Part 7 - Summary

On an examination of the works attributed to Kohala, it can be seen that none of these works have been authored by Kohala-the contemporary of Bharata. In fact, many of these, though have been ascribed to Kohala, have actually been composed by other authors. For instance, Dattilakohalīyam is a work that has been paraphrased from Śarṅgadeva’s Saṅgītaratnākara, Tālalakṣaṇam has been composed by King Acyutarāya of the Vijayanagara empire, Bharataśāstram is a codex containing many works (of Pratāpa Jagadekamalla, Rāmāmātya, Acyutarāya and an unknown author). In the case of the work Abhinayaśāstram, the manuscript is not available. The work Kauhalīyaśikṣā is a work on phonetics. It does not appear to have much of a link to Kohala. The only works that have some claim to an association with Kohala are Kohalarahasyam and Kohalamatam. These works represent ‘A Kohala’. But it does not appear that they are referring to ‘The Kohala’—who was the contemporary of Bharata. At best, it can be construed that this work was one of a medieval author, who happened to be called Kohala. It is unfortunate that, not one of these works that have been attributed to Kohala, in reality represent him.