Indian dancing

THE LANGUAGE OF GESTURES

vising various thekas, or expressions, with his palms, fingers, or sometimes even his elbows or with sticks. Two dozen f¢a/as ate popular to-day, each having from three to sixteen watras, ot subdivisions and, in South Indian music, as many as twenty-nine.

The raga is a group of notes — rather than a scale in the Western sense — but not quite a melody. Ragas are meant to create certain moods and are divided into male and female tunes. There are six ragas, ot male tunes, each accompanied by five raginis, or female tunes, and each possessing eight pufras, or sons, with a bharya, or wife, apiece. In south Indian music, thete ate seventy-two major ragas and many minor ones.

In a work of the present length it is not possible to deal fully with the subject of Indian music. Suffice it to say that Indian music is, in age, younger only than dancing. Its history goes back to two thousand B.c. It shares one thing in common with natya: it, too, has its origin in religion, and each of the seven basic notes is supposed to be presided over by a deity.

The religious quality of Indian music is still preserved in the south, but in north Indian music it has been neglected since the Moghul invasion. When music, singing, and dancing blend in harmony in an appropriate setting, the aharyya abhinaya is complete for a urtya performance.

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