Pancha Marapu
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pancha Marapu (Tamil: பஞ்சமரபு pañcamarapu) is a 10th-century Tamil treatise on musical theory, written by Aṟivaṉār. The work is one of the isaittamiḻ texts referred to in Atiyarkkunallar's commentary on the Silappadhikaram. There is also a view it predates silappadikaram as silappadikaram refers to it ; so is devara pann methodology. Although it was long believed to be lost, a manuscript was discovered in the latter half of the twentieth century, and partially published in 1973.[1] A revised edition has since been published.[2]
The text deals with the music, musical instruments and percussion instruments (muḻavu)[3] of that period, and enumerates nine divisions of Tamil music, namely, cindu, cavalai, tiripatai, camapātaviruttam, centuṟai, veṇṭuṟai, peruntēvappāṇi, ciruntēvappāṇi, and vaṇṇam. [4]
