Gita stands for the melodic aspect of music rendered through voice or stringed and wind instruments, and in extended meaning represents the totality of music
"Gita (lit. song or the act of singing) stands for the melodic aspect of
music which is rendered through the voice or stringed and wind instruments."
<sup>1</sup>
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<sup>151</sup>
VIMARŚA
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2. Gita (lit. song or the act of singing) stands for the melodic aspect of
music which is rendered through the voice or stringed and wind instruments.
BṛD does not mention vādya along with gīta here, nor in verse 14 where desī
music is defined as 'that which is sung.' Since voice sets the model followed by
stringed and wind instruments, gita is the word for the melodic aspect of music
and the content of the above instruments is included in it. This extension of the
meaning of gita gets established when the word vādya is juxtaposed with it,
because in that case vādya gets restricted to drums. But here, in absence of that
juxtaposition, gita would acquire a further extension by way of also including
vādya in its orbit. Hence gīta stands here for the totality of music. It is notable
that gita is followed by svara in this verse. This looks like a repetition because
svara is the main constituent of gita. This could be construed as an emphasis on
'svara' through an independent reference to it.
3. Nrtta generally stands for pure dance where the delineation of artha
(meaning) of kāvya (poetry, literature) is not intended (vide NŠ IV, 263).
Nṛtta is dependent on nāda, because it has to be accompanied on instruments,
specially drums.
4. The statement that the world is made up of nāda seems to be somewhat
out of place here, because the context is that of nada being the essence of
music and dance. But if one recalls the exposition of the order of manifestation
or formation of gandharva beginning from bindu and moving forward through
nāda - mātṛkā - varṇa - pada - vākya - mahāvākya - to Veda ( alongwith its
auxiliary disciplines), it would become clear that 'gīta' (representing gāndharva)
incorporates all the stages upto gandharva and hence the fundamental nature
of nāda as established in gīta could be logically extended to the 'world' because
the world or phenomenon itself is a manifestation of nāda through the above
stages. SR expresses the same idea in the following manner -
"Nāda manifests the letters ( of alphabet ), letters constitute the word and
words make a sentence; so, the entire business of life is carried on through
language and therefore, the whole phenomenon (i.e. the world) is based on
nāda". (SR1, <sup>2</sup>.2)
Just as SR has related the business of life with nāda through verbal
communication that is based on the same, BrD has used gita in an extended
meaning, including in it all the manifestations of nada and has expounded nada
to be the essence of the whole world.
It would be interesting to note here that S R also speaks of nāda being the
essence of gita, vādya and nṛtta but the 'world' is not connected with nāda in
that context.
"Nāda is the very essence of vocal music, instrumental music is enjoyable as
it manifests nāda. Nṛtta (dance) follows both (i.e. vocal and instrumental
music); therefore, all the three together depend on nāda". (SRI, 2.1)
5,6,7,8. Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Maheśvara (Śiva) form one group as Trideva
(three gods), representing three aspects of the manifestation of the Ultimate
Reality into the phenomenon of the universe, viz. creation, preservation and
destruction. Although the three of them occur in Vedic literature, yet the idea
