Musical Scales: Thāṭ and Rāga - II
[This continues part I of the article, starting with the pentatonic scales of Indian music].
II.C.
PENTATONIC Scales of Indian Classical Music:
Pentatonic
scales are more widespread than hexatonic scales. The musical systems of
the Far East, for example, typically mainly have pentatonic scales.
1.
Intervals: 222 33 (2 interval patterns, 6 scales):
SCALE
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
22233
|
||
Vīṇāvādinī
|
SRG PnŚ
|
22 332
|
22323
|
||
Bhūp
|
SRG PDŚ
|
22 323
|
MadhmādSāraṅg
|
SRM PnŚ
|
23 232
|
Mālkauns
|
SgM dnŚ
|
32 322
|
Durgā
|
SRM PDŚ
|
23 223
|
ŚuddhaDhanyāsī
|
SgM PnŚ
|
32 232
|
2.
Intervals: 11 2 44 (3 interval patterns, 9 scales):
SCALE
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
12144
|
||
Jhilāf
|
SGM PdŚ
|
41 214
|
14124
|
||
BhūpālToḍī
|
Srg PdŚ
|
12 414
|
Vaijayantī
|
SRm PNŚ
|
24 141
|
KhamājīDurgā
|
SGM DnŚ
|
41 412
|
Gambhīranāṭa
|
SGM PNŚ
|
41 241
|
14142
|
||
Līlāvatī
|
SRg PdŚ
|
21 414
|
Bhinnaṣaḍja
|
SGM DNŚ
|
41 421
|
Guṇakali
|
SrM PdŚ
|
14 214
|
Amṛtavarṣiṇī
|
SGm PNŚ
|
42 141
|
3.
Intervals: 1 22 3 4 (9 interval patterns, 22 scales):
SCALE
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
12234
|
||
Cittākarṣiṇī
|
Srg MdŚ
|
12 234
|
Haṁsadhvanī
|
SRG PNŚ
|
22 341
|
Guhamanoharī
|
SRM DnŚ
|
23 412
|
Nāgasvarālī
|
SGM PDŚ
|
41 223
|
12324
|
||
ChāyāToḍī
|
Srg mdŚ
|
12 324
|
KāfīCandrakauns
|
SgM DnŚ
|
32 412
|
ŚrīKalyāṇ
|
SRm PDŚ
|
24 123
|
12342
|
||
Dhavalaśrī
|
SGm PDŚ
|
42 123
|
Rasarañjanī
|
SRM DNŚ
|
23 421
|
AuḍavTukhārī
|
SRg MdŚ
|
21 234
|
12432
|
||
Kalāvatī
|
SGP DnŚ
|
43 212
|
Abhogī
|
SRg MDŚ
|
21 243
|
13224
|
||
Madhurañjanī
|
SgM PNŚ
|
32 241
|
13242
|
||
Sūryakauns
|
SgM DNŚ
|
32 421
|
Yoginī
|
SGm PnŚ
|
42 132
|
14232
|
||
BairāgīBhairav
|
SrM PnŚ
|
14 232
|
Śivarañjanī
|
SRg PDŚ
|
21 423
|
Śobhāvarī
|
SRM PdŚ
|
23 214
|
Hinḍol
|
SGm DNŚ
|
42 321
|
14322
|
||
KokilāPañcam
|
SgM PdŚ
|
32 214
|
Mamatā
|
SGP DNŚ
|
43 221
|
14223
|
||
Bhūpeśvarī
|
SRG PdŚ
|
22 314
|
4.
Intervals: 1 2 333 (3 interval patterns, 5 scales):
SCALE
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
12333
|
||
Harikauns
|
Sgm DnŚ
|
33 312
|
13233
|
||
Madhukauns
|
Sgm PnŚ
|
33 132
|
Candrakauns
(new)
|
SgM dNŚ
|
32 331
|
Devanandinī
|
SrG mDŚ
|
13 233
|
13323
|
||
Jait
|
SrG PDŚ
|
13 323
|
5.
Intervals: 11 33 4 (1 interval pattern, 2 scales):
SCALE
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
13314
|
||
Bibhās
|
SrG PdŚ
|
13 314
|
Girijā
|
SGM dNŚ
|
41 331
|
6.
Intervals: 1 222 5 (3 interval patterns, 5 scales):
SCALE
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
12252
|
||
AdbhutKalyāṇ
|
SRG DNŚ
|
22 521
|
Devrañjanī
|
SMP dnŚ
|
52 122
|
12225
|
||
Kumudki
|
SRG mNŚ
|
22 251
|
12522
|
||
Kuntalavarāli
|
SMP DnŚ
|
52 212
|
BudhaManoharī
|
SRG MPŚ
|
22 125
|
7.
Intervals: 11 2 3 5 (1 interval pattern, 1 scale):
SCALE
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
13152
|
||
Devarañjanī
|
SMP dNŚ
|
52 131
|
8.
Intervals: 111 3 6 (2 interval patterns, 2 scales):
SCALE
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
11316
|
||
Megharañjī
|
SrG MNŚ
|
13 161
|
13116
|
||
DeśaGauḍ
|
SrP dNŚ
|
16 131
|
II.D.
Other Scales of Indian Classical Music:
Before
going further, it must be noted that there are many rāgas which do not
fit into the list of heptatonic (7-note), hexatonic (6-note) and pentatonic
(5-note) thāṭs or scales given by us above even from the point of view
of notes. This is because the full scale of
a great many rāgas contains both forms of one or more notes so
that there can be more notes than 7 (our above list does not include such
scales except the Lalat-type heptatonic Mm scales, and the mainly
heptatonic Carnatic scales of the rR, gG, dD and nN
types).
As
we will see, some of the Arabic maqams have 8, 9 or 10 notes. In our
classification of the scales of Indian music, we have taken only heptatonic
(7-note), hexatonic (6-note) and pentatonic (5-note) scales. However, many rāgas
can have a set of more than 7 notes, having both forms of one or more notes,
these extra notes being ignored in the official thāṭ classification.
Many
rāgas have 8 notes with both forms of one note. Some examples:
SrRgM
PdnŚ: KomalDesī.
SRGM
PDnNŚ: AlhaiyāBilāval,
Soraṭh, Des.
SRgGM
PDNŚ: DevGandhār.
SRGMm
PDNŚ:
Bihāg, Kedār, Basant,
GauḍSāraṅg.
Many
rāgas have 9 notes with both forms of two notes. Some examples:
SRgGM
PDnNŚ: Jaijaivantī,
Nīlāmbarī, RāmdāsīMalhār.
SrRgGM
PdnŚ: LakṣmīToḍī.
Many
rāgas have 10 notes with both forms of three notes. One example:
SRgGM
PdDnNŚ: Janglā.
Another
version of a rāga named above has 11 notes with both forms of four
notes:
SrRgGM
PdDnNŚ: LakṣmīToḍī.
While
this brings into focus a great many rāgas with more than 7 notes, it may
be noted that there are also many rāgas which would be classified as
5-note or 6-note rāgas, which would not fit into our earlier list of
scales, because they likewise have both forms of a note. Some examples of such
"pentatonic" scales with 6 notes:
SGM
PnNŚ: Tilaṅg.
SgGM
PnŚ: Jog.
SRM
PnNŚ: BrindāvanīSāraṅg.
Or
the following "hexatonic" scales with 7 notes:
SRMm
PDNŚ: ŚuddhaSāraṅg.
SRGM
DnNŚ: Rāgeśrī.
All
these are scales with different notes. We will not classify these
scales here as we have classified the 7-note, 6-note and 5-note scales (with
notes and intervals) because then we enter the rich and unparalleled world of
thousands of rāgas, found only in our Indian music. It may just be noted
here that Indian scales, unique in world music, go beyond the lists given
earlier (which lists also could be suitably enlarged with more research even
without including these scales).
II.E.
SOME NON-INDIAN MUSICAL SCALES:
We
saw the primary scales in Indian Classical music, north and south. We will now
just take a brief and passing look at the musical scales in some other major
music systems of the world.
1.
WESTERN CLASSICAL MUSIC is completely different from Indian
Classical music, since it is based on the principle of simultaneous Harmony
between different sounds, and the consequent use of chords (multiple
notes in harmony with each other being played or sung simultaneously) rather than
on linear Melody - although of course Melody ultimately has to be
one of the two pillars of any form of music (the other pillar being Rhythm).
We will not go into the intricacies of the western Harmony system here,
we will only note the main musical scales of Western Classical music, on
the basis of intervals:
Heptatonic
Scales:
C SCALE
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
HINDUSTANI- CARNATIC
|
Major
|
SRGM
PDNŚ
|
221 2221
|
Bilāval
- Dhīraśaṅkarābharaṇam
|
Natural
Minor
|
SRgM
PdnŚ
|
212 2122
|
Āsāvarī
- Nāṭabhairavī
|
Harmonic
Minor
|
SRgM
PdNŚ
|
212 2131
|
Kiravāṇī
|
Melodic
Minor Asc
Desc
|
SRgM
PDNŚ
ŚndP
MgRS
|
212 2221
221 2212
|
Paṭdīp
- Gaurīmanoharī
Āsāvarī
- Nāṭabhairavī
|
Lydian
|
SRGm
PDNŚ
|
222 1221
|
Kalyāṇ
- Mecakalyāṇī
|
Lydian
Augmented
|
SRGm
dDNŚ
|
222 2121
|
---
|
Western
scales can start from any key, and the melody is named after the Scale and the
key: the white keys (see the picture of the keyboard of the harmonium) are
called C, D, E, F, G, A and B.
Thus the most common, C Major is a Major scale starting on the first
white key, and D Major is a Major scale starting on the second white key
and then taking the same interval pattern 221 2221. [All the scales below are C
scales].
