Part 1(a).4 - A Comparison of Kohalamatam with other Lakṣaṇagranthas

The textual content of Kohalamatam at places seems to correspond exactly with that of Saṅgītacūḍāmaṅi, Saṅgītasamayasāra and Saṅgītamakaranda. Saṅgītacūḍāmaṇi was written by Kavicakravarti Pratāpa Jagadekamalla, the King of Kalyāṇ who ruled between 1138 and 1150 C.E. This work is believed to be a very elaborate one that deals with the aspects of gīta and nṛtya in five chapters of which only a small part is now available in printed form. Saṅgītasamayasāra of Pārśvadeva was written in the 13th century C.E. Pārśvadeva has followed the tradition of Jagadekamalla because of which we find that there is a lot of common material in Saṅgītacūḍāmaṅi and Saṅgītasamayasāra. Saṅgītamakaranda, which is dated around the 15th-16th century C.E. also shares lot of material with that of Kohalamatam. There is also quite a bit of common material that Kohalamatam shares individually, with Saṅgītacūḍāmaṅi, Saṅgītasamayasāra and Saṅgītamakaranda. In many places, M. Ramakrishna Kavi has made notes in the margins of several folios in the manuscript of Kohalamatam indicating where the text matter matches with other works.

Comparison 1 Kohalamatam and Saṅgītacūḍāmaṇi 

The work Saṅgītacūḍāmaṇi is available to us from three different sources. i. Manuscripts of Saṅgītacūḍāmaṇi ii. Quotations found in Bharatakośa of Ramakrishna Kavi iii. Printed Edition of Saṅgītacūḍamaṇi, Edited by D. K. Velankar The manuscripts of Saṅgītacūḍāmaṇi which have been procured from the Oriental Research Institute, Mysore have been used in this study. Of all the manuscripts available from this source, it is only manuscript P-5081 which actually contains authentic material of Saṅgītacūḍāmaṇi^[1].

The following table shows the instances where the material of Kohalamatam matches with each of the three sources of Saṅgītacūḍāmaṇi.

Subject	Kohalamatam	Saṅgītacūḍāmaṇi
		Printed Edition	Manuscript	Bharatakośa
Svara -Ṛṣabha	Fol.2 Line 19	-		p.88
	Fol.3 Line 6	-		p.88
	Fol.4. Line 11	-		p.88
Jāti–Dhyāna śloka - Ṣāḍjī	Fol. 8 Line 1-4	-		p.690
Jāti–Dhyāna śloka– Ārṣabhī	Fol.8 Line 5-8	-		p.57
Jāti–Dhyāna śloka– Gāndhārī	Fol.8 Line 9-12	-		p.174
Jāti–Dhyāna śloka– Madhyamā	Fol.8 Line 13-16	-		p.467
Jāti–Dhyāna śloka- Pan camī	Fol.8 Line 17-20	-		p.346
Jāti–Dhyāna śloka– Dhaivatī	Fol.9 Line 1-4	-		p.299
Jāti–Dhyāna śloka– Niṣādī	Fol.9 Line 5-8	-		p.337
Svaramantra -Ṣaḍja	Fol.9 Line 9-13	-		p.688
Svaramantra - Ṛṣabha	Fol.9 Line 13-17	-		p.89
Svaramantra– Gāndhāra	Fol.9 Line 17 - Fol.10 Line 2	-		p.173
Svaramantra– Madhyama	Fol.10 Line 2-6	-		p.465
Svaramantra– Pañcama	Fol.10 Line 6-11	-		p.346
Svaramantra– Dhaivata	Fol.10 Line 11- 15	-		p.298
Svaramantra–Niṣāda	Fol.10 Line 15- 19	-		p.337
Rāga-Time theory– Morning	Fol. 13 Line 19 - Fol.14 Line 2	-		p.405
Rāga-Time theory– Prahara	Fol.14 Line 19 - Fol.15 Line 5	-		p.404
Rāga-Time theory– Evening	Fol.14 Line 19 - Fol.15 Line 5	-		p.404
Prabandha	p.21 Lines 1-3, 6-8, 13-20, p.22 line 1-8		Fol.42  Line 5, Line 8-12
Tāla / Laya	Fol.23 Line 10- 11	p.7 sl.58		-
101 Tālas list	Fol.24 Line 4 -	p.8 sl.65-p.9		-
	Fol.25 Line 14	sl.79b
Prastāra	Fol.26 Line 3 - Fol.26 Line 9	p.8 sl. 60-63b		-
101 Tālas–lakṣaṇa	Fol.26 Line 10 - Fol.43 Line 1	p.9 sl.79c -p.19 sl.132	Fol.52-52A Line 3	-
101 Tālas-svara alaṃkāras	Fol.44 Line 18 - Fol.50 Line 18			-
Vādya	Fol.54 Line 9-13	p. 69 sl.1 -p.70 sl.3b		-

The three sources of Saṅgītacūḍāmaṇi, though apparently represent a single work, individually depict the work very differently. It is interesting that Kohalamatam has common material with all the sources of Saṅgītacūḍāmaṇi, but there is not a single common entry of Kohalamatam which can be found in all the three of them. 

