ANTHROPOMORPHISM IN NORTH INDIAN RAGAS; A BRIEF STUDY OF ITS GENDER REPRESENTATION: WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO RAGA DHYANA VERSES.

Author: G. K. Subhash

Abstract

Ancient Indian musicians and poets tried to illustrate the musical nature of North Indian Ragas, composing some Sanskrit poems including the major characteristics of those Ragas, which are called as Raga Dhyana Poems. The main objective of this study was to understand about the Gender Characters depicted in Raga Dhyana poems through the anthropological concept of ‘Anthropomorphism’. Mainly this study was done under the qualitative approach. Reviewing Books and Printed Materials, Listening to Audio Clips and referring some websites were Data Collection Methods. According to the sample, it can be seen that ‘Gender Diversity’ is the most essential part of Raga Dhyana poems.  Accordingly, each raga represents a unique female or male character. When a raga has been anthropomorphized as a male character in Raga Dhyana verses, there are few facts that can be identified as special features of masculinity such as war-heroism, romance, playfulness and meditativeness. When a raga has been anthropomorphized as a female character in Dhyana verses, it can be seen that physical beauty, variety in dress and romance, devotion to God or love and sadness were highly described. It seems that these verses have been based on varies expectations and character traits of people in Contemporary societies, both worldly and transcendental. Considering the above facts, it is known that the Raga Dhyana Poems of North Indian Ragas have unique characteristics of Anthropomorphism.

Keywords: Anthropomrphism, Gender Depiction, North Indian Ragas, Raga Dhyana Poems

How to Cite: Subhash, G., 2023. Anthropomorphism in North Indian Ragas; A Brief Study of its Gender Representation: With Special Reference to Raga Dhyana Verses. ‘Pumithiri e-journal of Gender Studies, 2(1), pp.3-12. 

 

Published on 08 Mar 2023