सङ्गीतमकरन्द (देवर्षि नारद - प्राचीन भारतीय सङ्गीत, राग-रागिनी वर्गीकरण व नाद-ब्रह्म)

INTRODUCTION. XI

C. I. E., the then Resident of Hyderâbâd Mr. Shâstrî obtained a
note on H. H. The Raja Saheb of Gadwal through Mr. M. A.
N. A. Hydari, B. A., Judicial Secretary, Hyderabad. Thus
Mr. Shâstry got the loan of the manuscript through the kind
influence of the Râjâ Sâheb to whom are due the sincerest thanks
of all lovers of Indian music.
Description of the Manuscript—The manuscript is written
in Devanâgarî characters on old Ahmedabad paper of a yellowish
tinge. It consists of 32 folios, the size of the folio being 10¼ × 5½
inches and each side of the folios containing 9 lines. The hand-
writing is fair and the headings of the subjects in the body of the
text are written in red ink the colour of which has not faded,
though the manuscript was written in the Shake year 1599 (A.
D. 1677) that is 243 years ago. On the last three pages the
copyist has painted 9 different designs of a rosette in black, yellow,
red and green colours.
The manuscript begins as follows:—
धीमहागणपतये नमः । श्रीसाम्बसदाशिवाय नमः । श्रीनादब्रह्मणे नमः ।
The colophon is as follows:—
इति सङ्गीतमकरन्दः समाप्तः । शुभमस्तु । शके १५९९ शालिवाहे पिङ्गलनामसंवत्सरे
आश्विनमासे शुक्लपक्षे विजयादशम्यां विद्यापुरमहानगरे श्रीमन्महागणपतिदासकृष्णाजीदत्तेनेदं
सङ्गीतमकरन्दाख्यपुस्तकं लिखितम् । महागणपतिर्जयति ॥
From this colophon it is evident that the manuscript was
copied in Shake 1599 (A. D. 1677) by one Krishnâjî Datta who
was a devotee of the deity Mahâganapati and lived in Vidyâpura.
This Vidyâpura is no other than Vijayanagara which was the
capital of the late Vijayanagara Empire and which is now in ruins.
The present manuscript was discovered at Gadwâl which, though
now a feudatory of the Hyderabad State, was in former times
a feudatory or a part of the Vijayanagara Empire. It is probable
that after the complete ruin of Vidyâpura alias Vijayanagara the
manuscript must have come to Gadwâl which is not very far from
the ruined capital. For this information I am indebted to my
friend Mr. J. S. Kudâlkar of Baroda Central Library.