Hexatonic
Scales:
C SCALE
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
Major
Hexatonic
|
SRGM PDŚ
|
221 223
|
Minor
Hexatonic
|
SRGm PnŚ
|
222 132
|
Whole-tone
Hexatonic
|
SRGm dnŚ
|
222 222
|
Major
Blues
|
SRgG PDŚ
|
211 323
|
Minor
Blues
|
SgMm PnŚ
|
321 132
|
Tritone
Scale
|
SrGm PnŚ
|
132 132
|
Two-semi-tone
Tritone
|
SrRm PdŚ
|
114 114
|
Augmented
Scale
|
SgGP dDŚ
|
313 112
|
Pentatonic
Scales:
C
SCALE
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
Major
Pentatonic
|
SRG PDŚ
|
22 323
|
Minor
Pentatonic Scale
|
SgM PnŚ
|
32 232
|
Semi-tonal
Pentatonic
|
SRg PdŚ
|
21 414
|
Neutral
Pentatonic
|
SRM PnŚ
|
23 232
|
There
are a few other scales found in the folk music of some parts of Europe, and
composers have often experimented with other scales, but they are not part of
the official repertoire of Western Classical Music - actually even some of the
above scales are not commonly used. It will be noticed that the number and
range of scales in western music is extremely limited in comparison with Indian
Classical music, although we have not given a completely
exhaustive list of Indian scales - there are many more rarely used, or present
in old lists - and the above list of western scales itself includes many not
used in Classical music but new innovations in modern forms of music like jazz.
And remember, we are still discussing thāṭ scales, not rāga
scales!
But
we must also keep in mind that a large number of scales is not the only
criterion for judging richness and variety in any musical system, and that,
apart from the fact that Western Classical music develops its richness on the
basis of Harmony rather than Melody, there are usually
unofficial and individualistic aspects of musical performance in any musical
system which lend richness, variety and depth to the music. Nevertheless
the enormous variety of scales in Indian music testifies to its unique richness.
2.
JAPANESE CLASSICAL MUSIC, in the East, is based on 10 scales in 4
pentatonic variants:
SCALE
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
22323
|
||
Ryo
|
SRG PDŚ
|
22 323
|
Ritsu (Gagaku)
|
SRM PDŚ
|
23 223
|
Ritsu (Minyo)
|
SgM PnŚ
|
32 232
|
23232
|
||
Yo
|
SRM PnŚ
|
23 232
|
14142
|
||
Hirajoshi
|
SRg PdŚ
|
21 414
|
Kumoijoshi
|
SrM PdŚ
|
14 214
|
Iwato
|
SrM mnŚ
|
14 142
|
14232
|
||
Akebono
|
SRg PDŚ
|
21 423
|
Han-Kumoi
|
SRM PdŚ
|
23 214
|
In-Sen
|
SrM PnŚ
|
14 232
|
There
are also a handful of hexatonic scales more rarely used:
SCALE
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
122 142
|
||
Niagari
|
SrM PDNŚ
|
142 122
|
Honchoshi
|
Srg MmnŚ
|
122 142
|
122 322
|
||
Yosen
|
SRM PDnŚ
|
232 212
|
Ritsu
|
Srg mdnŚ
|
122 322
|
Yo
|
SRg MPnŚ
|
212 232
|
3.
CHINESE CLASSICAL MUSIC has three primary pentatonic scales, the first
of which, with the addition of certain notes, can produce some hexatonic and
heptatonic scales. The two primary pentatonic scales are the tonal pentatonic
and the semi-tonal pentatonic:
Tonal
pentatonic: SRGPDŚ (intervals 22323).
Semitonal
pentatonic: RmdDrR (intervals 42141).
Neutral
Pentatonic: PDSRMP (intervals 23232).
The
Tonal pentatonic (also called Mongolian) scale can start on each of the five
notes, and uses the same five notes, so that the interval pattern is the same.
So we get the five following scales (or rather modes):
Pentatonic
Scales: Intervals: 222 33 (1 interval pattern, 5
scales):
SCALE
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
2 2 3 2 3
|
||
Gong
|
S
R G P D S
|
2 2
3 2 3
|
Shang
|
R
G P D S R
|
2 3
2 3 2
|
Jue
|
G
P D S R G
|
3 2
3 2 2
|
Zi
|
P
D S R G P
|
2 3
2 2 3
|
Yu
|
D
S R G P D
|
3 2
2 3 2
|
From
this 20 hexatonic scales are produced by adding either M, m, n,
or N (these additions are respectively called Qing Jue, Bian Zi, Run and
Bian Gong):
Hexatonic
Scales: Intervals: 1 2222 3 (3 interval patterns, 20
scales):
SCALE
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
3 2 1 2 2 2
|
||
Run
Gong
|
S
R G P D n S
|
2
2 3 2 1 2
|
Run
Shang
|
R
G P D n S R
|
2
3 2 1 2 2
|
Run
Jue
|
G
P D n S R G
|
3
2 1 2 2 2
|
Run
Zi
|
P
D n S R G P
|
2
1 2 2 2 3
|
Run
Yu
|
D
n S R G P D
|
1
2 2 2 3 2
|
3 2 2 1 2 2
|
||
Qing
Jue Gong
|
S
R G M P D S
|
2
2 1 2 2 3
|
Bian
Gong Zi
|
P
D N S R G P
|
2
2 1 2 2 3
|
Qing
Jue Shang
|
R
G M P D S R
|
2
1 2 2 3 2
|
Bian
Gong Yu
|
D
N S R G P D
|
2
1 2 2 3 2
|
Qing
Jue Zi
|
P
D S R G M P
|
2
3 2 2 1 2
|
Bian
Gong Shang
|
R
G P D N S R
|
2
3 2 2 1 2
|
Qing
Jue Yu
|
D
S R G M P D
|
3
2 2 1 2 2
|
Bian
Gong Jue
|
G
P D N S R G
|
3
2 2 1 2 2
|
Qing
Jue Jue
|
G
M P D S R G
|
1
2 2 3 2 2
|
Bian
Gong Gong
|
S
R G P D N S
|
2
2 3 2 2 1
|
3 2 2 2 1 2
|
||
Bian
Zi Gong
|
S
R G m P D S
|
2
2 2 1 2 3
|
Bian
Zi Shang
|
R
G m P D S R
|
2
2 1 2 3 2
|
Bian
Zi Jue
|
G
m P D S R G
|
2
1 2 3 2 2
|
Bian
Zi Zi
|
P
D S R G m P
|
2
3 2 2 2 1
|
Bian
Zi Yu
|
D
S R G m P D
|
3
2 2 2 1 2
|
From
the Mongolian or Tonal Pentatonic, we also get 15 heptatonic scales, by adding MN,
mN, or Mn: (these additions are respectively called Qing Yue, Ya
Yue and Yan Yue:
Heptatonic
Scales: Intervals: 11 22222 (1 interval pattern, 15
scales):
SCALE
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
2 2 1 2 2 2 1
|
||
Qing
Yue Gong
|
S
R G M P D N S
|
2
2 1 2 2 2 1
|
Ya
Yue Zi
|
P
D N S R G m P
|
2
2 1 2 2 2 1
|
Qing
Yue Shang
|
R
G M P D N S R
|
2
1 2 2 2 1 2
|
Ya
Yue Yu
|
D
N S R G m P D
|
2
1 2 2 2 1 2
|
Yan
Yue Zi
|
P
D n S R G M P
|
2
1 2 2 2 1 2
|
Qing
Yue Jue
|
G
M P D N S R G
|
1
2 2 2 1 2 2
|
Yan
Yue Yu
|
D
n S R G M P D
|
1
2 2 2 1 2 2
|
Qing
Yue Zi
|
P
D N S R G M P
|
2
2 1 2 2 1 2
|
Ya
Yue Shang
|
R
G m P D N S R
|
2
2 1 2 2 1 2
|
Yan
Yue Gong
|
S
R G M P D n S
|
2
2 1 2 2 1 2
|
Qing
Yue Yu
|
D
N S R G M P D
|
2
1 2 2 1 2 2
|
Ya
Yue Jue
|
G
m P D N S R G
|
2
1 2 2 1 2 2
|
Yan
Yue Shang
|
R
G M P D n S R
|
2
1 2 2 1 2 2
|
Ya
Yue Gong
|
S
R G m P D N S
|
2
2 2 1 2 2 1
|
Yan
Yue Jue
|
G
M P D n S R G
|
1
2 2 1 2 2 2
|
Very
few of the scales are actually in use, and the practice of continuously shifting
from scale to scale within a piece of music makes the actual notations of the
scales a bit superfluous. Many of these scales are more prominent in different
kinds of folk music in different parts of China. The scales can add different
extra notes for effect in the musical compositions, and add some kinds of
chords as well for effect.
4.
ARABIC (OR WEST ASIAN) CLASSICAL MUSIC is closer to Indian
classical music in the sense that its scales are melodies as in Indian music.
They are called maqams, and are equivalent to rāgas: the thāṭs/meḷas
we have already shown are also basically rāgas, except that in our above
list we have only counted those rāgas as thāṭs which have a
distinct set of notes and intervals. When it comes to the actual rāgas
as melodies, we get an extremely larger number of rāga-scales, since
there can be different and distinct rāgas having the same notes but completely
different melodies for which there are different characteristics.
In
that sense, the Arabic maqams are much more limited in number and can be
enumerated as maqams (scales/melodies) rather than separately as thāṭs
(scales) and rāgas (melodies).
As
we will see later, the classical music of West Asia is probably derived in its
historical origins from Indian classical music, although it has a completely
different sound and style. It retains features such as associating maqams
with specific emotions (the rasa of Indian classical music) and its
greatest feature is that it still retains a system of quarter-tones or
microtones (which is still used in practice in Indian classical music but has
become obsolete in theory). The quarter-tones are of course, not exactly
quarter tones, but pitches between two semi-tones, and are expressed below in
the form of fractions approximately as half semitones. In the last two or three
maqams, the pitches are even more complicated and have to be expressed
in even more minute approximate fractions:
1.
Intervals: 11 22222 (1 Interval Pattern, 7 scales):
MAQAM
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
2212221
|
||
'Ajam
|
SRGM PDNŚ
|
221 2221
|
'Ajam-Ushayran
|
nSRg MPDn
|
221 2221
|
Farahfaza
- I
|
PDnS RgMP
|
212
2122
|
Kurd
|
RgMP DnŚR
|
122 2122
|
Lami
|
RgMP dnŚR
|
122 1222
|
Nahawand
- I
|
SRgM PdnŚ
|
212 2122
|
Nahawand-Kabir
|
SRgM PDnŚ
|
212 2212
|
2.
