Natyacudamani of Somanarya (With A Telugu Commentary)

Book Specification

Book Description

About the Book

The Natyacudamani of Somanarya is an unpublished musicological work written in Sanskrit and is accompanied by a Telugu commentary. The author of this work is Astavadana Somanarya who is said to have lived during the reign of King Acyutarya of the Vijayanagara Empire (1540 AD). The Telugu commentary seems to belong to a later period. The present edition is brought out with the help of fifteen manuscripts. Though the title reads Natyacudamani, the available text mainly consists of chapter of Gita and Vidya and only a few verses relate to Natya. Somanaryas work presents some of the traditional musicological views in a tangential manner and it has made a strong influence on many later works of South India.

Foreword

The origin of texts in performing arts in India can be traced to Natyasastra, It is a magnum opus that inspired later scholars and experts to write on different art forms like drama, music, dance, painting etc. Its influence on later writings on art all over India, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from Gujarat to Assam is indisputable.

Sixteenth century in Indian history has been a period of extreme intellectual activity. Literary works in all forms, be it creative literature or theoretical works on criticism, artistic genres etc. were written during this period in different languages. Natyacudamani is one such work of sixteenth century which is attributed to Somanarya. The extant manuscripts of this work contain three chapters dealing with Natya, gita and vadya. The editor of this text feels that the original name of the work must have been Natyacudamani and the chapter on Gita or probably the commentary of this chapter was called Svararagasudharasa. She also feels that Sangitaratnakara was a additional title given to this work and that the text originally must have been called Natyacudamani. This is a work in Sanskrit with Telugu commentary but the commentary might have been composed at a later date and might not have been a part of the original text.

The present critical edition has been done on the basis of fifteen manuscripts some of them on palm leaf and others on paper. Three scripts, Devanagari, Telugu and Grantha have been found which are a proof of the popularity of this text as well as the wide geographical area in which it must have been read. This text has been extensively quoted in later works of music.

Dr. V. Premlatha is suitably equipped to edit such text, with her training in music as also the knowledge of Sanskrit language. She has done this work with due diligence and used a large number of manuscripts to critically edit the work of Somanarya.

The National Mission for Manuscripts is happy to present to the scholarly