The use of pāṭākṣaras while giving the lakṣaṇa of tāla is a noteworthy aspect seen in the manuscript of Kohalamatam. This technique is seen in works such as Saṅgītopaniṣadsaroddhāra of Sudhākalaśa, Saṅgītapārijāta of Ahobala, etc. But this is not found in the work Saṅgītacūḍāmaṇi. 

In the section on vādya, the classification into tata, vitata, ghana and suṣira, match. Interestingly, there is a reference to Jagadekamalla in Kohalamatam in the list of avanaddha vādyas.

पटहश्च हुडुक्का च कुडुक्का घटसं तथा ।
ढक्का च मण्डिढक्का च मृदङ्गो ढकुली तथा ॥
करटा त्रिवली कुञ्जा सेल्लुका कस्सवा तथा ।
तथैव हमणा ज्ञेया ढक्का डमरुकवापिनी ॥
दाणस्तम्बकी चैव भेरी प्रभृतयस्त्विमाः ।
अवनद्धभिदा प्रोक्ता प्रतापपृथिवीभुजा ॥

paṭahaśca huḍukkā ca kuḍukkā ghaṭasaṃ tathā |
ḍhakkā ca maṇḍiḍhakkā ca mṛdaṅgo ḍhakulī tathā ||
karaṭā trivalī kuñjā sellukā kassavā tathā |
tathaiva hamaṇā jñeyā ḍhakkā ḍamarukavāpinī ||
dāṇastambakī caiva bherī prabhṛtayastvimāḥ |
avanaddhabhidā proktā pratāpapṛthivībhujā ||^[2]

The appearance of the name of Pratāpa Jagadekamalla in such a manner indicates the following possibilities. Either the author of this work is referring to the views of Jagadeka and mentioning his name so that the readers can appreciate that these were indeed his views. Or, this could probably be a reading in Jagadeka’s own treatise, which has found its way into the text of Kohalamatam, but is not to be seen in any of the sources of Saṅgītacūḍāmaṅi.

2 Kohalamatam and Saṅgītasamayasāra

The common entries found in Kohalamatam and Saṅgītasamayasāra are presented in the following table:

Subject	Kohalamatam	Saṅgītasamayasāra
Anatomical origin of svaras	p.3 line18-20	p. 16 sl.41-42b
Reason for naming
svaras	p.4 line4-7	p.16 sl.44-p.17 sl.45
Rāga	p.11 line7-8	p.24 sl.58
Prabandha	p.21 line 6-8, 14-15, p.21 line17-p.22 line2, p.22 line3-8	p.24 sl.9c-10, sl.11c-12b, sl.13-15b,p.25 17c-19
Tāla / laya	p.23 line 10-11	p.76 s.15b-16a
101 Tālas list	p.24 line4 -p.25 line 14	p.76 s.24b-p.77 s.39
Kāla + Anga	p.25 line14-p.25 last line/ p.26 line2	p.75 s.2 - 5
Prastāra	p.26 line3 -p.26 line9	p.78 s.40 - 43a
101 Tālas–lakṣaṇa	p.26 line10 -p.43 line1	p.78 sl.40–p.79 sl.59 (only 29 tālas out of available 31 match)
Vaiṇika lakṣaṇam	p.61 line 9,10,12	p.44 sl.56cd, 57ab, 58ab
Nāṭya	p.62 line17-p.69 line7	p.57 sl.18-p.62 sl.78
Nāṭya	p.74 line5-6	p.74 sl.234
Nartaka lakṣaṇam	p.74 line 7-p.75 line 4	p.91 sl.154-162
Sabhāpati, Sabhā etc lakṣaṇam	p.78 line 1-p.79 line 9	p.80 sl.3-p.81 sl.17b

Most of the common material is on the subject of tāla and nāṭya. Like the case of Saṅgītacūḍāmaṅi, even Saṅgītasamayasāra does not include pāṭākṣaras while giving the lakṣaṇa of each tāla. In addition, we also find that the symbols for the aṅgas have been omitted. Another point is that though we do find quite a good amount of common material in these two works, the order in which they appear is random.