Intervals: 111 222 3 (3 Interval Pattern, 10 scales):
MAQAM
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
1311222
|
||
Shahnaz-Kurdi
|
RgMP DnrR
|
122 2131
|
1312212
|
||
Nahawand-Murassa
|
SRgM mDnŚ
|
212 1312
|
Zanjaran
|
SrGM PDnŚ
|
131 2212
|
Saba-Zamzam
- I
|
RgMm DnSR
|
121 3122
|
Shawq-Afza
|
SRGM PdNŚ
|
221 2131
|
1312122
|
||
Farahfaza
- II
|
PDnS RgmP
|
212 2131
|
Hijaz
|
RgmP DnSR
|
131
2122
|
Nahawand
- II
|
SRgM PdNŚ
|
212 2131
|
Nikriz
|
SRgm PDnŚ
|
213 1212
|
Sultani-Yakah
|
SRgM PdNŚ
|
212 2131
|
3.
Intervals: 1111 2 33 (2 Interval Patterns, 6 scales):
MAQAM
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
1231131
|
||
Athar-Kurd
|
Srgm PdNŚ
|
123 1131
|
2131131
|
||
Hijazkar
|
SrGM PdNŚ
|
131 2131
|
Nawa-Athar
|
SRgm PdNŚ
|
213 1131
|
Shahnaz
|
RgmP DnrR
|
131 2131
|
Shadd-'Araban
|
PdNS RgmP
|
131 2131
|
Suzidil
|
DnrR GMdD
|
131 2131
|
4.
Intervals: 1111 22 3 (1 Interval Pattern, 1 scale):
MAQAM
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
2113121
|
||
Saba-Busalik
|
RGMm DnSr
|
211 3121
|
As
pointed out earlier, an important feature of Arabic scales and music is the use
of quarter-tones: notes somewhere between two semi-tones. Thus we get g+ which
is between g and G, or n+ which is between n and N. The interval must then be
calculated in terms of half of a semitone, written below as 1/2.
4.
Intervals: 1 2222 11/2 11/2 (2 Interval
Patterns, 4 scales):
MAQAM
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
11/2 11/2 2 2 2 1 2
|
||
Mahur
|
S
R g+ M P D N Ś
|
2
11/2 11/2 2 2 2 1
|
11/2 11/2 2 2 1 2 2
|
||
Bayati
I
|
R
g+ M P D n S R
|
11/2
11/2 2 2
1 2 2
|
Ushaq-Masri
|
R
G M P D n+ S R
|
2
1 2 2
11/2 11/2 2
|
Suzdalara
|
S
R g+ M P D n S
|
2
11/2 11/2 2 2 1 2
|
5.
Intervals: 11 22 3 11/2 11/2 (1 Interval
Pattern, 5 scales):
MAQAM
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
11/2 11/2 2 1 3 1 2
|
||
Bayati-Shuri
|
R
g+ M P d N S R
|
11/2
11/2 2 1
3 1 2
|
Hijaz-Awj
|
R
g m P D n+ S R
|
1
3 1 2 11/2 11/2 2
|
Huzam
|
g+
M P d N S R g+
|
11/2 2 1 3
1 2 11/2
|
Rahat-al-Arwah
|
n+
S R g m P D n+
|
11/2 2
1 3 1
2 11/2
|
Suznak
|
S
R g+ M P d N Ś
|
2
11/2 11/2 2 1
3 1
|
6.
Intervals: 222 11/2 11/2 11/2 11/2 (1 Interval
Pattern, 8 scales):
MAQAM
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
11/2 11/2 2 11/2 11/2 2 2
|
||
Bayati
|
R
g+ M P D n+ S R
|
11/2
11/2 2
2 11/2 11/2 2
|
Husayni
|
R
g+ M P D n+ S R
|
11/2
11/2 2
2 11/2 11/2 2
|
'Iraq
|
n+
S R g+ M P D n+
|
11/2 2 11/2 11/2 2 2 11/2
|
Kirdan
|
S
R g+ M P D n+ S
|
2 11/2 11/2 2
2 11/2 11/2
|
Nairuz
|
S
R g+ M P d+ n Ś
|
2 11/2 11/2 2
11/2 11/2 2
|
Rast
|
S
R g+ M P D n+ S
|
2 11/2 11/2 2
2 11/2 11/2
|
Yakah
|
P
D n+ S R g+ M P
|
2 11/2 11/2 2
11/2 11/2 2
|
Sikah
|
g+
M P D n+ S R g+
|
11/2 2
2 11/2 11/2 2 11/2
|
7.
Intervals: 11 222 11/2 21/2 (1 Interval
Pattern, 1 scale):
MAQAM
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
21/2 1
2 1 2
2 11/2
|
||
Musta'ar
|
g+
m P D n S R g+
|
21/2
1
2 1 2
2 11/2
|
8.
Intervals: 11 2 33 1/2 11/2 (1 Interval
Pattern, 1 scale):
MAQAM
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
11/2 2 1 3 1 3 1/2
|
||
Awj-'Iraq
|
n+
S R g m P n n+
|
11/2
2
1 3 1 3 1/2
|
There
are some scales (maqams) which have more than 7 notes; and, except for the
first one below, the rest go above the octave and use slightly differing notes
as they step into the next octave:
9.
Intervals: 1111 2 3 11/2 11/2 (1 Interval
Pattern, 1 scale) - 8 notes:
MAQAM
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
Saba
- I
|
R
g+ M m D n S r R
|
11/2 11/2 1
3 1 2
1 1
|
10.
Intervals: 1111 22 3 11/2 11/2 (1 Interval
Pattern, 1 scale) - 9 notes:
MAQAM
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
Saba
- II
|
R
g+ M m D n S r R G
|
11/2 11/2 1
3 1 2
1 1 2
|
11.
Intervals: 11111 2222 3 (1 Interval Pattern, 1 scale) - 9 notes:
MAQAM
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
Hijazkar-Kurd
|
S
r g M P d n N S r G
|
1 2
2 2 1
2 1 1
1 3
|
12.
Intervals: 1111 22 33 (1 Interval Pattern, 1 scale) - 9 notes:
MAQAM
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
Saba-Zamzam
- II
|
R
g M m D n S r G
|
1 2
1 3 1
2 1 3
|
13.
Intervals: 1 222 3 11/2
11/2 11/2 11/2 (1 Interval
Pattern, 1 scale) - 9 notes:
MAQAM
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
Dalanshin
|
S
R g+ M P D n+ S r G
|
2 11/2 11/2 2 2 11/2 11/2 1 3
|
14.
Intervals: 111 22 33 11/2 11/2 11/2
(1 Interval Pattern, 1 scale) - 10 notes:
MAQAM
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
Bastanikar
|
n+
S R g+ M m D n S r G
|
11/2 2 11/2 11/2 1 3 1 2 1 3
|
Finally
there are three maqams which contain notes slightly raised or lowered, which
cannot be satisfactorily explained in numerals, not even with the fractions
used above (though it is true that these fractions are also approximate ones).
They range from the relatively simpler Sazkar to the more complicated Jiharkah
and the extremely complicated Sikah-Baladi (the last of which is so complicated
in the exact pitch of its notes that it is only rarely sung or played and only
by musicians out to show their exceptional skill and virtuosity). This slight
raised or lowered note will be indicated below with arrows and nominal or
extremely approximate values in fractions of semitones:
15.
Intervals: 222 1/4 11/4 11/2 11/2 11/2 (1 Interval Pattern,
1 scale) - 8 notes:
MAQAM
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
Sazkar
|
S
R R↑ g+ M P D n S
|
2
1/4 11/4 11/2 2 2 11/2 11/2
|
16.
Intervals: 1 22 13/4 21/4 11/2 11/2 (1 Interval Pattern,
1 scale) - 7 notes:
MAQAM
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
Jiharkah
|
g+
M P D↓ n↓ S R g+
|
11/2 2 13/4
1 21/4 2 11/2
|
17.
Intervals: 1 11/8 13/8 13/8 17/8 11/4 13/4 21/4 (1 Interval
Pattern, 1 scale) - 8 notes:
MAQAM
|
NOTES
|
INTERVALS
|
Sikah-Baladi
|
P d+↓
n+↑
S↓
r R
g+↓ M↑ P
|
13/8 21/4 11/4
11/8 1 13/8 13/4 17/8
|
As
we can see, the number of scales (52) and interval patterns (22) is limited as
compared to Indian music. As in the case of Indian rāgas, some maqams
have not only the same interval-patterns but also the same notes (unlike the
distinctly different Indian thāṭs/meḷas listed earlier): e.g.
Kirdan and Rast, or Nahawand-II and Sultani-Yakah, or Bayati and Husayni. Others
have the same notes, but start on different notes: e.g. 'Ajam-Ushayran,
Farahfaza-I, Kurd and Nahawand-Kabir, or Farahfaza-II, Hijaz and Nikriz.
The
maqam system of Arabic music is relatively closer to Indian classical
music in its emphasis on melody, though the maqam musical style of West
Asia (varieties of which are found right up to Afghanistan, and also found
influencing Kashmiri music) is very distinctly different from Indian Classical
music in most respects. Incidentally, as all other forms of world music have
contributed their bits to Indian film music, Arabic-Persian-Turkish music has
also often been used to give a West Asian coloring to songs in Hindi films: the
most glaring example (though it would not be immediately obvious to Indian
film-song lovers, since the accompanying musical instruments in the song are
all Indian ones, or ones regularly used in Indian film music) is the maqam
bayati as used in the film song "ghar aaya mera pardesi"
in the film Awara.
But except for its more
open preservation of microtones, West Asian music is not as rich as Indian
music. The total number of scales (52) that we have seen, and it is possible
there are a few more not included in the list above, are actually equivalent
to the melodies themselves: in Indian music, however, the scales (thāṭs)
are just the basis for countless melodies (rāgas), and there
are literally thousands of rāgas.III. The Rāgas of Indian Music
We
have seen the scales or thāṭs/meḷas of Indian classical music.
However, the thāṭs are not themselves rāgas, although in almost
all cases the above thāṭs are named after certain particular rāgas
which have those same notes. A rāga is a melody containing the following
characteristics, and as mentioned above, there are literally thousands of
rāgas in Indian music. In this article, we can only touch upon
the basic aspects of the rāga system itself, and with reference to only
a few of the thousands of rāgas (i.e. in explaining
any point, we will only consider one or two of scores or hundreds of examples):
1.
