Mia Tonsine, a wonderful musician in the time of the Emperor Akber, sang
one of the _night-rags_ at mid-day. The power of the music was such that
it instantly became night, and the darkness extended in a circle round
the palace as far as the sound of the voice could be heard. Rags are
characteristic songs composed in certain modes or scales; and each Rag
is appropriated to a distinct season, in which alone it must be sung or
played at prescribed hours of the day or night; for, over each of the
six Rags, or kinds of compositions, presides a certain god, who presides
likewise over the six seasons. The six seasons are: _Seesar_, the dewy
season; _Heemat_, the cold season; _Vasant_, the mild season, or spring;
_Greesshma_, the hot season; _Varsa_, the rainy season; and _Sarat_, the
breaking-up, or end of the rains.[10]
Whoever shall attempt to sing the Rag _Dheepuck_ (or "Cupid the
Inflamer") is to be destroyed by fire. The Emperor Akber ordered Naik
Gopaul, a celebrated musician, to sing that Rag. Naik Gopaul endeavoured
to excuse himself, but in vain; the Emperor insisted on obedience. The
unhappy musician therefore requested permission to go home, and to bid
farewell to his family and friends. It was winter when he returned,
after an absence of six months. Before he began to sing he placed
himself in the waters of the Jumna till they reached his neck. As soon
as he had performed a strain or two the river gradually became hot; at
length it began to boil, and the agonies of the unhappy musician were
nearly insupportable. Suspending for a moment the melody thus cruelly
extorted, he sued for mercy from the monarch, but sued in vain. Akber
wished to prove more strongly the powers of the Rag _Dheepuck_. Naik
Gopaul renewed the fatal song: flames burst with violence from his body,
which, though immersed in the waters of the Jumna, was consumed to
ashes.
The effect produced by the Rag called _Maig Mullaar_ is immediate rain.
It is told that a singing girl once, by exerting the powers of her voice
in this Rag, drew from the clouds timely and refreshing showers on the
parched rice-crops of Bengal, and thereby averted the horrors of famine
from the "Paradise of Regions," as the province of Bengal is sometimes
called.
Sir William Ouseley, who obtained these traditions, it would appear,
from oral communication, states that they are related by many of the
Hindus, and implicitly believed by some. However, on inquiring of the
people whether there are still musical performers among them who can
produce effects similar to those recorded, one is gravely told that the
art is now almost lost, but that there are still musicians possessed of
miraculous powers in the west of Hindustan; and if one inquires in the
west, they say that should any such musicians remain, they must be found
in Bengal.[11]
A reliable collection of Hindu traditions relating to music might,
probably, be suggestive and valuable to the musical historian,
especially if he examined them with reference to the myths of the
ancient Egyptians and Greeks.