3 Kohalamatam and Saṅgītamakaranda 

The common entries found in Kohalamatam and Saṅgītamakaranda are presented in the table below:

Subject	Kohalamatam	Saṅgītamakaranda
Kohala Mataṅga Saṃvāda (Brahma Nārada)	p.13 line 5-8	p.14 sl. 4c - 6b
Morning rāgas	p.14 line19 -p.15 line6	p.15 sl.20-23
Pūrṇa rāgas according to Kohalamatam	p.15 line 18-p.16 line8	p.16 sl.27-32
Benefits of singing auḍava and ṣāḍava rāgas. Varieties of kampa	p.16 line18-p.17 line7	p.20 sl.80 -p.21 sl.85b
Rasa for rāga	p. 20 line 6-10	p.19 sl.63-65
Tāla	p.20 line 12-16	p.21 sl.86-88b
101 Tālas list	p.24 line4 -p.25 line 14	p.34 sl.3 -p.35 sl.16
Kāla	p.25 line 14 -17	p.43 sl 52,53
101 Tālas–lakṣaṇa	p.26 line10 -p.43 line1	p.35 sl.17 -p.39 sl.74b

The most striking common feature is the Kohala-Mataṅga saṃvāda. This is interesting because, the conversation as it appears in Kohalamatam and Kohalarahasyam, is seen verbatim in Saṅgītamakaranda also. The only difference is that the names of the two persons have been changed. In Kohalamatam and Kohalarahasyam what is depicted as a dialogue between Kohala and Mataṅga, is represented as one between Brahmā and Nārada in Saṅgītamakaranda.

4 Kohalamatam and Bṛhaddeśī and Mānasollāsa 

There are a few verses of Kohalamatam which match with parts of Bṛhaddeśī and Mānasollāsa. M. Ramakrishna Kavi has made notes in the margin of the Kohalamatam manuscript indicating some of these portions.

Subject	Kohalamatam	Other granthas
Rāga and Rasa & Places of origin of svaras in the body	p.5 line 2 - 10	Bṛhaddeśī–Ch. sl.79 -82
Rāga	p.11 line 1–17	Bṛhaddeśī Ch.3-sl.267
Vādya	p. 55 line 17-18	Mānasollāsa sl.586c- 587b

5 Kohalamatam and Saṅgītanārāyaṇa

There is a portion of common material found in Kohalamatam and Saṅgītanārāyaṇa of Puruṣottama Miśrā. This relates to the classification of rāgas under the heads sūryāṃśa and candramāṃśa rāgas based on the time in which they are to be sung. Saṅgītanārāyaṇa frequently refers to a work of Kohala titled Kohalīyam and the above mentioned material is also ascribed to the same work. The details on this topic have been dealt with in chapter 2 (ref. para 2.1.9.6.1). This really appears to be the only case where a match is found between the unpublished sources and the references to Kohala in published works.

6 Kohalamatam and Svaratālādilakṣaṇam

Svaratālādilakṣaṇam is an unpublished work of an unknown author, which deals with gīta and nāṭya in detail. The manuscripts of Svaratālādilakṣaṇam are available at Kariavattom (ORI Tvm). This work has been analyzed in depth by Girija Easwaran for her M. Phil research project^[3], according to whom the text of Svaratālādilakṣaṇam and Kohalamatam were more or less a perfect match. She is also of the opinion that Kohalamatam is not a separate work, but just an incomplete form of Svaratālādilakṣaṇam. But the existence of a work titled Kohalamatam can be confirmed from a reference of the same in an unpublished work called Nāṭyasarvasvadīpikā of Nārāyaṇa Śivayogin. Girija Easwaran’s project also gives information about two other works viz. Saṅgīstavidhikaḷ and Tālalakṣaṇam, both of which have a lot of common material with Svaratālādilakṣaṇam. 

Excepting a few instances such as the Kohala-Mataṅga-saṃvāda, almost the entire textual material of Kohalamatam is found verbatim in Svaratālādilakṣaṇam. Only, the order of appearance of the text is very haphazard. Both of these works also have the same Malayālam commentary. It is noteworthy that Svaratālādilakṣaṇam in itself, is incomplete, and appears to be a part of a larger work. And Kohalamatam seems to be but a part of this, and Kohalarahasyam is a small part of Kohalamatam. The portions in Svaratālādilakṣaṇam, which do not find place in Kohalamatam are as follows. 

These readings are based on Girija Easwaran’s edition of this work.