SCALE OR SET OF NOTES:
The
first characteristic of a rāga is its scale or the full set of notes
used in it. We have already given a listing of heptatonic (7-note), hexatonic
(6-note) and pentatonic (5-note) thāṭs or scales.
In
all of the cases, a thāṭ is also a rāga.
In
many cases, it is the only rāga in the thāṭ and therefore both rāga
and thāṭ are identical. Thus,
what we have called the pentatonic thāṭ Śivarañjanī is also a rāga
Śivarañjanī, with the notes SRg PDS., the only rāga in the thāt.
But
this is not always the case. Usually, there are many distinctly different rāgas
which use the same scale or set of notes: Thus the heptatonic scale of Bhairavī
thāṭ (SrgM PdnŚ) is found in the distinctly different rāgas
Bhairavī, Bilāskhānī Toḍī and Komal Āsāvarī.
If
we take the pentatonic thāṭ Bhūp (SRG PDS) listed earlier,
we again have a rāga Bhūp (or Bhūpālī) as well as another rāga
Deskār with exactly the same
identical five notes and belonging to the same pentatonic thāṭ.
Thus,
a rāga is actually something beyond the basic scale notes, and a thāṭ
can have many rāgas with the same set of notes, but with different other
characteristics, thus constituting totally different melodies. The thāṭ
is basically a full set of the notes.
As
we saw above, many of the Arabic maqams have the same basic set of
notes, e.g. Kirdan and Rast, or Nahawand-II and Sultani-Yakah, or Bayati and
Husayni. Others have the same set of notes, but start on different
notes: e.g. 'Ajam-Ushayran, Farahfaza-I, Kurd and Nahawand-Kabir, or
Farahfaza-II, Hijaz and Nikriz. The maqams are therefore rāgas and
not thāṭs.
So
then what distinguishes one rāga from another one with the same
notes?
There
are many factors, but first we will examine the factors involving the notes in
the rāga:
a)
A rāga has an ascending scale (āroh) and a descending scale (avaroh).
The difference between two rāgas with the same set of notes can
be because of a difference in the notes in āroh and avaroh. The
two rāgas may have different ascending and descending patterns. [In
western classical music, the melodic minor scale (see
earlier) is notable for having different notes in the ascent and descent. Some
of the Arabic maqams also use notes differently in the ascent and
descent].
Thus
the rāga Bhairav has the ascending scale SrGM PdNŚ, and
the descending scale ŚNdP MGrS. The rāga, like so many others,
has the same identical notes (in this case the 7 notes of the Bhairav thāṭ)
in both ascent and descent.
But
the rāga Sāverī, which also belongs to the Bhairav thāṭ,
has only 5 notes in the ascending scale: SrM PdŚ (G and N are
not used in the ascending part of this rāga), while the descending scale
has the full 7 notes: ŚNdP MGrS.
Likewise,
the rāga KomalDesī , an 8-note scale with the notes SrRgM PdnŚ,
has 5 notes in āroh: SRM PnŚ, and 7 notes in avroh:
ŚndP MgrS.
In
the three "pentatonic" rāgas named earlier (Tilaṅg, Jog,
BrindāvanīSāraṅg), which have two forms of one note each, thereby
actually having 6-note scales, one form is used in the āroh and the
other in the avroh:
Tilaṅg: SGM PNŚ - ŚnP MGS.
Jog: SGM PnŚ - ŚnP MgS.
BrindāvanīSāraṅg: SRM PNŚ - ŚnP MRS.
Officially,
a scale with 5 notes is called auḍav, with 6 notes is called ṣāḍav,
and 7 notes is called sampūrṇa (full or complete). Thus a rāga can be
classified in nine ways, as auḍav-auḍav (with 5 notes each in āroh
and avaroh), auḍav-ṣāḍav (5 notes in āroh and 6
notes in avaroh), etc.
Actually,
as we saw, there can be more categories when there are more than 7 notes in any
direction.
A
rāga may have both forms of a note, e.g. both n and N, in
the same direction (in āroh and/or in avaroh). Thus the rāga
Alhaiyā Bilāwal has the following notes in āroh: SRGP
DNŚ (M is missing) and avroh: ŚNnD PMGRS (all 7 notes,
with both n and N): thus the rāga has a scale of 8 notes
(as in the avroh).
Likewise,
the rāga Bihāg has āroh: SGM PNŚ (R
and D missing) and avroh: ŚNDP mMGRS
(all
7 notes, with both M and m): again a rāga with a scale of
8 notes (as in the avroh).
[The
rāga Gauḍ Sāraṅg has both M and m in both āroh
and avroh, and therefore has a full 8-note scale both ways: SRGMm
PDNŚ].
Needless
to say, the missing (varjya) notes in either the ascent or descent of
any rāga give a completely different color to the melody, and there can
be many distinct rāgas formed from a single scale (set of
notes) with different notes missing in the ascent or the descent, where the
difference in one or more notes in the aroh and avaroh results in
different ascending and descending scales for the rāga.
b)
Further, rāgas, being natural melodies and not analytically
created scales, are different in their degree of adherence to rigid
rules. Most rāgas generally use only the notes proper to them,
especially the more gambhīr or serious rāgas, but the more light,
popular, and emotionally evocative rāgas are less rigid (especially but
not exclusively in non-classical contexts like films, etc.), and often
skillfully use certain extra notes to give depth and beauty to
the melody. The very popular rāga Śivarañjanī, for example, has the 5
notes SRg PDŚ: but regularly uses extra notes to add beauty and
emotional depth to the melody, mainly the note G, which is used
sparingly but extremely skilfully to give depth to the melody. Check the
beautiful use, in different ways, of the extra note G in different film
songs like Jane Kahan Gaye Wo Din (from the film Mera Naam Joker),
or O Mere Sanam (from the film Sangam), or Tere Mere Beech Men
(from the film Ek Dooje Ke Liye).
The
use of extra notes for beauty and effect does not change the thāṭ or scale
classification of a rāga: e.g. Śivarañjanī will still be classified as a pentatonic
thāṭ/rāga with the notes SRg PDŚ.
In
the Bhairavī thāṭ, for example, the rāga Bhairavī is known for
its very liberal use of other notes, while the rāgas which almost
strictly adhere to the notes of the Bhairavī thāṭ (i.e. SrgM PdnŚ)
are the rāgas known as Bilāskhānī Toḍi and Komal Ṛṣabh
Āsāvarī. (with different notes in āroh and avroh). Pahāḍī
is another rāga known for liberal use of extra notes for beauty.
The
rāga Dhanī, likewise, a pentatonic rāga with SgM PnŚ uses
an extra note R in avaroh for effect, to such an extent that it
seems to have become a regular phenomenon.
c)
Finally, we have the very important distinction of śruti: as we saw,
Indian music earlier had 22 different micro-tones (wrongly also called
quarter-tones), and, except for the two acal (अचल)
sounds S and P, all the other ten semitones have two forms each:
a slightly lower form and a slightly higher form. Although these
finer distinctions are not maintained in general music (since the use of the
harmonium and the tempered western scale have resulted in a blurring of the śruti
distinctions in popular recognition), they are still observed to some extent in
classical music, although not specified in notation. We can note these śrutis
with + signs as in the Arabic maqams. Thus:
In
rāga Mārvā, as well as rāga Toḍī, the r is slightly
lower than normal: it could be understood as S+ (a note between S
and r, although closer to r).
In
rāga Darbārī Kānaḍā, the g is slightly lower than normal: it
could be understood as R+ (a note between R and g,
although closer to g).
In
rāga Miyā Malhār, the g is higher than normal: it could be
understood as g+ (a note between g and G, although closer
to g).
As
per the writings of Paluskar and Asarekar, for example, the notes r and d
are slightly lower in rāga Bhairav than in rāga Bhairavī,
the R and D are slightly lower in rāga Bibhās than
in rāga Yaman Kalyāṇ, the n in Gauḍ Malhār
is slightly lower than in rāga Bhairavī, the g in rāga
Toḍī is slightly lower than in rāga Bhairavī, the G in
rāga Mālkauns is slightly lower than in rāga Yaman Kalyāṇ,
and so on.
Thus
the actual notes in the scales of rāgas have a greater richness and
variety than is immediately discernible from a consideration of the bare notes,
since the notation does not take note of the distinction between higher and
lower śrutis, though these śrutis are automatically distinguished
in the actual music by the expert performer and the discerning listener without
consciously realizing it.
The
rich variety of scales in Indian music is thus hidden by the convention of
force-fitting rāgas into the 10-heptatonic-thāṭs paradigm.
2.
SPECIAL ASPECTS OF THE RĀGA:
Quite
apart from the set of notes in a rāga, there are many other factors
distinguishing different rāgas from each other even when they have the
same notes. We will merely list them, from the least tangible to the most
tangible:
1.
Firstly, the rāgas are classified according to time, season and emotion
(rasa):
a)
According to the time of day, the rāgas are usually classified into
three-hour divisions of the day known as prahar. Often, the division is
even more minute, dividing the rāgas into two-hour divisions. Here we
will just divide the day roughly into its most distinct four parts and note
just a few of the typical or prominent rāgas which fall into them:
Morning:
Lalat, Jogiyā, Bhairav, Bibhās, AhirBhairav,
Toḍī, GujarīToḍī.
Afternoon:
GauḍSāraṅg, BrindāvanīSāraṅg, ŚuddhaSāraṅg, Bhīmpalās.
Evening:
Mārvā, Pūriyā, Pūrvī, Pīlū, Hamīr, YamanKalyāṇ,
Hamsadhvanī.
Night:
Chandrakauns, Mālkauns, Sohanī, Abhogī, Darbārī,
Aḍāṇā, Bāgeśrī.
