Proceedings

International Seminar on Creating & Teaching Music Patterns

Prabandha : An Ever changing Musical Pattern of Past As

Reflected in Anandasanjivana.
Bisakha Goswami Poske, Assistant Professor, Department of Musicology, Rabindra Bharati University
[India]
Abstract :
History of Indian music exhibits an elaborate tradition of creating varieties of patterns among musical
genres through the ages. The Prabandha, as an extremely versatile and ever changing musical pattern
emerged in ancient India with a lot of regional variations. Many well-known musical patterns
gradually emerged from this Prabandha in later days. Various musicological texts stand as strong
proofs of this versatility of Prabandha music and the origin of later day musical patterns which were
derived out of the Prabandha. Post-Vedic literature offers a lot of supporting evidence which stands
as sincere proof of the importance of the Prabandha as a musical pattern. Since very early days a set
of textual records has been composed to document the manifestations of these artistic creations.
Manuscripts are major components among the literary sources of cultural history. Musical texts of
ancient and medieval India like Brihaddeshi, Sangitaratnakara, Sangita Samayasara Sangita
Damodara, and the like vividly describe the salient features of Prabandha music and its variations
through the ages. nandasajvana, an unpublished manuscript on Indian musicology dated back in
th
14 century exhibits several distinct variations of this ancient musical pattern. In the field of
classification, Dibya Prabandha, Naga Loka Geya Prabandha and Bharati Prabandhas are available
instead of ancient traditional Suda, Ali-samsraya and Viprakirna in the text Anandasanjivana. This
particular work deserves the intrusive method of manuscriptology as well as historical methods of
analyzing musical forms. The present paper is a sincere attempt to highlight the existence of various
patterns and a completely new pattern of classifying the contemporary Prabandha music as reflected
in the nandasajvana particularly from the viewpoint of Indian musicology.
Keywords :
Cultural history, Historical records, Textual musicology, Musical pattern, Prabandha,
nandasajvana,.

Various evidences collected as the records supporting the cultural history of our land and people tell
us about their highest achievement in the long run. These records are considered as different
sources of information which is helpful to understand how people lived and worked from the
earliest times to the present day. The various sources of history are like the many pieces of a puzzle.
These sources can be broadly classified into two groups archaeological and literary. Among the
literary sources manuscripts are major components. Handwritten records of the past in the form of
books are known as manuscripts. These records were written on a variety of surfaces such as dried
sheep or goat skin, dried palm leaf, the bark of birch trees and much later, on paper. India has a very
rich collection of the ancient manuscripts as her literature is highly rich and varied. Literary source
materials can be further divided into two categories i) religious and ii) secular. Books and
manuscripts dealing with religion are referred to as religious literature. The Vedas, the epics
Ramayana and Mahbhrata, the Gt and Purnas, the Jain Angas and Buddhist Trpitakas are the
notable collections of sacred religious literature of ancient India. Non-religious literature, on the
other hand is known as secular literature. It includes writings on a range of subjects- from
biographies (like Harsacharta) to poems, folk tells (like Panchatantra) to work on politics
(Arthasstra), from music to dramaturgy and so on. These literary sources extend their help to the
researchers to reconstruct the distant past and give a fairly accurate picture of cultural history.
In historical part, the textual tradition of Indian music contains multiple varieties of written
documentations basically in the form of texts. Interestingly this process of musical study is
Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University | 16-18 December, 2013

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International Seminar on Creating & Teaching Music Patterns

technically regarded as a part of musicological study. In Colins Encyclopedia of Music, musicology

