A sage (muni) in ancient Indian legend. Matanga was the putative author of the Brhaddeśī, a Sanskrit verse and prose work on music composed, or compiled from earlier sources (including many now lost), probably before 900 ce. Its stated aim is to bring a comprehensive account of deśī (‘regional’ or ‘provincial’) music into line with the theoretical norms of what was already an established system as seen in Bharata's Nātyaśāstra. It is thus an interesting early example of musical and musicological documentation. Nothing is known for certain about the circumstances of its composition. Recent scholarly examination of the text, which has attempted to restore some of the missing passages from quotations in other early Sanskrit treatises, suggests some textual corruption and contamination in the form in which we have it. Thus the Delhi edition and translation, while representing an improvement on the earlier Trivandrum text, must still be read with caution. The work is nonetheless highly important in the history of Indian music-theoretical texts principally because it is the first extant source describing a detailed system of rāga, which it classifies according to scalar and melodic type; some limited information is given about the stylistic and functional aspects of some of these basic melodic structures. Some sections of the original work are now lost, including parts of the chapter on compositional forms and the information on musical instruments. The Brhaddeśī, however, preserves a considerable number of important notated musical examples (Widdess, 1995, 125–42) and the first detailed listing and typology of secular song forms (Rowell, 1992). A volume of new critical essays on the text and its contents was due to be published in Delhi, at the beginning of the 21st century.
See also India, §II, 2(i)(a).
G.H. Tarlekar: Studies in the Nātyaśāstra, with Special Reference to the Sanskrit Drama in Performance (Delhi, 1975, 2/1991)
A.B. Vyohar: Matangakrt Brhaddeśī kā adhyayan (diss., Banaras Hindu U., 1985)
L. Rowell: ‘The Prabandhas in Matanga's Brhaddeśī’, The Traditional Indian Theory of Music and Dance, ed. J. Katz (Leiden, 1992), 107–41
R. Widdess: The Rāgas of Early Indian Music (Oxford, 1995)
JONATHAN KATZ