Actually,
the same rāga in different lists may be found attributed to different neighboring
periods, and it is noteworthy that the rāga most associated in popular
perception with dawn, Bhūp, is actually classified as a night rāga.
b)
Again, the rāgas are divided according to the six seasons. One exemplary
rāga and Hindi film song from each group is given:
Vasant
(Spring): Basant. "Basant Hai Aya" (film:
Anchal):
Grīṣma
(Summer): Dīpak. "Jagamaga Jagamaga Diya
Jalao" (film: Tansen):
Varṣā
(Monsoon): GauḍMalhār: "Garjat Barsat Sawan Ayo
Re" (film: Barsaat ki Raat):
Śarad
(Autumn): Bhairav: "Mohe Bhool Gaye Sanwariya"
(film: Baiju Bawra):
Hemant
(pre-Winter): Hemant: "Sudh Bisar Gayi
Aaj" (film: Sangeet Samrat Tansen):
Śiśir
(Winter): Mālkauns: "Adha Hai Chandrama"
(film: Navrang):
This
classification seems particularly apt in respect of spring and monsoon songs.
c)
Rāgas are also supposed to either evoke or express (or both) certain
moods. This is known as rasa (emotion) and as per the well-known
division into nine rasas: śṛṅgāra (love, beauty), hāsya (laughter),
raudra (anger), karuṇa (pathos), bibhatsa (disgust), vīra
(valour), bhayānaka (fear), adbhuta (wonder) and śānta (peace).
However, there is no definitive list of rāgas which evoke or express
these moods.
In
my opinion, generally, more than the rāgas themselves, it is the
expertise of the singer or performer which can express or evoke moods through
any rāga.
However,
there can be no doubt that karuṇa (pathos), or at least a soft, mellow
mood, does seem to be inherent in some rāgas like Śivrañjanī, GujarīToḍī,
AhirBhairav, Charukeśī, etc.
2.
Secondly, the rāgas are characterized by special features based on the
notes which are most prominent in the melody:
At
the more general level, there are two distinctions:
Firstly,
there are pūrvāṅga-pradhān rāgas (where S,r,R,g,G,M,m are more
prominent), e.g. Pūrvī, Bihāg, GorakhKalyāṇ, Yaman,
Khamāj, and uttarāṅga-pradhān rāgas (where
P,d,D,n,N,Ś are more prominent), e.g. Sohanī
, Bhairavī, Lalat, Candrakauns, Kedār, Basant.
Secondly,
rāgas generally move within certain octaves. There are five octaves: the
normal middle madhya saptak, the lower mandra saptak, the even
lower ati-mandra saptak, the higher tār saptak, and the even
higher ati-tār saptak. The two "ati" octaves are more
rarely used. Certain rāgas generally move more in the lower or mandra-madhya
saptak space, e.g. DarbārīKānaḍā, Toḍī, Bhūp, Jhinjhoṭī
, Pilū; and certain others move more in the higher or madhya-tār
saptak space, e.g. Adāṇā, GujarīToḍī , Sohanī, GauḍMalhār,
Kāliṅgḍā. Some ṛagas freely span all the three main mandra-madhya-tār
octaves: Bhairav, Mālkauns, Durgā, Śivarañjanī.
More
specifically, there are many other characteristics which give any rāga
its identity. We will examine many of these characteristic features of just one
exemplary rāga, Kedār.
Full
scale: SR(G)Mm PDnNŚ.
Āroh
scale: S(G)Mm PDŚ.
Avroh
Scale: SNnD PmMRS.
Āroh-Avroh:
SM(G)P PD PP Ś - Ś N D P M P D n D
P MPDP M R Ś.
Vādī
svar (dominant or most frequently used note): M.
Saṁvādī
svar
(next dominant or second most frequently used note): S.
Nyās
svar (resting note): P.
Pakaḍ:
SM(G)P D P M R S. [There is a prominent characteristic glide
in SM(G)P, and the G is said to be
"hidden" by M]
Ālāp
or
Calan (general movement):
S
DP DPM MP PS SR-S; S RS MRS SDP PS; S RS SM MRS SM MP DPM RS;
SM
PDPM MPDnDP M PM RS;
SMMP mPDnDP mPDMP PŚ ŔŚ NDP DPM RS;
PPŚ
ŚŔŚ ŚḾ ḾŔŚ NDPM PMRS.
Only
a person trained or training in classical music will understand the above, and will
in fact even go much farther beyond that in elaborating on the rāga.
But
here are a few prominent Hindi film songs (arranged alphabetically film-wise)
based on kedār (always keeping in mind that film songs and light songs
are usually more flexible in following the rāga rules than strictly
classical renditions):
1.
Amrapali- Jao Re Jogi Tum
2.
Andaz- Uthaye Ja Unke Sitam
3.
Ashiyana- Main Pagal Mera
Manwa Pagal
4.
Benazir- Mil Ja Re Janejana
5.
Bhakt Surdas- Panchhi Bawra Chand
Se Preet Laga Le
6.
Ek Musafir Ek Hasina- Aap
Yunhi Agar Hamse Milte Rahe
7.
Ek Musafir Ek Hasina- Bahut Shukriya Badi Meherbani
8.
Ek Musafir Ek Hasina- Hamko Tumhare Ishq Ne Kya Kya Bana Diya
9.
Ek Musafir Ek Hasina- Phir Tere Sheher Mein Lutne Ko
10.
Ghar- Aapki Ankhon Mein Kuchh
11.
Guddi- Hamko Man Ki Shakti Dena
12. Jahan Ara- Kisi Ki Yaad Mein Duniya Ko Hai
Bhulaye Hue
13.
Jangli- Ehsan Tera Hoga Mujh Par
14.
Leader- Aaj Hai Pyar Ka Faisla Ai Sanam
15.
Mughal-e-Azam- Bekas Pe
Karam Kijiye
16.
Munimji- Sajan Bin Neend Na
Aye
17.
Narsi Bhagat- Darshan Do Ghanshyam
Nath
18.
Palki- Kal Raat Zindagi Se Mulaqat Ho Gayi
19.
Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon- Anchal
Mein Saja Lena Kaliyan
20.
Rajkumar- Is Rang Badalti Duniya Mein
21.
Son of India- Chal Diye Deke Gham
22.
Tel Malish Boot Polish- Kanha Ja Teri Murli Ki Dhun Sun
23.
The Burning Train- Pal Do
Pal Ka Saath Hamara
And
the following Marathi film songs or natyageet in kedār:
1.
Avghachi Saunsar- Aaz Mi Alavite Kedar
2.
Baikocha Bhau- Kokila Ga Re
3.
Gulacha Ganpati- Hi Kuni Chhedili Taar
4.
Kanyadan- Tu Astaa Tar
5.
Zhala Gela Visrun Za- Tu Nazarene Ho Mhatle
6.
Nat. Katyar Kalzat Ghusli- Surat Piya Ki Na Chhin Bisraye
The
following are videos of two of the above songs
(the 8th and 17th in the Hindi list):
3.
SPECIAL FEATURES OF INDIAN MUSIC:
What
is the speciality of Indian classical music? There are doubtless thousands of
wonderful books and articles - and of course documentary films and videos -
giving minute details on all aspects of Indian music: the countless old and
current classical and folk musical instruments, the rāgas and tāls,
lists of (film-etc.) songs and of recorded classical and semi-classical performances
in different rāgas and tāls, the different types of Vedic
chanting, the countless distinct classical, folk and tribal forms of
music and dance, etc. In my article on "Hindutva or Hindu
Nationalism", I pointed out the need for a massive all-India campaign to
collect and bring together in one place all these great aspects of our music before
they become a mere memory - or remain not even that - of the past.
But
here I will show a small part of a popular video on youtube which shows a very
special aspects of Indian (especially Hindustani Classical) music: the
following video is by the eminent violin maestra Kala Ramnath, in which she
demonstrates in a nutshell a fundamental difference between the western style
of music (actually perhaps all other styles of music in the world) and
Hindustani classical music. As this video is now missing on youtube, I am
uploading it on my youtube channel, and giving the URL of that post:
Indian
music is characterized by a very wide variety of ornamentation, and also
by harmonization with a drone (usually played by some instrument like
the tanpura or the shruti-pipe). The details of all this very, very complicated
musical science will best be explained by musical experts. Here I will only
give the URL of one youtube video (I am sure there are many more, and more
detailed, other videos available on the subject) which illustrates some of
these points to a lay audience:
IV. India's Unparalleled Musical Wealth
and Contribution to World Music
Indian
music is absolutely the richest in the world, and its original and fundamental
contributions to world music are unparalleled.
In mathematical science, ancient
India conceived and analysed the mathematical concepts of zero and infinity,
achieved a fundamental revolution by devising a numeral system which can
represent any and every conceivable number with only ten symbols, and coined
names for numbers of incredibly high denominations (a Buddhist work, Lalitavistara,
gives the names for base-numbers up to 10421, ie. one followed by
421 zeroes)! And, at the same time, we have the Andamanese Onge language, which
to this day has not developed the concept of numbers beyond three:
they have names only for “one”, “two”, and "three", and a word
"many" which is used for all numbers above three! This represents the
absolutely most pristine stage in any language in the world. This is the case
in almost every field of culture: on the one hand, India has the richest
traditional cuisine in the world, one of the most highly developed traditions
of architecture in all its aspects, and an incredibly wide range of costumes
and ornaments, all of hoary antiquity, and, on the other hand, we have tribes
who are hunter-gatherers and subsist only on wild berries, who live in caves,
or who live almost in the nude.
In every aspect of culture, India
has the full range, from the simplest and most pristine to the richest and most
developed and complicated.
Likewise, in music, our Indian
classical music has, since thousands of years, developed a detailed theory of
music, and used the richest range of notes (twenty-two microtones
as compared to the twelve notes of western classical music), scales
(every possible combination of the basic notes, and umpteen varieties of rāgas
within each combination), modes and rhythms.
We have the most unimaginably wide
range of rhythms (which will not be elaborated in this article which is
mainly about thāṭs and rāgas), from the very simplest to the most complicated
and intricate, with, for example, rhythms having even 11, 13, 17, 19, 23,
etc. beats per cycle, (almost unimaginable in most of the rest of the world,
except in West Asia and the adjacent Balkans - probably, as we will see,
ultimately derived from Indian music) and the most intricate rhythmic
techniques in the world, including complicated cross-rhythms (again, almost
unimaginable in most of the rest of the world, except in parts of Africa).
And, at the same time, the absolutely
most pristine form of music in the world is found among the Veddas of Sri
Lanka: they possess the most primitive form of singing in the world, and, along
with certain remote Patagonian tribes, are the only people in the world who “not
only do not possess any musical instrument, but do not even clap their hands or
stamp the ground”(SACHS:1940:26).