refers to the scientific study of music in all its aspects. Music here is not considered merely to be a
part of artistic creation but a part of science. This is because its medium is sound or Nda. Since
early days of civilization musicological study kept its existence side by side with the performing
aspect. Lots of interesting topics in the sphere of knowledge are entirely connected with
musicology, such as elaborate history and evolution of music, structural pattern of lyrics, tones Page | 155
and tunes, musical scales, intonation system, system of sound production, musical forms,
philosophy of music, aesthetics and its application, procedures of music preservation and many
other technical aspects of music including the practice of giving proper explanation of musical texts.
During different ages the subject musicology occupied various names in Indian sub-continent. It is
known that, before the emergence of Christ, the subject was termed as Gndharva Vidy and was
duly included into the stock of technical writings or Panchama Veda. After Gupta period the term
Nda Vidy was introduced instead of Gndharva Vidy.1 While in recent times, the term Sangta
Vidy is frequently used in musicological works by the renowned scholars in Bengal. Kshetramohan
Goswami2 and Rabindranth Tagore3 are remarkable among them.
The text nandasajvana is an early work on Indian musicology as it is known so far. The text is
written in Sanskrit language. The typical features of text-composing and musical elements found in it
clearly exhibit that, the text is composed in medieval India. Certain technical problems and
unavoidable questions come up quite inevitably with the discovery of such an age-old unpublished
work. One of these major problems is lack of strong evidences helping in recognizing the author.
Varieties of thoughts and opinions, disagreement and controversies are there regarding the authors
identity. It is necessary to make serious attempt for unfolding the mystery hidden in the text existing
in discoloured palm leafs. In case of manuscript editing researchers collect data from a number of
direct and indirect sources. In the present case, the available manuscript copies of Madanaplas
works stand as the primary source materials. Besides these Descriptive Catalogues, Catalogous
Catalogorum along with secondary source materials, such as reference books mentioning the
present work as well as carrying relevant information about the author and his works are duly
counted. Four manuscript copies of the text nandasajvana have been discovered till date. Among
them, one copy is preserved in the Asiatic Society, Kolkata. The authorship of the manuscript is
being recognized by the editors in the introductory note of Descriptive Catalogue of the Sanskrit
Manuscripts. To quote from the introduction
another work of royal authorship is the nandasajvana of Maharajadhiraja Madanapla
who had a number of Virudas or epithets.4
Descriptive Catalogue is also seen introducing the author brilliantly while quoting the colophon part
of nandasajvana. In this colophon, certain specific epithets are applied to the author, likeMahrjdhirja, Kattramalla, Panditaprijta and so on Iti maharajadhirajapanditaprijtakattramallaryabibhta

Sangta Prijta of Ahovala Pandita, Ed. & Trans. By Geeta Som, Dipayan Publishers,Kolkata, 2001(1 st ed.),
pp 6.
Note : this particular word is quoted in Sangta Prijta from one early text Sangta Sopna.
2
Goswami Kshetramohan, Kanthakoumudi, Kolkata, 1875 (1st ed.), pp.3
3
Tagore Rabindranth, Sangitachint, Visva-Bharati, Kolkata, 1967 (1st ed.), pp. 233
4
stri Hara Prasd, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts, The Asiatic Society, Kolkata, VolXIV, 1955 (1st ed.), Introduction, pp. VII.
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Proceedings

