Musical trees and rivers?

[Bharat Gupt]

mohkam wrote:
> Dear Christian,
> The points made by Bharata Gupta and Stephen Hodge are certainly
> intersting, but if Christian 'insists' that his passage represents a "list
> of what ought to be various types of instrumental music (vaadya)", a
> Skt-musicological approach is in order.

No music related shastra, as far as I can remember, uses
' vanaspati' as a synonym for daaravii, the harp. Unless
we regard this (Christian's material) as the only instance.

For a fair guess to ammendations it is necessary that the whole passage
with its context is revealed with the identity of the text
and its likely date.

After all, there is a whole history of the change in meaning for the same
musical terms from the Natyasastra to Pt. Bhatkhande and the even later
interpreters like Acharya Brhaspati, a period of more than two thousand years.

Then, there is a history of musical terms used in yogic and philosphophic
context. Lexicons like Amar onwards are all a part of this development.
Lexicons take words from shastras not the other way round.

May be Christian does not want to share more at this moment. Bhavatu.
best,
Bharat Gupt,  Associate Professor, Delhi University
PO Box 8518, Ashok Vihar, Delhi 110052  INDIA
tel 91-11-724 1490, fax 741-5658, email: bharatgupt at vsnl.com