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

106 Treatment of Svara
Now, therefore, we shall describe the creative process⁷
of the manifest sound, which expounds through (the concept
of) śruti etc.⁸, the entire subject matter⁹ of music which is
the means of peoples' amusement as well as of attaining
Considering these difficulties, the sages have discovered a technique
of attaining liberation through the meditation of the unmanifest nāda,
i. e., the primordial sound which is heard inside the head if carefully
listened to with an unburdened mind. This sound is produced without
any contant of matter, i. e., without any friction; it is natural and
spontaneous and that is why it is called anāhata (unstruck).
But even this is found to be of little interest by common people
because this sound is pure and untinged by emotional colour and there-
fore uninteresting to them. That is precisely why music becomes more
useful and a treatise on the science of music necessary, so that people
can easily cultivate both the ends of life, viz., experience of the world
and salvation from its limitations through a pleasant and a convenient
means like music which is universally approved and considered
attractive.
In the preceding verse (166) the author has elucidated the insur-
mountable difficulties involved in approaching the formless absolute
reality by one-pointed concentration of attention; and also in worshipping
the unmanifest nāda by the technique of nādānusandhāna. Therefore, the
utility of music as a mass-entertainer of the people and as a means of
salvation approachable by the common folks without effort is brought
out by the author as the prominent characteristic feature of the manifest
sound, i.e., āhata nāda; it serves as a means of enjoyment in this world
and of liberation from the limitations of wordly existence which is
burdened with limitations of personality and the interplay of the oppo-
sites. In short, that is how the author introduces the subject proper
and justifies his attempt at expounding the science of music.
Furthermore, the manner of his exposition, he assures his readers
at the very outset, is to be such as to include the elucidation of such
7. The word utpatti of the text generally means creation, it does
not mean production. It does not necessarily involve perso-
nal will.
8. Etc. refers to other important concepts such as jāti, tāna,
kūṭatāna, svara, mūrcchanā, grāma and so on.
9. The word geyam of the text literally means all that is worthy
of being sung, but it comprehends all music by implication,
as is obvious from the context.

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Section - ...
freedom from the limitations of existence¹⁰, and also we
shall investigate into its¹¹ being the origin of śruti etc. (167-
168b).
abstruse topics as śruti, jāti, grāma, svara, etc., comprehending the
very beginnings of the perception of śruti and so on. So, henceforth
we are to concern ourselves with saṅgīta-śāstra, i.e., the science of
musical arts.
10. The word existence has been used here in the sense of 'worldly
life', i.e., everyday existence of an average human being
which is limited by innumerable factors of environment and
complicated by the interplay of the opposites, as compared to
the life of full comprehension, of unlimited freedom and
tranquillity.
11. 'Its' refers to manifest sound.