International Seminar on Creating & Teaching Music Patterns

Darjivirjamnasmadanaplavirachite
nandasanjvanbhidhne
sangtasstre
prabandhaparibhsprabandhalaksanaslagasuravggeyakralaksanaparksanasttiyodhyyah.5
Another copy of the manuscript is available in the Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati (which is a
transcribe copy). The third copy is collected from the department of Musicology, IKSVV, Khairagarh
(mss. no: 925). The last copy is preserved in the Anup Sanskrit Library, Bikaner (mss no: 3400). New
Catalogous Catalogorum informs us about the existence of one more copy of the text in the Library Page | 156
of His Highness The Maharaja of Bikaner (mss no: 1090).
History of musicology in India reveals many interesting facts and events regarding these written
documentations. In 1428 A.D. Sultan Malik Sarak Shah organized a musicological congress inviting
scholars from all over the country to compose an encyclopedic work on contemporary music. These
groups of scholars wrote Sangita Siromani, a compilation of materials borrowed from other early
and contemporary treaties. Among them a lot of quotations have been taken from
nandasajvana. A number of quotations from nandasajvana are also available in Sangitarja
by Kumbhakarna.
But, a lot of controversies grew up while searching the authors history. A group of scholars from
contemporary India tend to think Madanapla as a representative of royal Pla dynasty of ancient
Bengal.6 However, they show strong reasons behind that. Since establishing the Pla Empire in
around 750 A.D., Pla emperors were sincere patrons of art and culture.7 In ancient Bengal kings and
royal personalities came forward to appreciate literary and artistic creations during this period.
Gopla-I the first ruler was a royal representative selected by the general mass. The exact succession
of the founder of Plas is not definitely known till date but it will be justified to place him during the
last part of the eighth century A.D. After establishing this kingdom long existing anarchy was wiped
out from the life of the people and all political solidarity came back. In the following period of four
hundred years, the Pla reign brought the Golden age in every sphere of life and knowledge by
inaugurating a new era of peace, prosperity and culture in Gouda-Vanga. Eventually, remarkable
development is seen in respect of Buddhist religion and literature, art and architecture, performing
and visual art specially, in this flourishing Pala kingdom to certain level of greatness not dreamt of
before. Dharmapla, the son of the 1st king Gopla, established his name as the greatest king ever
ruled in Bengal. In spite of spending all his life in martial campaigns he appeared as the most learned
patron of literature, art, culture and Buddhist religion.8 Interestingly, the lineage of Pla rulers
witnessed the existence of one Pla king, named Madanapla. King Madanapla was known to be
the 17th Pla king. He was the fourth son of 16th Pla king Ramapla. History tells us that, among the
four sons of Rmapla, Vittapla and Rjyapla played important role as rulers during the lifetime
of their father, though none of them ever ascended the throne. The two others, Kumrapla and
Madanapla, both of whom ruled over the Pla kingdom, are not referred to in Rmacharita as
having taken any part in the reign of Rmapla.9 This period of Pla-history is considered to be
hidden in mysteries due to some reasons.10 There is no proper justification of certain uneven
happenings during this time. The most notable among them is the coronation of the 15 th Pla king

stri Hara Prasd, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts, The Asiatic Society, Kolkata, VolXIV, 1955 (1st ed.), Introduction, pp. VII.
6
Sing Thakur Jaidev, Indian Music, Premlata Sharma ed., ITC, Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata,
7
Majumdar R.C. ed., The History of Bengal, N.V. Publications, Patna, 1971, pp.166-176.