S.No	Relevant portions in Svaratālādilakṣaṇam (Line No.)	Subject
i.	1-30	Nāda, Classification of nāda
ii.	31- 61	Śruti, Svara, Aṣṭa vargas?
iii.	62–77	Anatomical origin of svaras
iv.	133-146	Attributes to svaras like colours, celestial beings etc
v.	187-191	66 śrutis
vi.	226	33 alaṅkāras
vii.	227-239	Grāma, Mūrcchana
viii.	240-253	Importance of Gīta
ix.	295-557	Rāga lakṣaṇam
x.	558	Kriyāvara lakṣaṇam
xi.	559-560	Sughaṭa lakṣaṇam
xii.	561-562	Susan ca lakṣaṇam
xiii.	563-564	Śīkarṣa lakṣaṇam
xiv.	565-566	Rasikagāyaka lakṣaṇam
xv.	567-568	Bhāvaka lakṣaṇam
xvi.	569-570	Svabhāvakṛti lakṣaṇam
xvii.	571-572	Devakṛti lakṣaṇam
xviii.	573-575	Trinetrakṛti lakṣaṇam
xix.	576-577	101 Deśi rāgas
xx.	578-597	List of 7 gamakas and their lakṣaṇam
xxi.	600-614	Laya, Graha, Yati
xxii.	619-622	Pan cajāti lakṣaṇam
xxiii.	623–636	Atijaghanya, Madhyama, Uttama, Uttamottama lakṣaṇam
xxiv.	637-653	Sūḍa and Ela lakṣaṇam
xxv.	654-667	Saptagītikā lakṣaṇam
xxvi.	668-675	Śruti Aṅgas
xxvii.	676-688	10 Gīta prāṇas
xxviii.	745-752	Vādya
xxix.	826-872	Qualifications of an instrumentalist
xxx.	873-888	Continuation of Rāga lakṣaṇam
xxxi.	889	Ran jaka lakṣaṇam
xxxii.	890-891	Pararīti lakṣaṇam
xxxiii.	892-893	Sugandha lakṣaṇam
xxxiv.	894-895	Niyama lakṣaṇam
xxxv.	896-897	Āḷaptigāyaka lakṣaṇam
xxxvi.	898-899	Rūpakagāyaka lakṣaṇam
xxxvii.	900-901	Copaṭa lakṣaṇam
xxxviii.	902-903	Vitāla lakṣaṇam
xxxix.	904-905	Vibandha lakṣaṇam
xl.	906-907	Miśra lakṣaṇam
xli.	889-907	10 grāhyagāyaka lakṣaṇam
xlii.	908-933	Nindya gāyaka lakṣaṇam
xliii.	934-942	Vāggeyakāra lakṣaṇam
xliv.	943-950	Kavitākāra lakṣaṇam
xlv.	951-954	Doṣas?
xlvi.	955-960	Vaiṇika lakṣaṇam
xlvii.	973-977	16 Dhruvas
xlviii.	978-979	Mārga
xlix.	980	Āvāpādi Kriyās
l.	981-982	Gāya (?)
li.	983-984	Ṭhāya Lakṣaṇam
lii.	1000-1017	Dance
liii.	1111-1123	Vāggeyakāra Lakṣaṇam
liv.	1124- 1156	101 Tālas
lv.	1212-1265	Tālas explanation
lvi.	1273-1277	Vyoma, Bindu, Druta
lvii.	1289-1319	Tāla praśaṃsā, Khaṇḍa recita, Marma tāla–Lakṣaṇam
lviii.	1320-1321	List of rāgas, Miscellaneous subjects–Graha, Mārga, yati, Ārohī, Avarohī etc.
lix.	1324-1325	Pañcāṅga lakṣaṇam
lx.	1381-1395	Vīṇā Mahattvam

It is clear from the above table that many important chapters such as grāma, prabandha, rāga lakṣaṇa, gamakas and many such like, which are available in Svaratālādilakṣaṇam, are missing in Kohalamatam. 

One noteworthy point here is the mention of the sixty six śrutis. 

The very same verse which is found in Bṛhaddeśī (and later in Saṅgītasamayasāra also) as a quotation of Kohala, is found in Svaratālādilakṣaṇam also.

द्वाविंशतिं केचिदुदाहरन्ति श्रुतिं श्रुतिज्ञानविचारदक्षाः ।(१८७)
षट्षष्टिभिन्नाः खलु केचिदासामानन्त्यमेव प्रतिपादयन्ति ॥ (१८८)

dvāviṃśatiṃ kecidudāharanti śrutiṃ śrutijñānavicāradakṣāḥ |(187)
ṣaṭṣaṣṭibhinnāḥ khalu kecidāsāmānantyameva pratipādayanti || (188)

—A study of three unpublished texts—Svaratālādi-lakṣaṇa [Svaratālādilakṣaṇam], Saṅgītavidhikal and Tāla-lakṣaṇa [Tālalakṣaṇam]: 2001: Lines 187-188

This does not find a place in the manuscript of Kohalamatam (T-822).

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

The manuscripts P-105/1 and P-1298/1 are given under the title Saṅgītacūḍāmaṇi in the descriptive catalogue. In actuality, these manuscripts contain material of works like Bharatārṇava, Saṅgītasudhākara, Abhinayadarpaṇam, Bṛhaspatidarpaṇam etc.

[2]:

Kohalamatam: ORI Tvm: Acc No. T822: Fol.55

[3]:

A study of three unpublished texts—Svaratālādilakṣaṇam, Saṅgītavidhikal and Tālalakṣaṇam: 2001