The range of Indian music is beyond
belief:
Curt Sachs writes: “The roots of
music are more exposed in India than anywhere else. The Vedda in Ceylon possess
the earliest stage of singing that we know, and the subsequent strata of
primitive music are represented by the numberless tribes that in valleys and
jungles took shelter from the raids of northern invaders. So far as this primitive
music is concerned, the records are complete or at least could easily be
completed if special attention were paid to the music of the ‘tribes’…[There
are] hundreds of tribal styles…” (SACHS:1943:157). A study of the richness and incredible variety
in all the forms of tribal music in India would be truly mind-boggling.
Then there is the folk music,
the range and variety of which is equally mind-boggling: every single
part of India is rich in its own individual wide range of styles of folk
music, and the folk music of even any one state of India (say Maharashtra,
Rajasthan or Karnataka, or the north-east, for example, or even Sind,
Baluchistan, Sri Lanka or Bhutan for that matter) would merit a lifetime of
study.
And, right on top, we have the great
tradition of Indian Classical Music, which we have already referred to.
Although the oldest living form of classical music in the world, and although
it has evolved and developed over the centuries, losing and gaining in the
process, Sachs points out that “there is no reason to believe that India’s
ancient music differed essentially from her modern music” (SACHS:1943:157).
[Even Muslim rulers, including most of the Mughals, did a great deal in
preserving and perpetuating many aspects of Indian culture, for which they
often received the flak of Islamic theologians. In many cases, in fact, they
developed such a deep respect and attachment for some aspects, that they even
tried to appropriate credit for them: in respect of Indian music, for example, Alain
Danielou points out that “Amir
Khusrau (AD 1253-1319)…wrote that Indian music was so difficult and so
refined that no foreigner could totally master it even after twenty years of
practice”; and the Muslim attachment to Indian music grew to such an extent
that it led to the invention of stories about “how the various styles of
Northern Indian music were developed by musicians of the Mohammedan period…Under
Moslem rule, age-old stories were retold as if they had happened at the court
of Akbar…Such transfer of legends is frequent everywhere. We…find
ancient musical forms and musical instruments being given Persian-sounding
names and starting a new career as the innovations of the Moghul court”
(DANIELOU:1949:34). The sum of it is that many Muslim rulers also contributed
in the preservation and perpetuation, and even the enriching, of many aspects
of native Indian classical culture].
Many western musicologists (Alain
Danielou, M.E. Cousins, Donald Lentz, etc.) have spoken about the superiority
of Indian classical music over western classical music, but without going into
that it is at least certain that Indian Classical music is one of the most highly
developed classical forms in the world.
Apart from the classical music, we
have that other great and ancient tradition, of Vedic chanting and
singing in its many varieties, best preserved in South India, and different
varieties of Sanskrit songs, preserved in temples and maṭhs all
over India.
And in all the varieties of music
(classical, folk, popular and tribal), we have the most unparalleled range of
musical instruments in the world, unique in their range from the most primitive
and simple to the most sophisticated and complicated in respect of techniques
of making, artistic appearance, techniques of playing, and qualities of sound,
in every type: idiophonic, membranophonic, aerophonic and chordophonic;
monophonic, pressurephonic, polyphonic and multiphonic.
All this music and all these musical
instruments were preserved down the ages by temple traditions, courts,
courtesans, great masters and professional castes, musical institutions, and
tribal, caste and community traditions.
The twentieth century saw a
consolidation of all this rich musical wealth due, on the one hand, to the
invention of recording devices, and, on the other, to the enthusiasm natural in
a modern India in the atmosphere of an independence movement. New generations
of musicians and scholars, and government bodies like Films Division, Akashwani
and Doordarshan, did a herculean job in studying, recording and popularising
all forms of Indian music.
New trends in classical music (eg.
the gharana system, new semi-classical forms, including Marathi natya sangeet,
etc.), new innovations (eg. the “Vadyavrind” orchestration of Indian melodic
music, etc.), and new genres of popular music (eg. new forms of devotional
music - bhajans, artis, etc., of popular music like the bhavgeet genre in
Marathi music, and Film Music) in every part of India added to India’s incomparable
musical wealth.
India also contributed to world
music in some fundamental ways:
India's
Contribution to World Music:
India's
contribution to World Music has been greater than any other area, country or
civilization. To begin with, A.C.Scott
at the very start of his "The Theatre in Asia", tells
us: "It will be seen that stage practice in Asia owes a great deal to
India as an ancestral source. Indian influence on dance and theatre which are
one and the same thing in Asia was like some great subterranean river following
a spreading course and forming new streams on the way" (SCOTT:1972:1).
A
much greater and in-depth study of all the musical data throughout Asia is
extremely necessary, but for starters, the following quotations from Curt
Sachs' seminal work, "The Rise of Music in the Ancient World - East and
West", will give some faint idea of the fundamental nature of India's
contribution to music in almost the whole of Asia:
"In
the retinue of Buddhism, it had a decisive part in forming the musical style of
the East, of China, Korea and Japan, and with Hindu settlers it penetrated what
today is called Indo-China and the Malay Archipelago. There was a westbound
exportation too. The fact, of little importance in itself, that an Indian was
credited with having beaten the drum in Mohammed's military expeditions might
at least be taken for a symbol of Indian influence on Islamic music. Although
complete ignorance of ancient Iranian music forces us into conservation we are
allowed to say that the system of melodic and rhythmic patterns
characteristic of the Persian, Turkish and Arabian world, had existed in India
as the rāgas and tālas more than a thousand years before it appeared in the
sources of the Mohammedan Orient" (SACHS:1943:193).
It
must be noted that West Asian music was the direct source of much of the
classical music of Europe at least in the matter of musical instruments. As the
Wikipedia entry on Arabic music tells us:
"The
majority of musical instruments used in European
medieval and classical music have roots in Arabic
musical instruments that were adopted from the medieval Islamic
world.[17][18]
They include the lute,
derived from the oud;
rebec
(an ancestor of the violin) from rebab,
guitar
from qitara, naker from naqareh,
adufe
from al-duff,
alboka
from al-buq, anafil from al-nafir, exabeba (a type of flute)
from al-shabbaba, atabal (a type of bass drum)
from al-tabl, atambal from al-tinbal,[18]
the balaban, castanet
from kasatan, and sonajas
de azófar from sunuj al-sufr.[19]
The Arabic rabāb,
also known as the spiked fiddle, is the earliest known bowed string instrument and the
ancestor of all European bowed instruments, including the rebec, the
Byzantine lyra, and the violin.[20][21]
The Arabic oud
in Islamic music was the direct ancestor of
the European lute.[22]
The oud
is also cited as a precursor to the modern guitar. The guitar
has roots in the four-string oud, brought to Iberia by the Moors in
the 8th century.[23]
A direct ancestor of the modern guitar is the guitarra morisca
(Moorish guitar), which was in use in Spain by the 12th century. By the 14th
century, it was simply referred to as a guitar.[24]
A number of
medieval conical bore instruments were
likely introduced or popularized by Arab musicians,[25]
including the xelami (from zulami).[26]"
[We will refer
shortly to some of these musical instruments and their ultimate Indian origin].
"China
also passed on to Japan the ceremonial dances of India with their music, which
were Japanized as the solemn and colorful Bugaku" (SACHS:1943:105).
"the
oldest preserved style, the classical Sino-Japanese Bugaku dances […are…] of
Indian origin, and Chinese and Japanese music on the whole were under Indian
influence in the second half of the first millennium A.D. And yet the most
typical trait of Indian music, its sophisticated rhythmical patterns or tālas,
had no chance in the East. In 860 A.D., someone wrote a treatise on drumming in
China, with over one hundred ‘symphonies’ which doubtless were Indian tālas;
but nothing came of this, and not one of the Far Eastern styles has preserved
the slightest trace of such patterns. The three rhythms used in Tibetan
orchestras, and kept up in percussion even when the other parts are silent, are
obviously not Far Eastern, but deteriorated Indian patterns. The elaborate
polyrhythm of Balinese cymbal players that Mr. Colin MePhee has recently
described is not Far Eastern either" (SACHS:1943:139).
"So
vital in East Asiatic music is the delicate vacillation that dissolves the
rigidity of pentatonic scales that all possible artifices have carefully been
classified, named, and, by the syllabic symbols of their names, embodied in
notation: ka (to quote the terms of Japanese koto players); that is, sharpening
a note by pressing down the string beyond the bridge; niju oshi, sharpening by
a whole tone; é, the subsequent sharpening of a note already plucked and heard;
ké, sharpening it for just a moment and
releasing the string into its initial vibration; yū, the same, but making the
relapse very short before the following note is played; kaki, plucking two
adjoining strings in rapid succession with the same finger; uchi, striking the
strings beyond the bridges during long pauses; nagashi, a slide with the
forefinger over the strings; and many others [….] Recent investigation
has made clear that this tablature is a Chinese transcription of Sanskrit
symbols used in India. Indeed, the graces of long zithers, unparalleled in East
Asiatic music, are nothing else than the gamakas of India, imported with the
sway of Buddhism during the Han Dynasty and given to the technique of Chinese
zithers, which became the favorite instruments of meditative Buddhist priests
and monks" (SACHS:1943:143-44).
"The
strange, never-ceasing drones used in the choral singing of Tibet belong in the
Indian, not the Chinese sphere of Tibetan civilization" (SACHS:1943:145).
In
Siamese (Thai) music, "the comparatively large share of drums, however,
indicates the neighborhood of India" (SACHS:1943:152).
In
Burmese music, "These penetrant oboes, which lead the melody instead of
the tinkling gongs of Java and Bali, are definitely Indian. But still more
Indian is the unparalleled drum chime of, normally, twenty-four carefully tuned
drums, suspended inside the walls of a circular pen, which the player,
squatting in the center, strikes with his bare hands in swift, toccata like
melodies with stupendous technique and delicacy" (SACHS:1943:153).
In
respect of the Slendro or "male" scale in Indonesian music,
"It seems that the modes or, better, the melodies ascribed to the
modes, matter today only from the standpoint of choosing the adequate time for
performance: pieces in nem are to be played between seven and midnight; sanga
is the right mode for the early morning between midnight and three and for the
afternoon between noon and seven; manjura belongs to the hours between
3:00 A.M. and noon. This time table is unmistakably Indian. The name salendro
points also to India. It probably stemmed from the Sumatran Salendra Dynasty,
which ruled Java almost to the end of the first thousand years A.D. and had
come from the Coromandel Coast in South India. Thus it might be wiser to
connect slendro with ragas like madhyamāvati, mohana, or hamsadhvanī than with the Chinese scale" (SACHS:1943:132).
