सङ्गीतरत्नाकर: प्रथम भाग (शार्ङ्गदेव - स्वरगताध्याय सविस्तार व्याख्या व अनुवाद सहित)

( viii )
matter is either confused or distorted. Therefore, in order
to make the translation more intelligible to the modern in-
tellect, the entire work has been further classified into many
subdivisions according to the different topics. Thus, it is
probably for the first time that the Sanskrit text as well as its
English translation are being presented in the modern lite-
rary format. Accordingly the Sanskrit text has also been
provided with suitable headings and sub-headings.
The general order of presentation is such that the text
in Sanskrit is immediately followed by translation which in
its turn is followed by the comments, and the comments are
followed by notes, all of which run concurrently as far as
possible. The substance of the two Sanskrit commentaries of
Kallinātha and Siṁhabhūpāla as printed in the Adyar edition
of Sangīta-ratnākara has generally been incorporated in
comments as much as it has been found possible in conso-
nance with the modern style of presentation. However, the
purpose of writing the comments is not merely to represent
all that is useful in the Sanskrit commentaries, but to make
the translation and the subject matter of the text easily in-
telligible and accessible to an average reader of a musicologi-
cal text. The comments, in other words, actually constitute
a running commentary on the text, comprehending most of
the developments in the field since the Sanskrit commentaries
were written. The notes are written mostly on the English
rendering of the text and are more of a literary nature, while
the comments are generally more concerned with the techni-
cal exposition of the subject matter.
The Śloka-s of the text have been divided into four
parts called a, b, c & d, roughly representing the four quar-
ters of a verse, and since the translation presented here follows
a topic-wise arrangement, the paragraph and other topic
headings are indicated in terms of Śloka numbers suffixed
with a, b, c and d (as the case may be) to cover the entire
range of the topic or the paragraph.
( ix )
While writing Sanskrit words in Roman script, inter-
national diacritical marks are applied. These symbols are
indicated here in a separate transliteration code.
With regards to translating technical terms from Sans-
krit to English, as a matter of principle, every effort has been
made to translate or to give English equivalents whenever
possible, but exception is made with respect to certain con-
cepts that have no parallel in Western music e. g. grāma,
mūrcchanā, tāla and so on, that are retained in their original
form. However, even in such cases, an approximate English
equivalent has been provided into brackets, at least for the
first time, if not every time the word is used, e. g. jāti (melo-
dic type). Sometimes the English equivalents are thought
to be unconventional, and in such cases the original Sanskrit
terms are similarly provided into parenthesis e. g. tone-
pattern (varṇa). This policy has been executed as far as it
has been possible to do so intelligently.
The translation presented here is quite authentic, as
near in interpretation to the original text as the English
idiom makes it possible. Even though a śloka-wise presenta-
tion is not made, every paragraph is truly represented by the
verse Nos. indicated at the end of the paras, while the range
of the topic is indicated by the verse Nos. at the end of the
topic-headings. The words that have been supplied due to
gramatical necessity of the English expression have generally
been put into brackets, so much so that expository or comple-
mentary phrases implied in the original text are also similarly
indicated. However, every care has been taken not to make
the translation too literal, at the cost of presentable diction,
lucidity of expression, or technical meaning. Plurals made
out of Skt. words are distinctly indicated by a hyphen e. g.
grāma-s. So, in short an attempt has been made to present a
faithful, authentic, liberal and a clear English translation of
the original Sanskrit text couched in a language that can be
easily understood by the students as well as the scholars of
saṅgīta-śāstra alike.