388 BENGALI LITERATURE eroticism connotes wanton or ribald sensuality. Tappa, however, is a technical term which denotes, like dhrupad and s‘heyal, a specific mode or style of musical .composition, lighter, ‘briefer yet more variegated. Etymologically derived from a Hindi word which means ‘ tripping ’ or ‘frisking about’ with the light fantastic toe, a tappa means a little song of a light nature.! It is more condensed than dhrupad and kheyal, having only asthiyi and antara, and certainly more lively. Being essentially a specific style of musical composition, songs of all sorts, erotic, devotional or otherwise, may be composed in 7118 this style; but it was suited by its quality and impor- ; tance. very nature for lighter love-songs and in Bengali at least it had established itself peculiarly and principally for that purpose. As its name implies and its history shows, the tappa is not indi- genous but it was imported from abroad. It deals with the “ minor facts ” of art unable by its form and nature to compass the “ major ”: but it has a distinct value as an entirely novel mode of art and as a_ protest against the conventional literary tradition. When Nidhu began to sing—and Nidhu Babu is the earliest important tappa-writer of whom we have any record—we have, on the one hand, the dictatorship of Bharat Chandra and of Ram-prasad, A new trend in song- on the other, the flourishing period literature. of Kabi-poctry and other forms of
1 See Joge$ Chandra Ray, Bangala Sabda-koga under tappa. In Sangit tansen (1299 B. S., pp. 66-69) two styles of musical composition are mentioned—Dhrupad and Rangin gan; under dhrupad there are 24 varieties while Ragin gan is of 50 kinds. Kheyal and ¢appa are said to be varieties of the latter class. In Sangit-rag-kalpadrwm by Krsnananda Byas (Sahitya Parisat ed. 1916, vol. III, p. 294), Nidhu Babu’s tappas are comprised under Bargala Ragin Gan. Tappa, unlike Kabi, 1৯677807517 or Yatra, was essentially Baithaki gan (or songs for the drawing room) which was appreciated chiefly, if not wholly, by the upper classes.
