Part 3.1 - Manuscript Details of the Tālalakṣaṇa

Works dedicated to the subject of tāla are known only from 16th century onwards. Titles such as Tālacandrika of Virūpākṣa, Tāladaśaprāṇapradīpikā of Polūri Govinda Kavi etc. dealing exclusively with the technical details of tāla can be found in this period. Tāladaśaprāṇa is a concept that came into currency around this time and many lakṣaṇagranthas such as Saṅgītasūryodaya of Lakṣmīnārāyaṇa, Saṅgītadarpaṇa of Dāmodara, Rasakaumudī of Śrīkaṇṭha, Saṅgītapārijāta of Ahobala, Saṅgītamakaranda of Nārada, which dealt with this subject emerged during this period (16th-17th century C.E.). Tālalakṣaṇam is one such work dealing with the Tāladaśaprāṇas. The text is in verse form in Saṃskṛta and has a Telugu commentary.

Tālalakṣaṇa is a general title that has been given to quite a number of manuscripts. The manuscripts that share common material with with the ‘Tālalakṣaṇam’ attributed to Kohala are alone taken for consideration here. They are four in number. Three of these are available in the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Chennai and one in Sri Venkateswara Oriental Research Institute, Tirupati.

S.No.	Title	Name of Library	Acc. No	PL/Paper
i.	Tālalakṣaṇam	GOML	D12992	PL
ii.	Tālalakṣaṇam	GOML	R7979 (Restored copy of D12992)	Paper
iii.	Tālalakṣaṇam—Kohalīyaṭīkā	ORI-SVU	R452	PL
iv.	Bharataśāstram	GOML	R 20175/ SR 8893	PL

Tālalakṣaṇam D12992 is a palm leaf manuscript consisting of 259 folios which is available in the GOML, Chennai. This manuscript is generally in good condition. Some leaves are found to have been moth-eaten. The text has been written in telugu script and the handwriting is legible and clear. The title of the work has been given as “tālalakṣaṇam āndhraṭīkāsahitam”.

Tālalakṣaṇam R7979 is a paper manuscript consisting of 193 folios which is available in the GOML, Chennai. According to the colophon in the front page of the manuscript, it has been restored in 1948-49 from D12992 by one T. A. Varadachari, Madras. The manuscript is in excellent condition and the handwriting is very clear. The title of the work is given as “tālalakṣaṇam āndhraṭīkāsahitam”. The mūla text has been written in Devanāgari script and the Ṭīkā in telugu script.

Tālalakṣaṇam-Kohalīyaṭīkā R452 is a palm leaf manuscript available in the ORI-SVU, Tirupati. This manuscript is in good condition. The text has been written in Telugu script. This codex contains more than one work, of which Tālalakṣaṇam is the first and appears upto Folio No. 23a. The content of this manuscript matches with that of D12992 and R7979, but is not complete. The text ends with the portion preceding prastāra. The following colophon can be found in Fol.23a. This gives us the details of the scribe—Ālavelli Annappa.

इति मरि तऌअदशप्राणालु—ई ताऌआध्यायम् संपूर्णङ्गा व्याख्यान पूर्वङ्गा श्री रामचन्द्रुनि अर्पितङ्गा व्रासेनु. आलवेल्लि अन्नप्प व्रासिनाडु. पूर्व प्रति सम्प्रदायम्चुन्नारु.

Iti mari taḷadaśaprāṇālu—Ī tāḷādhyāyam saṃpūrṇaṅgā vyākhyāna pūrvaṅgā śrī rāmacandruni arpitaṅgā vrāsenu. Ālavelli annappa vrāsināḍu. Pūrva prati sampradāyamcunnāru.^[1]

Bharataśāstram R 20175/ SR 8893 is a palm leaf manuscript found in the GOML, Chennai. The catalogue gives us the title—bharataśāstram whereas the cover of the manuscript bears the title Nāṭyaśāstram. According to the catalogue, this manuscript contains 324 folios, but only 232 are available now. Most leaves are badly eaten and some are broken. The text is written in Telugu script. There are page numbers in telugu script in most folios. But some are blurred/ eaten/ broken. A few folios have numbering with roman numerals. 

This manuscript contains the following works:

i. Svaramelakalānidhi of Rāmāmātya

Bharataśāstram contains all the chapters of Svaramelakalānidhi namely—Upodghāta prakaraṇam, Svara prakaraṇam, Vīṇā prakaraṇam, Mela prakaraṇam and Rāga prakaraṇam, between folios 47(?) and 61. Almost the entire text is available in order though a little portion of Tālalakṣaṇam is found in between.

ii. Saṅgītacūḍāmaṇi of Jagadekamalla 

There is a portion on nṛtya between the folios 176 and 188. It begins with “karaṇaṃ nāmaṃ tadbhavet hastapāda samāyogam | karaṇaṃ munayo vadan | …..” and ends with the following colophon “iti śrī mahārājādhirāja śrīmatpratāpacakravarti jagadekamallaviracite saṅgītacaḍāmaṇau nṛtyadhikaraṇaṃ samāptam || “The folios that preceed 176 as well as those that follow Fol. No. 188 contain material of the work Tālalakṣaṇam. This portion on nṛtya appears in the middle.

Topics such as 108 karaṇas, 32 aṅgahāras, recita, añcita, nṛtya praśamsā, sabhāpati-lakṣaṇa, sabhya-lakṣaṇa, sabhā-lakṣaṇa, gāyaka lakṣaṇam, vādya-lakṣaṇa, nartaka-lakṣaṇa have been dealt with. The name of Pratāpa occurs twice in this portion. Based on this, and the colophon that clearly mentions the name of Pratāpa Jagadekamalla and the title of the work Saṅgītacūḍāmaṇi it can be said that this portion is the nṛtya chapter of Saṅgītacūḍāmaṇi. It is noteworthy that the nṛtya chapter is not found in the printed edition or the manuscripts of Saṅgītacūḍāmaṇi. 

iii. Unknown work(s)

The contents of an unknown work(s) are also to be found in the manuscript of Bharataśāstram. It is found scattered in the beginning of the manuscript It contains information of tāla, rāga, rasa etc.

iv. Tālalakṣaṇam 

The text of Tālalakṣaṇam is spread over the entire manuscript. The other works appear to be scattered in between. Bharataśāstram has almost the entire text of Tālalakṣaṇam. The text begins around the 65a-69a folio (Telugu Folio No.s). The number on this folio is partially eaten and therefore not very clear. The remaining text can be found upto Folio No. 253 (Telugu Folio No.s). However, some (around 20) folios are missing here and there. The folios are in haphazard order and hence the text too. But most of the text is intact and tallies with the readings in R7979. The commentary found in R7979 and Bharataśāstram also appear to be the same.

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

The usage of the word ‘sampradāyaṃcunnāru’ in the colophon does not appear to be correct.