Page:The Music of India.djvu/36

 the Tarahginl. Ahobala recognizes twenty-nine srutis altogether in the octave, but he rarely uses more than twelve to describe his ragas. He gives altogether 122 different ragas. The Parijata is the first work to describe the twelve svaras in terms of the length of the string of the Vina, so that we are able to reproduce to-day the notes that he used.

The next author of importance is Bhavabhatta, who was attached to the court of a raja named Anupasinha. His ancestors came from the province of Abhira in Malwa and his father was Janardanabhatta, a musician at the court of Shah Jahan. It is possible that he was the great musician of that name who obtained the title 'Kaviraja' from the Shah. The family may have belonged to a southern stock, as he shows considerable acquaintance with the southern system of music. He classifies all the ragas under twenty thats (primary ragas) and his Buddha scale is Kanakangi, the suddha scale of the south. He seems to have attempted to arrange the northern ragas according to the southern system.

About this time Purandara Vitthala wrote many beautiful songs in Kanarese, which are used to-day by the pupil as exercises at the beginning of his musical studies.

According to Sir S. M. Tagore, Muhammad Shah (1719) was the last Emperor to have famous musicians at his court. Among them were Adaranga and Sadaranga, two great Binkars. During this period the singer Shori perfected the Tappa style of Hindusthani singing. New types of song and music were also introduced, many of which were pleasing combinations of the Hindu and Persian styles.

In the early British period Indian music was generally confined to the courts of the leading Indian princes, as most Europeans regarded it as primitive and unscientific. There were, however, scholars like Sir William Jones and Sir W. Ousley and amateurs like Captain Day and Captain Willard who made a considerable study of it.

In South India, the Maratha king of Tanjore, Tulajaji (A.D. 1763-1787) encouraged musicians by gifts and grants