.Th~s (aUd.iencethuesvneereytlii.nfegonruparnacneas.opfrtehseeenmtsottoionths"e is a subtly conrralled varian~ ~rom the baSIC laya,and is bothdainty anddlsUncLSecondly. p,49)."Histhesis being thai ... permanently 60 S.K.SAXENA the it which opens the third sentence goes ill 4. Upaj...Within the framework'of a singlell' moreavartana,the variable(p. 106) with "some tabla patterns", words which open (This. again,is very vague. Upaj isimproviza theprecedingsentence.Thirdly,thefOUMword in the second sentence should be 'end'. not lion,simply). 'ond. Finally. the closing sentence does not conveyanyclearmeaning. IX. Finally, though the work under reviee abounds in references 10them. I doubtifIb: VI. Absence of full publication particulars of views of other aestheticians have all beencor worksreferred(0: rectly presented.Consider,forinstance,the(1.'1 This is a pervasive defect of the work. lowing. "Susanne Langer's theory showsIti Perhaps its most glaring instances occur in the the primary function of music is to represent footnotes on p. 49 (Pandey. 1959), and p. 53 time" (p.l2,italicsadded). . ' ; (Langer. 1959).10thelattercase.the fun fonn Thisisquitewrong.First,wereItthefunctionol ofthefootnoteshouldhavebeen:S.K.Langer: music.torepresenttime,rimeinmusicwouldlr Fatingand Form, Routledge and Kegan Paul. quitesimilarto realorlivedlime.Langer,o~the 3rd Impression. 1963. p. 123."(Be il noted that other hand. takes pains to heighten the differ· the publishers of this work. are not mentioned ence between the two. It is aestheticianslilt e..'enintheearlier footnotes referring to it:see Philip Alperson who insist on the similarit~of pp.11.12).Afootnoteonp.34,whichrefersto musicalandrealtime.See hisessay,..'MUSIcal mywork.AestheticalEssasy,doesnotindicate Time' and Music as an 'An ofTime'" in11It thepagenumbers. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. Summer 1980.pp.411-12). . vn.Absenceofdiacritic marksatmostplaces: It is,ofcourse,tempting-andsometimesqut!t See, for instance, gharanas (pp. 40,42), necessary-foranauthor10 citefromtheworn parampara(p.42) ofeminentwriters;butwhattheyreallyme~by ~Iled aparticular utterance is. as a rule, to be VllI. Verycasualexplanationofsome terms in by meansofcarefullyco-ordinated an~nt1onto theglossary: alltheirdiverseremarksonthepointatissue.To (Note: Correct explanations have been given illustrate, the author could have avoided [he immediatelybelowtheauthor's) misrepresentation Ihavepointedoutbyrefleo I.Rajas...Impure buthigher iogasfollows. . , (No; rajas is one of the three gunas which, Time (according to Langer) is thepnmars according 10 Samkhya philosophy, Prakriti illusionofmusic(seeherworkMind-AnB~ comprises.Itstands forrestlessnessoractivity. on Human Feeling. The Johns Hopkins The other two are lamas and saliva which UniversityPress.Vol I. Second Printing,paper. stand, respectively, for dullness or inertia and 1975, p. 201). In so far as it is an i/lusionthe righteousnessorbalance). time we find in music isnot the timeofevery 2.Riyaz...Practicingmusicasadailyritual(p. daylife,but'virtual' time. nutbecauseitIinsth:e 105) primaryillusionofmusic- and becauses~"han (Practice, simply. Practising would be 'ftqrn illusion is(inher view) allalong present ~. Aritualistheperformanceofrites.Itisa an which it distinguishes-the creation time.~ crremonia! observance, especially religious. development ofthe 'illusion offlowing Riya:,. on the other hand, is. a musician'sdaily itspassage' maywellbesaidto betheessentu duty,avocationalobligation), or necessary "purpose of all musical la~ur,~ 3.Sahradaya.. .Literallythe'sameheart";the thought or in physical activity" (Feelmg a appreciativelistenertp. 105) Form. p. 121). However, an essential purpose (No,theworld is:sa-hrdaya-c-anditmeans 'one may not be a crowning or ultimate one ~ of similar heart". See Hiriyannas Art Man's necessary purpose is to make ~fe11; Experience. Ka-vyalaya Publishers. Mysore, able; but the getting of a good dwclhng. 1954. p.41) proper nourishment is clearly not his deSOny· BOOKREVIEWS 61 Similary,thoughmusicjustcannotbewhatitis workofartpresents[eeling[regardedIasevery withoutcreatingtheillusionofflowing time,its thingthatcanbefelt['Jforourcontemplation.. 'greatoffice'- thatis,thepurposewhichmakes Whatisartisticallygoodiswhateverarticulates itakinto the other arts in respect of essential and presents feeling to our understanding" significance-isitsability"toorganizeourcon (Problems of Art, Routledge and Kegan Paul, ception of feeling into more than occasional 1957,p.25). awarencessofemotional storm, i.e., to give us aninsightintowhatmaytrulybecalled 'thelife orfeeling'. . ." (Ibid, p. 126). In principle, "a SKSAXENA