Page:The Music of India.djvu/56

40 and it is quite possible that they were, in the Ratnākara, the technical terms for the terminal notes of the tetrachord and not of the rāga. The aṃśa, however, is all-important and is called the jīva or 'soul of the rāga.' The position of the aṃśa has much to do with the general character of the rāga. Occasionally it varies between two notes. The aṃśa is not so distinctly differentiated in the music of the south, and this may point to a further development there.

All the characteristics of the rāga are embodied in its Mūrchhanā or Thāṭ, which are the names now given in the south and the north respectively to the rāga basis expressed in notes. The aṃśa, and also the peculiar sequences and grace notes of the rāga, are shown in this, which includes both ascent and descent. It includes all the essential facts about the rāga which the musician should know before composing any melody in it.

Rāgas have probably originated from four main sources: 1. Local tribal songs; 2. Poetical creations; 3. Devotional songs; 4. Compositions of scientific musicians. Many of these sources may be traced in their names. Bhairavī means 'an ascetic'; Hindol is 'a swing'; Kānaḍā refers to the Carnatic; Multānī means 'belonging to the city of Multān'; and Megh means 'the rainy season ', and so on.

We can see the same processes of formation going on to-day. Dr. Rabindranath Tagore creates new melodies from the old folk songs of Bengal. Some one finds an old Portuguese melody and puts it into an Indian setting and calls it Portuguese Tappā, as it is modelled on the well-known Hindusthani Tappā form of melody. A famous musician takes an old rāga and introduces some unconventional variation, and the result becomes a new rāga named after him. Miyān Tān Sen, for example, introduced Ga and both varieties of Ni into the rāga Mallār, which omits them as a rule; and the result is the rāga Miyān-ki-Mallār. There are quite a number of varieties of the rāga Mallār by different musicians. Then others combined two or more rāgas into a new one. Amīr Khusru took Hindol and a Persian melody, Mokam, and formed Yaman. Another takes Sāraṅga, Sindhu and Mokam, and the result is a new rāga Ushaq. Or a northern musician comes across a