pūrvaranga technical_term

^٠ VIMARŚA ³⁰⁵ central part of present Madhya Pradesh. The special preference for Mālavā requires further investigation. 29. The word gamaka is used here in the sense of vocal embellishments including shakes; it is not restricted to shake. ³⁰. See note ²². 31. Each grāmarāga is said to be born of one or more jātis. 32. Pūrvaranga has been described in NS IV and V; it embodies instrumental rendering, song, dance, dialogue etc. presented as a preliminary to drama. It has both ritualistic and psychological value as it ensures the success of drama by propitiating the gods and prepares the audience for being receptive to drama. 33. Kākalī and antara are always prescribed to be sparse, but here only the sparseness of gandhara is prescribed, although both antara and kakali are present. It could be construed that gandhara stands for the original gāndhāra and not antara. See note 91. ^• 34,35. The prescription of a specific varņa and alaṅkāra in a rāga is not easy to comprehend. It could only be surmised that the peculiar form of a raga in some cases becomes manifest in ascent, in other cases in descent and similarly a specific alaṅkāra could be assigned to a rāga on account of having a special role in establishing the same. 36. Mārga literally means path; it stands for the span of a tāla. NŠ describes three mārgas of each tāla, citra being the shortest, vārtika or vṛtti being its double and dakṣiṇa again being its double. Our text describes two additional mārgas viz. dhruva being half of the length of citra and śūnya being half of dhruva. (See Vol.I. Anu.113) 37. Kalā has many meanings; the main ones are-firstly, the time-unit that is equal to a guru i.e. two mātrās of tāla, secondly, the 'action' (kriyā) in tāla, sounded or unsounded and thirdly, the unsounded action. Here the first meaning is relevant because the length of kalā depends on the mārga in use at a given time. 38. Caccatpuța is the first among the five tālas described in NŠ XXXI. This is the only caturasra (lit. square) tala, being composed of four kalas or eight mātrās. 39. Garbha-sandhi is the third among the five sandhis or junctures in drama described in NŚ XIX; the first two being mukha and pratimukha and the last two being vimarsa and nirvahana. Garbha literally means 'womb', the inside or interior of something. In drama garbha-sandhi stands for that juncture where the 'sprouting' of the 'seed' has taken place, but the fruit is still enshrouded in the 'garbha'. 40. Our text does not uphold the relationship of any raga to both the grāmas; the decision always rests with the interval of pañcama, if it is composed of four śrutis, then relationship with ṣadjagrāma is confirmed and