8
Majumder R.C., Ancient India, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi, 1952 (1st. ed.), 2007
(14th ed.), pp. 267-268.
9
Sarkar D.C. Pla-Sena Yuger Vansnucharita, Sahityalok, Kolkata, 1982, pp.95-96 (1st ed.)
10
Bandyopadhyaya Rakhaldas, Bngalr Itihs, Vol-I, Gurudas Chattopadhyaya & Sons, Kolkata.
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Kumrapla and acquiring the royal power. There is no answer of why Kumrapla acquired the
throne by superseding the other elder brothers? And why his son was succeeded by Madana ?
However, within these intricacies all that we exactly come to know as the authentic record is that,
Madanapla succeeded his nephew Gopla-III and later appeared as the 16th Pla Empire.11
Dinesh Chandra Sarkar, the well-known historian ascertained a definite time span for the reign of
Madanapla in his text Pla- Sena Yuger Vansnucharita. 12 In this respect he refers to the date Page | 157
depicted on an inscription collected from Blagudara of Munger district. This inscription helped to
make an assumption that Madanapla ruled over Gouda Vanga since 1143-44 to 1161 A.D. that
means more than 16 years. Another inscription called Ganglekha of Govindapla gives a definite
idea that, Madana could not continue his rule after 1161 A.D. During his time Gouda Vanga was left
out from the Pla rule. Since 1120 Vijayasena of Sena dynasty started establishing his power in
southern Bengal. Gradually the Senas settled down their reign within a few decades.13
Undoubtedly, the cultural status of Bengal reached its top during Pla rule. Yet no prominent
evidence has been found supporting the 17th king Madana as an author of musical text. Even
Madanas name never came up as a patron of art and literature as great as Dharmapla,
Bigrahapla, Mahipla and the like. One more striking fact is that, the text nandasajvana is
written by the followers of Hindus and the text contains names of a number of Hindu deities. On the
contrary, the Plas were patrons of Buddhist ideas and Buddhist literature, art and culture were
seen predominating the era. These are the negative points to prove Madana, the Pla king as the
author of nandasajvana.
Dr. Bimal Roy, the eminent musicologist of modern Bengal, tried to throw some light on this area to
solve the dispute of Madanas identity. He therefore added a brief note containing his own thoughts
and opinion about this controversial authorship. In his works Dr. Roy recognized Madana as a royal
author of Andhra Desha, flourished in 14th century A.D. and composed the text nandasajvana.
Though many other literary works written by Madana are known from various sources Dr. Roy
mentions about this single one, it may also be noted.14
Prof. Rmakrsna Kavi has given a different view about Madana in his voluminous work Bharatakosa.
He opines that, Madana was the king of Delhi and have ruled over it in 1375 A.D. Prof. Kavi also
recognized Madana as a Telugu prince. This Telugu prince has composed several works on
Dharmasstra, Nighantu and Music. Moreover, he was assisted by a well known scholar Visvesvara
Bhatta who was known to have ascribed all his works to king Madana. His Karmavipaka is a valuable
work. nandasajvani is quoted by Kumbhakarna in Ntyaratnakosa and by Panditamandali in
Sangitasiromani. The work is in the form of Aphorism which forms verses. He begins with
Tladhyya where he mentions about one hundred and thirty Talas and then enters into Prastra.
The second chapter deals with Sangta especially of Rgdhyya. The next chapter deals with
Prabandhas which suddenly comes to an end. Our manuscript was copied in 1529 and consists of no
errors. The work is much condensed, e.g. Madanapla, the author of nandasajvana was incidentally not very well known figure in early or
late medieval musicological literature. This may be accounted for by the reason that very limited
number of works on music is attributed to his authorship. The present work nandasajvana seems

