Brihaddeshi is a

Classical Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest ...

text, dated ca. 6th to 8th century CE, on

Indian classical music Indian classical music is the art music, classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It is generally described using terms like ''Shastriya Sangeet'' and ''Marg Sangeet''. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as ...

, attributed to Mataṅga Muni. It is the first text to speak directly of the

raga A raga ( ; , ; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a musical mode, melodic mode. It is central to classical Indian music. Each raga consists of an array of melodic structures with musical motifs; and, fro ...

and to distinguish ''marga'' ("classical") from ''desi'' ("folk") music. It also introduced sargam ''

solfège In music, solfège (British English or American English , ) or solfeggio (; ), also called sol-fa, solfa, solfeo, among many names, is a mnemonic used in teaching aural skills, Pitch (music), pitch and sight-reading of Western classical music, W ...

'' (or ''solfa''), the singing of the first syllable of the names of the musical notes, as an aid to learning and performance. (The full names of the notes existed previously, for example as found in Natya Shastra.) The author based his work on

Bharata Muni Bharata (Devanagari: भरत) was a '' muni'' (sage) of ancient India. He is traditionally attributed authorship of the influential performing arts treatise '' Natya Shastra'', which covers ancient Indian dance, poetics, dramaturgy, and music ...

Natya Shastra The ''Nāṭya Shāstra'' (, ''Nāṭyaśāstra'') is a Sanskrit treatise on the performing arts. The text is attributed to sage Bharata, and its first complete compilation is dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE, but estimates vary b ...

. His discussion of

musical scale In music theory, a scale is "any consecutive series of notes that form a progression between one note and its octave", typically by order of pitch or fundamental frequency. The word "scale" originates from the Latin ''scala'', which literal ...

s and micro-tonal intervals clarifies Bharata's work, and also clarifies Bharata's terse presentation of many issues related to

śruti ''Śruti'' or shruti (, , ) in Sanskrit means "that which is heard" and refers to the body of most authoritative, ancient religious texts comprising the central canon of Hinduism. Manusmriti states: ''Śrutistu vedo vijñeyaḥ'' (Devanagari: ...

. The text uses a two-dimensional ''prastāra'' (matrix) to explain how the 7 notes of the octave map into 22 śrutis, with varying distances between notes. It also says that a finer subdivision in microtones has 66 śrutis; and that, in principle, the number of śrutis is infinite. The text also speaks of the division of the octave into 12

svara Swara () or svara is an Indian classical music term that connotes simultaneously a breath, a vowel, a note, the sound of a musical note corresponding to its name, and the successive steps of the octave, or ''saptanka''. More comprehensively ...

s. According to Prem Lata Sharma, this is the first known text to speak of 12 notes.

Editions

The text of Brihaddeshi was edited by Prem Lata Sharma for the Indira Kalakendra series of original texts on the Indian arts and was published as a book "Matanga and His Work Brihaddesi" in 1992.

Dwaram Bhavanarayana Rao Dwaram Bhavanarayana Rao (15 June 1924 – 24 July 2000) was a famous Indian violinist and son of legendary Padmasri Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu. He was born to Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu and Venkata Jaggayyamma on 15 June 1924 at Bapatla and marr ...

published a Telugu translation and paraphrase in 2002.

Notes

References

* Hindu texts {{Music-publication-stub