Alain Danielou tells us (in his “Introduction
to the Study of Musical scales”) that the Indian “theory of musical
modes…seems to have been the source from which all systems of modal
music originated” (DANIELOU:1943:99), and goes so far as to suggest that “Greek
music, like Egyptian music, most probably had its roots in Hindu music” (DANIELOU:1943:159-160).
An extremely
significant contribution by India is the "classification of musical instruments".
Wikipedia very brazenly tells us: "Hornbostel-Sachs or Sachs-Hornbostel
is a system of musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von
Hornbostel and Curt Sachs, and first published in the Zeitschrift für Ethnolgie
in 1914. An English translation was published in the Galpin
Society Journal in 1961. It is the most widely used system for
classifying musical instruments by ethnomusicologists
and organologists
(people who study musical instruments). The system was updated in 2011 as part
of the work of the Musical Instrument Museums Online (MIMO) Project.[2]
Hornbostel
and Sachs based their ideas on a system devised in the late 19th century by Victor-Charles Mahillon, the
curator of musical instruments at Brussels Conservatory. Mahillon
divided instruments into four broad categories according to the nature of the
sound-producing material: an air column; string; membrane; and body of the
instrument. From this basis, Hornbostel and Sachs expanded Mahillon's system to
make it possible to classify any instrument from any culture". The
four-fold classification by them, which is the official classification
everywhere now, divides musical instruments into idiophonic, membranophonic,
chordophonic and aerophonic. We will not count a fifth and modern category,
electrophonic.
The claim that
this classification was done by Mahillon, Sachs, or Hornbostel is an extremely
fraudulent claim (a glaring example of the western
"digestion" of Indian sciences and presentation of Indian ideas as western
discoveries or inventions, so consistently highlighted by Rajiv Malhotra), and
they very clearly simply lifted the ancient Indian system of classification of
musical instruments from the time of Bharata's Natya Shastra (pre-500
BCE) into four categories:
1. Ghaṇa vādya:
idiophonic instruments.
2. Avanaddha
vādya: membranophonic instruments.
3. Tata vādya,
chordophonic instruments.
4. Suṣira vādya:
aerophonic instruments.
Further, long
before anywhere else in the world, Bharata in his Natya Shastra (older than 500
BCE) also classifies the octave into seven notes (even the very
names are as at present: ṣaḍja, ṛṣabha, gāndhāra, madhyama, pañcama, dhaivata
and niṣāda), twelve semi-tones and twenty-two śrutis
(quarter-tones or micro-tones). This annotation of the tones and semitones has
been adopted into western classical system only in medieval times.
At this point, a
campaign to attribute the origin of major aspects of Indian music to Islamic
sources - sometimes even to particular individuals like Amir Khusro - is the
norm. Everything, from tablas and lutes (sitar, sarod, etc.) to the khayal
gayaki or style of Hindustani music are attributed to the Muslim invaders or to
the scholars of the Mughal and other Muslim courts of medieval India. This is
based only on two things: myths manufactured during the Mughal rule, and the
West Asian names given to originally Indian musical instruments and forms of
music.
In respect of
Hindustani music in general, it must be noted that there is no reason to
suppose that it is any different from what it was thousands of years ago,
except that it continued to evolve and develop over the ages. As Curt Sachs
points out, "when we read in Bharata's classical book of the twenty-two
microtones in ancient Indian octaves, of innumerable scales and modes, and of
seventeen melodic patterns and their pentatonic and hexatonic alterations, we
realize that music at, or even before, the beginning of the first century AD
was by no means archaic. Indeed, there is no reason to believe that India's
ancient music differed substantially from her modern music" (SACHS
1943:157).
More
specifically, as Danielou puts it: "Northern Indian classical music […]
though it lent itself easily to temporary fashions […] seems to have
remained the same in spite of temporary changes. It still conforms with the
definitions in some of the most ancient books. The stories that relate how the
various styles of northern Indian music were developed by musicians of the
Mohammedan period seem usually unfounded. Under Muslim rule, age-old stories
were retold as if they had happened at the court of Akbar, so as to make them
acceptable to new rulers and win the practice and honors bestowed on the
creative artistes of the day. Such transfer of legends is frequent everywhere.
We should therefore not be surprised to find ancient musical forms and musical
instruments being given Persian-sounding names and starting a new career as the
innovations of the Mughal courts" (DANIELOU:1949:34).
Thus many things
whose current names are of Persian or Arabic origin (a large number of purely
local sweets in India are referred to, for example, by the West Asian generic
name "halwa") but which are actually of purely Indian origin.
The khayāl gayaki, despite its name, does not bear even the faintest
resemblance in its musical style to anything in West Asia: in fact, it stands
distinct from all other musical styles in the world in its mīṇḍ base.
And the Muslim musicians in India were too busy actually learning from the
ocean of Indian music to spend any time, much less to have the ability, to make
fundamental changes in it. According to Danielou above, Amir Khusro (1253-1319),
usually credited (many centuries later) with all kinds of fundamental
innovations in Hindustani music, "wrote that Indian music was so
difficult and so refined that no foreigner could totally master it even after
twenty years of practice".
Similarly
presently used names like the tabla, sitar, sarod, shehnai
and tanpura are used to argue that the lute (to which class all
the three stringed instruments above belong) was introduced into India from
West Asia by Muslims or other Persians before them, although these three lutes
above also have no parallels in sound, construction or playing-technique
anywhere outside India. But more on the lute shortly.
The tabla,
for example, now known with its Arabic-given name, has absolutely no parallels
outside India in any respect, but it has been consistently portrayed as an
invention of Amir Khusro. This myth was busted by the eminent tabla maestra
Aban Mistry (a Parsi artiste) who proved that the instrument already existed in
ancient India and is depicted in a sculpture in the Bhaja caves near Lonavala
in Maharashtra, dated to the second century BCE!
About the shehnai,
it is found in simpler forms as a folk-instrument through most parts of India,
and its southern counterpart, the nādaswaram, at least as per the
Wikipedia, is described in the ancient Tamil text, Silappadikāram (composed at
least around 500 BCE) by the name vangiyam. At any rate, the instrument
clearly evolved from more rudimentary instruments of the same type found in the
interior and southern parts of India.
Strangely, Curt
Sachs, who so clearly recognizes the antiquity, richness and variety of Indian
music from the most primary to the most complex forms, and India's fundamental
contributions to world music to both east and west, is extremely niggardly in
recognizing or accepting India's wealth of musical instruments. In his book on
"The History of Musical Instruments" (1940), he ends his
section on Indian musical instruments with the incredible statement "In
ancient India, as in Egypt, there is no instrument for which we can trace a
native origin. All of them seem to have come from the west or the north.
Strangely enough we will have to wait for the middle ages to find a native
stock in Indian music" (SACHS:1940:161)!
The extremely
ludicrous extent to which he goes in order to produce such a picture is worth
seeing. Taking the oldest text, the Rigveda, which is not in any case a musical
treatise nor a text covering more than a restricted area from westernmost U.P.
and Haryana outwards to southern and eastern Afghanistan, he tells us that it
mentions only "four instruments, the āghāṭi, bakura, gargara
and vāṇa" (SACHS:1940:152):
1. He admits
that the identity of the first, the āghāṭi, is unknown, and therefore
dismisses it from consideration.
2. About the
second, the bakura, he in a most incredible fashion identifies it as a
conch shell by tracing the word and instrument, of all places, to "modern
Madagascar; in the northern district of this large island, bakora is the
name of the shell-trumpet" (SACHS:1940:152)! How and by what means the
insular Rigvedic people, in the third millennium BCE, could have acquired a
musical instrument, one of their allegedly only four instruments, from Madagascar
(Malagasy) is not explained.
3. The gargara,
according to Sachs, is "a stringed instrument, therefore it probably
was the horizontal arched harp, the only instrument depicted on Indian reliefs
before the Christian era" (SACHS:1940:152). A little later, about the
word karkarī in the Atharvaveda, he again tells us "the word
karkarī […] may be a more recent form of gargara" (SACHS:1940:153)!
However, not
only does the name gargara (or, for that matter, karkarī) not
sound like the name of a stringed instrument (it is clearly an onomatopoeic
name for a rousing drum, and the actual meaning of the word is
"whirlpool"), but Wilson and Geldner actually translate the term as
"drum" (and Jamison and Monier-Williams as simply a kind of
"instrument").
All this
jugglery is also a part of the lute story, which we will see presently.
4. Sachs ignores
another musical instrument godhā which is named along with the gargara
in the Rigveda VIII.69.9. The word actually means a sinew or
chord (i.e. clearly the string of a stringed instrument) and also the
leathern-guard tied to the quiver of a bow to protect the hand from injury.
Wilson and Geldner translate it as the latter, but the context (in VIII.69.9,
which refers to the gargara, godhā and piṅgā, the third
being a bowstring, sounding out simultaneously as the singer sings the praise
of Indra) makes it clear it is a musical instrument, and Monier-Williams
translates it as a chord, and also points out that the Kātyāyana Śrautasūtra
specifies that godhā is a stringed instrument, while Griffith translates
it as a "lute" and Jamison as a "vīṇā". Clearly, godhā
refers to a stringed instrument being played along with a percussion (gargara).
5. About vāṇa,
Sachs tells us that "the instrument vāṇa was probably a flute,
since it was played by the Maruts, who were spirits of storm. A simple vertical
flute, veṇu, or 'cane', is still used by aboriginal tribes of India"
(SACHS:1940:153).Three presumptions: that spirits of storm play flutes, that vāṇa
became veṇu, and that the "aboriginal tribes" of India
borrowed a non-native instrument from the Rigvedic people (since Sachs has
already told us that in "ancient India […] there is no
instrument for which we can trace a native origin")!
However, the
word in the Rigveda is generally translated as "music" or
"voice", but the word, as per Monier-Williams, clearly means a harp
with a hundred strings in the Yajurveda, Brāhmaṇas and Śrautasūtras.
[Note: it must
be remembered that the oldest Indian texts, the Rigveda and the other Vediic
Samhitas, basically represented only a small part of the geographical area of
northwestern India, and these texts, moreover, were not manuals of musical
practice].
