Part 1(a).7 - Date of Kohalamatam

Due to the unknown identity of the author of Kohalamatam and the lack of any proper colophon, the date of this work has to be fixed purely through the available internal evidences. References to Dattila and Mataṅga are found while discussing tāla and rāga respectively. 

In fact there is a quotation from Bṛhaddeśi on the subject of rāga with a specific mention of the name of Mataṅga. 

मतङ्गः—रागमार्गस्य यद्रूपं यन्नोक्तं भरतादिभिः । निरूप्यते तस्माभिर्लक्ष्यलक्षणसंयुतम् ॥

mataṅgaḥ—rāgamārgasya yadrūpaṃ yannoktaṃ bharatādibhiḥ | nirūpyate tasmābhirlakṣyalakṣaṇasaṃyutam ||

—This quotation from Mataṅga is found in Fol. 11 of the manuscript of Kohalamatam (T822). The same verse is also seen in Bṛhaddeśī of Śrī Mataṅgamuni: 1994: p.76

This would imply that this work was written post-Mataṅga, i.e. post 7th century C.E.

In the chapter discussing vādya, there is a mention of Pratāpa i.e. Jagadekamalla, the author of Saṅgītacūḍāmaṅi. Further, Kohalamatam contains excerpts from other works like Saṅgītamakaranda and Saṅgītasamayasāra. Saṅgītasamayasāra belonged to the 12th century C.E. Based on this it can be surmised that Kohalamatam was written post 12th century C.E. Regarding Saṅgītamakaranda, the date of its emergence has been under some debate. While some scholars like M. Ramakrishna Telang date it before Śārṅgadeva^[1], others claim it to be between 12th and 14th century C.E. The custom of including only gīta and vādya in the definition of Saṅgīta (as opposed to the earlier view of ‘gītam vādyam nṛtyam trayam saṅgītamucyate’) was started by lakṣaṇagranthas such as Rāgatatvavibodha of Śrīnivāsa and Saṅgītapārijāta of Ahobala in the 16th century C.E. Since Saṅgītamakaranda also follows this trend, it can be said that Saṅgītamakaranda also belongs to a period around the 15th -16th Century C.E. This in turn would mean that the earliest Kohalamatam could have existed around the 16th century C.E. If this work does belong to the vicinity of the 16th century C.E., it is indeed very strange that there is no mention of Śārṅgadeva or any information that has been taken from Saṅgītaratnākara.

V. Raghavan says that the work Kohalamatam has been referred to in the context of tāla, in a work called Nāṭyasarvasvadīpikā^[2] (which is also called Ādibharata) by Nārāyaṇa Śivayogin. The date of this work is unknown. But this work refers to other lakṣaṇagranthas such as Saṅgīta-vidyā-vinoda, Tālakalāvilāsam, Saṅgītamaṇidarpaṇam, Saṅgītārṇava etc. which incidentally are also mentioned in the work Tālakalābdhi of Acyutarāya. Since this work belongs to the 16th century C.E., the above mentioned works might have also existed around the same time. This too supports the theory that Kohalamatam existed in the vicinity of the 16th century C.E.

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

Saṅgītamakaranda:1920: Intro: p. x

[2]:

Collected writings on Indian Music: 2007: Vol. II: p.249