बृहद्देशी (मतंग मुनि - राग-पद्धति का विश्व में सर्वप्रथम प्रतिपादक ग्रन्थ)

2
The work ends abruptly saying "इदानीं कथयिष्यामि वाद्यस्य
निर्णयो यथा" (p. 151) and so we conclude that there are sub-
sequent parts of the text yet to be discovered.
The author derives the word देशी thus:
"देशे देशे प्रवृत्तोऽसौ ध्वनिर्देशीति संज्ञितः । (p. 1)
आक्रम्य वर्तते सर्वं जगत् स्थावरजङ्गमम् ॥
ध्वनिश्च द्विविधः प्रोक्तो व्यक्ताव्यक्तविभागतः ।
वर्णालङ्कारभाग् व्यक्तो देशीत्युक्तस्तथापरः ॥" (p. 2)
And from देशी meaning ध्वनि or sound, as a starting point, he
developes all that is to follow. Hence the name Bṛhaddesī.
This treatise proposes to furnish new information on such
subjects as the 'courses of Rāga' which as the author
observes,
रागमार्गस्य यद् रूपं यन्नोक्तं भरतादिभिः ।
निरूप्यते तदस्माभिर्लक्ष्यलक्षणसंयुतम् ॥" (p. 81)
have not been dwelt upon by Bharata and other sages in
their works. Matanga seeks to base his opinions on autho-
rities by freely quoting passages from Bharata, Kohala, Dattila
and others.
It is matter for genuine pleasure to announce that we
may be able to publish shortly a work on music, named
'Dattila" by Dattilācārya who happens to be one of those
quoted by the present author.
I would add, before concluding, that the present work
though incomplete has been published on account of its rare
merit and that the manuscript of this work was Travancore's
contribution to the exhibition held at the All-India Conference
of Scholars and Artists at Indore in 1921.
The edition of the work is based on two palm leaf
manuscripts in Malayalam characters obtained from the
Poonjar Raja, North Travancore. One of these manuscripts
marked क is exceedingly worn out, it is about four centuries
old and wanting in the first leaf as well as four leaves from
the 41st. The other manuscript marked ख is fragmentary
ending with a portion of the Jātiprakaraṇa.
Trivandrum, }
25 11 1103 } K. SAMBASIVA SASTRI