6. Later,
referring to the vīṇā, which is named in the Yajurveda (Vājasaneyi
Samhitā 30), he decides that this name "has supplanted gargara"
(SACHS:1940:153) - which, as we saw, he wrongly identified with a stringed
instrument (harp) in the Rigveda.
In fact, in line
with the Madagascar attribution above, he attributes the word vīṇā to Egypt:
"the most striking evidence of an Egyptian origin is the word vīṇā.
As this term according to its spelling (ṇ without a preceding r)
must be a foreign word, there is little doubt of its identity with the Egyptian
name of the harp" (SACHS:1940:153). Again, we are left mystified as to
how and by what means the name of an ancient Egyptian instrument (so obscure
that you will not find the word listed in any list of important Egyptian
musical instruments, nor find its trail anywhere between Egypt and India) could
have mysteriously entered the Yajurveda and replaced an earlier Rigvedic name (gargara),
then again got replaced by another form (karkarī) of the earlier name (gargara)
in the later Atharvaveda, and finally come back into form as a generic term for
all Indian stringed instruments in later history. And Sachs himself, as we saw
above, tells us that Egypt has no native instrument!
Incidentally, if
Sachs can suggest that the word veṇu (flute) is a development from vāṇa,
then it could be more logical to suggest that the word vīṇā is a
development from vāṇa, since both these words definitely refer to
stringed instruments. It could alternately be a word borrowed from the inner
languages of India (e.g. Dravidian).
But the main
point behind all this is the claim, by Sachs among others, that lutes
did not exist in ancient India and there were only harps: lutes came from the
west through Persia. This is based on the alleged absence of lutes in Indian
cave paintings and carvings in the years BCE, the idea that vīṇā only
referred to harps, and the West Asian-origin names of some of the most
prominent lutes and lute-zithers (tānpura, sitār, sarod, etc.).
But as already
pointed out by Alain Danielou, quoted earlier: "Under Muslim rule,
age-old stories were retold as if they had happened at the court of Akbar, so
as to make them acceptable to new rulers and win the practice and honors
bestowed on the creative artistes of the day. Such transfer of legends is
frequent everywhere. We should therefore not be surprised to find ancient
musical forms and musical instruments being given Persian-sounding names and
starting a new career as the innovations of the Mughal courts".
The absence of
cave paintings and carvings of the lutes or lute-zithers in very early times is
not a point, since there are no cave-paintings and carvings before the Buddhist
era anyway, and we do find lutes depicted after the Buddhist era both in the
north as well as in the Ajanta caves in Maharashtra (dated 2nd century BCE to
4th century CE).
In any case, we
have the testimony of Sachs himself with regard to, for example, bells,
that they existed in India long before they are recorded in stone: "The
first iconographic record of the hand bell or ghaṇṭā is
not conclusive. As late as the seventh century it is depicted in one of the
caves at Aurangabad; yet five hundred years earlier, the greco-Syrian
philosopher, Bardesanes, had related that while the Hindu priest prayed, he
sounded the bell. It was small and tulip-shaped, with a thick clapper. As it
was exclusively used by priests in the worship of Hindu divinities, the handle
was finely decorated with religious symbols, such as Siva's trident, Vishnu's
eagle or Hanuman, the king of the apes" (SACHS 1940:222). Obviously
the bell was not invented on the day the Greco-Syrian philosopher saw it
(itself 500 years before its first depiction in stone carvings or
paintings), but was an old and traditional instrument. So also lutes
were not played in India from the first day they were depicted in carvings and
paintings.
Further, while sitar
and sarod were names given during the period of Islamic rule to earlier
Indian instruments popularized and adapted or modified in the Mughal court, the
name tanpura was given to a fretless drone lute which has no parallels
outside India. Further, while the earliest mention of the word tunbur in
West Asia is in Middle Persian and Sassanid records (after 200 CE), the word tambura
(still used for folk instruments, but replaced by the Persianized tanpura
for the classical instrument) has a much greater antiquity in India. It is
supposed to be the instrument placed by a celestial musician called Tumburu
or Tumbaru named in the Mahabharata (BCE) and whose name is derived from
the Sanskrit word tumba for the gourd (used in making the
resonator of the lutes).
But the two
strongest pieces of evidence against the foreign origin of Indian lutes are:
1. Far from
having adopted the lute from sophisticated western models, many of the
western lutes are in fact held by most musicologists to have been
descended from ancient and primitive forms of lutes actually found as
folk instruments deep inside India. The ravanahatha of the south
(including Sri Lanka), and common in Rajasthan and Gujarat, is believed to be
the ultimate ancestor of the violin (of the violin family and
also of all bowed string instruments) through the West Asian rebab. This
has been explained in detail by musicologists since more than a hundred years.
The seminal piece of work "Violin Making: As it Was and Is" by
Edward Heron-Allen (1885) traces this historical development, and is still
cited to this day. India today has the widest range and variety of lutes
(short-necked and long-necked, fretted and non-fretted, and plucked and bowed).
2. Sachs
disputes the above, and tries to trace the origin of lutes (and lute-zithers)
to Persia. Unfortunately, his analysis of Indian music (as opposed to his
analysis of Indian musical instruments), proves exactly the opposite: according
to him, ancient India only had harps (which are almost extinct in India
today) and no lutes. The basic musical difference between harps
and (particularly the present day Indian) lutes is that harps are
open-string instruments while lutes are stopped-string instruments.
And here is what
Sachs has to say about Bharata's ancient text the Natya-Shastra, which
he agrees could be as early as the 4th century BCE and about which he
tells us that it "testifies to a well-established system of music in
ancient India, with an elaborate theory of intervals, consonances, modes,
melodic and rhythmic patterns" (SACHS 1943:164). Further, after some
discussion later, he tells us about the text itself that "Bharata's
text was probably rehandled as early as antiquity, and it may confirm the idea
that Bharata himself wrote his treatise much earlier" (SACHS
1943:168).
He also tells us
that this text establishes that it represents a stage where the "slow
transition from folk-song to art-song, from hundreds of tribal styles to one
all-embracing music of India […] had long ago come to an end"
(SACHS 1943:157). In short, the musical tradition mirrored in the text must be
much older than the date of the text (itself as early as the 4th century
BCE, and written much earlier).
And
here is what Sachs has to say about the 7-tone-22-shruti system of notes
described in Bharata's text: "We know that two basic principles have
shaped scales all over the world: the cyclic principle with its equal whole
tones of 204 and semitones of 90 Cents, and the divisive
principle
with major whole tones of 204, minor whole tones of 182, and large semitones of
112 Cents. Bharata’s system derives from the divisive principle, and this,
in turn, stems from stopped strings. But the earlier part of Indian
antiquity had no stringed instrument except the open-stringed harp; no lute, no
zither provided a fingerboard. India must have had the up-and-down principle,
and it cannot but be hiding somewhere." (SACHS:1943:169)
In short: the
system described in Bharata's text is a musical system going back far into the
pre-Buddhist past and representing a scale system which, at least as per
Sachs' own admission, could only have been derived from experiments with
stopped strings. This has been sought to be explained by some
musicologists in various unconvincing ways, but the only logical explanation is
that ancient India, long before Bharata's Natya-Shastra, long before the
Buddha, had a fully developed system of octaves based on an analysis of notes
which were based on musical instruments with stopped strings, so obviously very-ancient
India (in the early 1st millennium BCE and much earlier) had indigenous
musical instruments with stopped strings (lutes, lute-zithers,
stick-zithers).
Incidentally, for
what it is worth, it may be noted that as per the “Guinness
Book of Facts and Feats”, bagpipes (so characteristic of Scottish music),
and hourglass drums (the talking drums or message drums of Africa), originated
in India.
This is not to
claim that everything originated in India. To take just the two most
important non-Indian (and specifically European) musical instruments which have
found an extremely important place in Indian music, we have the violin
and the harmonium. To some extent also the organ (in Marathi
natya sangeet), the clarinet (in Carnatic music), and a very large range
of other instruments in film music (not necessarily only Hindi), as well as
tunes and compositions, and many other major or minor instruments introduced
into India by immigrating groups - I will not name any here because it is a
subject for more detailed study and analysis. But one must use one's powers of
logical discrimination (viveka-buddhi) to evaluate claims and
counter-claims.
In any case, no
culture is an island in itself, and aspects derived from other cultures do not
in any way impinge on the supreme greatness of Indian music.
There is,
however, a difference between Indian music and western music. Today, the vast
ocean of Indian music is under lethal attack from largescale commercialism,
cultural apathy, and westernization. Apart from literally thousands of musical
instruments and styles going extinct, and records of musical theory and
performance neglected and left to rot and be destroyed forever, there is the
trend of overwhelmingly large sections of Indian youth being drawn towards what
can only be described (and I offer no apologies) as bastardized forms of
"Indian" music which are Indian only in language.
To illustrate on
a simple level, see the following video explaining in popular language a
fundamental difference between Hindustani and western music (see from 1.39 to
3.47 minutes):
The grotesque
Dr.-Jekyll-to-Mr.-Hyde transformation of Indian music (i.e. music in an Indian
language) to a westernized caricature - often a hundred times worse than the
one seen in this example - is a familiar feature in present-day
"Indian" music being successfully propagated in every Indian
language. Is this monstrous process reversible? Can we save Indian music, in all
its multifarious varieties, from total extinction of the major part and utter
corruption of the remaining minor part? Only time will tell.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
DANIELOU
1943: An Introduction to the
Study of Musical Scales. Danielou, Alain. The India Society, London, 1943.
DANIELOU
1949: Northern Indian Music, Vol. 1. Danielou, Alain.
Christopher Johnson, London, 1949.
DANIELOU
1954: Northern Indian Music, Vol. 2. Danielou, Alain.
Christopher Johnson, London, 1954.
HERON-ALLEN
1885: Violin Making: As it Was and Is. Heron-Allen, Edward.
Ward, Lock and Co. Ltd., London, 1885.
SACHS 1940:
The History of Musical Instruments. Sachs, Curt. W.W.Norton &
Company, New York, 1940.
SACHS 1943:
The Rise of Music in the Ancient World, East and West. Sachs, Curt.
W.W.Norton & Company, New York, 1943.
SCOTT 1972:
The Theatre in Asia (The History of the Theatre). Scott, A.C. Weidenfeld
and Nicholson, London, 1972.
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