Part 1(a).6 - Title and Author of Kohalamatam

The manuscript catalogue gives the name of this work to be Kohalamatam. But, there is no colophon or any other reference in the manuscript to support this view. One probable reason for this work being assigned the title Kohalamatam is found within the work itself. In the section called Kohala-Mataṅga-saṃvada, Sage Mataṅga asks Kohala some questions for which Kohala replies. In this spirit, the material in this work could have been assumed to be Kohala’s opinions and views on several aspects of saṅgīta which might have led to the title becoming Kohalamatam. The content of Kohalamatam, on examination is seen to be more or less same as Svaratālādilakṣaṇam. In fact, Girija Easwaran treats Kohalamatam only as an abridged version of Svaratālādilakṣaṇam. However, in the text of Svaratālādilakṣaṇam, the Kohala-Mataṅga saṃvāda is not to be found. It is possible that during cataloguing, this particular section of Kohala-Mataṅga saṃvāda was noted, which led to the naming of this work as Kohalamatam. But the name Kohalamatam has been in use for some time, and this can be gathered from V. Raghavan’s observations on a treatise called Nāṭyasarvasvadīpikā^[1]. In this work there are references to Kohalamatam in the tāla section. Therefore, the title Kohalamatam has been in existence for some time. The same though, cannot be said about Svaratālādilakṣaṇam whose abridgement Kohalamatam is supposed to be. So, it could probably be said that Svaratālādilakṣaṇam is a generic title given to this work, perhaps during the process of cataloguing. This might not be the actual title of this work, Also, Svaratālādilakṣaṇam could be a larger, more complete version of Kohalamatam. 

In the very title is an obvious reference to Kohala as the author of this work which is also substantiated by a specific mention in the title page of the manuscript T822. It has been discussed above that the Kohala-Mataṅga saṃvāda is probably one reason for this work having the title Kohalamatam and therefore as a consequence Kohala as the author. For this very reason, it can be argued that Kohala would not have been the author of this work. The reason for this lies in the Kohala-Mataṅga saṃvāda itself. Mataṅga requests Kohala to explain certain musical facts to him to which Kohala obliges. The whole narration seems to be done by a third party and not by Kohala himself. This could be an indication that Kohala is not the author of this work. Further, the title Kohalamatam itself appears to be indicative that this work is a compilation of the views of the Kohala school. 

Another possibility is that this work is a compilation of many lakṣaṇagranthas and was passed under the name of Kohala in order for the work to gain prominence in the field.