Page:The Music of India.djvu/23



LEGEND AND HISTORY The beginnings of Indian music are lost in the beautiful and fanciful legends of gods and goddesses who were supposed to be its authors and patrons. The goddess Sarasvatī is always represented as the goddess of art and learning, and she is usually pictured as seated on a white lotus with a vīṇā, lute, in one hand, playing it with another, a book in the third hand and a necklace of pearls in the fourth.

The technical word for music throughout India is the word saṅgīta, which originally included dancing and the drama as well as vocal and instrumental music. The god Śiva is supposed to have been the creator of this three-fold art and his mystic dance symbolizes the rhythmic motion of the universe.

In Hindu mythology the various departments of life and learning are usually associated with different ṛishis and so to one of these is traced the first instruction that men received in the art of music. Bharata ṛishi is said to have taught the art to the heavenly dancers—the Apsarases—who afterwards performed before Śiva. The ṛishi Nārada, who wanders about in earth and heaven, singing and playing on his vīṇā, taught music to men. Among the inhabitants of Indra's heaven we find bands of musicians. The Gandharvas are the singers, the Apsarases the dancers, and the Kinnaras centaur-like performers on musical instruments. From the name Gandharva has come the title Gāndharva Veda for the art of music.

Among the early legends of India there are many concerning music. The following is an interesting one from