11

Majumdar R.C. ed., The History of Bengal, V.N. Publications, Patna, 1971 (1st ed.), pp.166-176.
Bandyopadhyaya Rakhaldas, Bngalr Itihs, Vol-I, Gurudas Chattopadhyaya & Sons, Kolkata, pp. 204-205.
13
Sarkar D.C. Pla-Sena Yuger Vansnucharita, Sahityalok, Kolkata, 1982, pp.95-96 (1st ed.)
14
Roy Dr. Bimal, Bhratiya Sangita Prasanga (Bengali), Jignasa, Kolkata, 1964 (1st ed.), pp.23
12

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International Seminar on Creating & Teaching Music Patterns

to be his only work on musicology which is found yet. But historical records shows that Madanapla
have written a number of Sanskrit texts on various other subjects. Eminent philosopher Dr. P.V.
Kane is successful to through some light on the entire works of Madana.15 Dr. Kane opined that,
Madana seemed to have been a great patron of learning and several works on various almost like
the king Bhoja. At least four works on Dharmasstra were written under his patronage, viz.Madanaprijta, Smitimahrnava or Madanamahrnava, Tithinirnayasra and Smtikaumudi. Page | 158
Besides these, four more works have also been attributed to Madanapla that dealt with subjects
other than those of Dharmasstra. These are Madanavinodanighantu, Suryasiddhntaviveka,
Siddhntagarbha and Yantrapraksa. Among these texts Madanaprijta is an extensive work in
995 pages published by the Asiatic Society (Bibliotheka Indica Series), Kolkata in 1893.there are 23
introductory verses, the first 13 of which give the genealogy of Madanapla. Incidentally, these
verses are more or less same with the verses written in introduction of many of his other works.
Presently, among the collected manuscript copies of nandasajvana, the copy collected from
I.K.S.V.V. contains those verses mentioned above.
Madanapalas Anandasanjivana is the pioneer of a completely new way to classify the
contemporary Prabandha music. Not only that, he created a lot of new Prabandha himself only to
keep up the age old tradition of Prabandha music. However, he did one strange thing while creating
new Prabandha. He took some ancient Gandharva Gitis and tried to establish them as Prabandhas.
Anyways, he had classified the Prabandhas under three completely new subheads i) Divya
Prabandhas ii) Patala Loka Geya Prabandhas or Naga Loka Geya Prabandhas and iii) Bharati
Prabandhas.
Here Divya means enlightened. So for that, Divya Prabandhas are closely bound by certain specific
systems of class one Prabandhas and are sung by the leaned expert musicians. Divya Prabandhas
were probably sung in royal courts and in the temples. Patala Loka is nothing but a particular place
where the people of Naga cultural race lived. After observing the names and forms of these
Prabandhas, it seems that. These were Prakirna types of Prabandhas. That means these Prabandhas
were almost free from the rigidity of systems. And Bharati is the other name of Goddess Sarasvati.
The author tried to ascribe this particular group of Prabandhas to Goddess Sarasvati. More can not
be said without an extensive analysis of these Prabandhas as the author has given no particular
definition or detailed description of these Prabandhas. However most of the Prabandhas available in
Anandasanjivana are similar to Sangita Ratnakara.
Unfortunately the text nandasajvana is found in incomplete manner. With a great controversy
on authors identity a few lines have also been arranged in a scattered way. Unnecessary quotations
from Shrimadbhgabat Geet are also found at the end of second manuscript copy. The third
manuscript copy contains an incomplete picture of authors genealogy. This copy also contains an
irrelevant portion of Sabhdhyya or the description of royal court. Due to the unavailability of any
early pioneering work, editing of this text becomes more and more challenging. So the proper
reconstruction of nandasajvana in the form of a critical edition is certainly needed to fill the gap
which exists in the path of textual musicology

Bibliography
Primary sources :

15

Kane Dr. P.V., History of Dharmastra, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, 1930 (1 st ed.), pp.
792-804.
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Proceedings

International Seminar on Creating & Teaching Music Patterns

Aumpatam of Umpati, Ed. K. Vsudeva astri, Madras 1957 is based on a manuscript from the
Government Oriental Mss. Library at Madras and one from the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
at Poona.
Goswami Kshetramohan, Kanthakoumudi, Kolkata, 1875 (1st ed.)
Ntyastra of Bharata, Ed. by M. Rmaksna Kavi and J.S. Pande in 4 volumes, Geakwads Oriental
Series, Baroda 1926, 1934, 1954, 1964
st

Prajnnnanda Swami, Rg O Rup, Rmakrshna Vednta Math, Kolkata, Vol-I, 1951 (1 ed.)
Prajnnnanda Swami, Rg O Rup, Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, Kolkata, Vol-II, 1951 (1st ed.)
Rghavan V., An Outline Literary History of Indian Music, Journal of The Music Academy, Madras,
Vol.-23, 1952
Rghavan V., Music in Ancient Literature, Journal of Music Academy, Madras, Conference Souvenir,
1950
Roy Dr. Bimal , Bhratiya Sangita Prasanga (Bengali), Jigns, Kolkata, 1964 (1st ed.)
Sangita Prijata of Ahovala Pandita, Ed. & Trans. By Geeta Som, Dipyan Publishers,Kolkata,
2001(1st ed.)
Satyanryana R. (ed.) The Kudumiyamli inscription on music, Sri Varalakshmi Academy
Publication Series, Mysore 1957.
Sing Thkur Jaidev, Indian Music, ed. Dr. P. arm, Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata, 1995 (1 st )
Tagore Rabindranth, Sangitachint, Visva-Bhrati, Kolkata, 1967 (1st ed.)

Secondary Sources :
Catalogus Catalogorum , An Alphabetical Register of Sanskrit Works and Authors, Theodor Aufrecht (ed.),
1962, Vol I, Steiner Verlac GMBH Wiesbades, Germany.
New Catalogus Catalogorum , Vol.-I, Ed.by Rghavan Dr. V., University of Madras, 1949 (1 st ed)
stri Dr. H.P., A Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts, The Asiatic Society, Kolkata, VolXIV, 1955 (1st ed.)

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