Some Aspects of the Development of Indian Music Author(s ... - DMU

Some Aspects of the Development of Indian MusicAuthor(s): Arnold A. BakeSource: Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 76th Sess., (1949 - 1950), pp. 23-34Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Musical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/765937Accessed: 05/06/2008 18:49Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unlessyou have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and youmay use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=oup.Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We enable thescholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform thatpromotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.http://www.jstor.org

9 February, 1950W. GREENHOUSE ALLT, ESQ., Mus.D., F.T.C.L., F.R.C.OVICE-PRESIDENT,IN THE CHAIR.SOME ASPECTS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OFINDIAN MUSIC.BY ARNOLD A. BAKE, M.A., D.LITr.Owing to printer's difficulties the cerebral consonants, the visarga, thesonant r and the anusvdra have remained unmarked.IT is now very close upon two hundred years since Indianculture as such first struck scholars from the West and themomentous discovery of the language of Sanskrit openedthe way for a completely new branch of studies-that ofcomparative philology.It was most fortunate that among the very first to enterthe field was a man of such keen artistic perception andsensitiveness as Sir William Jones. His wide range ofinterest covered more than philology alone and it is to himthat we owe one of the first treatises on Indian music, On theMusical Modes of the Hindus, written as early as 1784, fromwhich we can learn a good deal, even now.It is remarkable to find in Sir William Jones's article such astrong and reasoned perception of the affinity of the Indianmusical system with that of the West. This is indeed afeature that we should never forget. It cannot be repeatedoften enough that in the field with which we are dealing here,the dividing line between East and West lies to the east ofthe Indian Peninsula and runs through Assam and Burma,not to the west of that Subcontinent.Let us have a look at the finished system which confrontedSir William Jones. In the eighteenth century Indian musicwas long past its prime and one may surmise that some decayhad already set in-at least in North India-with the generaldecline of culture under the successors of Aurangzeb. Themost striking feature of the music was the minutely regulatedRdga-system, hundreds of rdgas, each one creating a specialatmosphere through its own particular musical features andcharacteristics, individualized and depicted in poetry andpainting. Sir William Jones recognized them for what theywere, developments and refinements of a set of primary modes.

24Development of Indian MusicHe says (Hindu music from various authors, by SourendroMohun Tagore, pp. 130-131):'The longer intervals we shall call tones, and the shorter (in compliancewith custom) semitones, without mentioning their exact ratios; and it isevident that, as the places of the semitones admit seven variations relativeto one fundamental sound, there are as many modes which may be calledprimary; but we must not confound them with our modem modes, whichresult from the system of accords now established in Europe; they mayrather be compared with those of the Roman Church, where some valuableremnants of old Grecian music are preserved in the sweet, majestic, simpleand affecting strains of the Plain Song.'It is a fact that the primary Indian modes, thejdtis mentionedin the oldest treatise, the Bharatandtyafdstra and in the laterSangttaratndkara, are formed in precisely the same way as ourGregorian modes, namely by taking the notes of a basic scaleone by one as the starting point of a new, subsequent mode.Thus the first jdti of the Indian system is that basic series itself,the second an octave scale starting from the second note andcalled drsabhi after this second note, rsabha, the third, Gdndhdriafter the third note Gdndhara, and so on.We also find express mention of the fact that all thesemodes can be started from one and the same note, namelythe first of the basic series, provided that the internal arrangementof tones and semitones is not upset by that process.The accidentals arising from this procedure are consequentlythe same as in our system, flats for the second, the third,the sixth and the seventh note, and a sharp for the fourth,which appears in the basic scale when the mode originallystarting on the fourth note is tratsposed to it. To take aWestern example, if the basic scale runs from C-c, the F-fscale,our mediaeval Lydian mode, will have an F sharpwhen transposed to C.Each of these jdtis can then be further developed and definedand, according to the characteristics on which the attentionis focussed, become the mother of several rdgas. The objectof each Rdga is to exemplify a certain mood or emotionalcolouring, illustrated or engendered by the prominent characteristicsof the special sequence of notes.Sir William Jones's comparison of the Gregorian modeswith those basic jatis is consequently very pertinent and Ishould like to give you an example of one of them first in plainchantand then in the form it has taken in modern SouthIndian music. It is the mediaeval Dorian (the Greek Phrygic)mode, from D-d, or with two flats when taken from C. InSouth India this mode bears the name of Karaharapriyaand in the North it is called Kafi. It is sung by Mr. John Marr,

...lDevelopment of Indian Music25one of the students of the S.O.A.S., who has made a veryspecial study of South-Indian music and has grown up in theGregorian practice.Examples: Gramophone Records.This sameness of the modes and the jatis presupposessameness of primary musical conception and indeed wedo find the Indian system also based on the recognition ofabsolute consonance, implied in the first and second partial,namely the absolute consonance of the octave, the fifthand its inversion the fourth. The ancient Indian systemrecognizes three octaves or registers: the lowest, called lowor heart register; the second, middle or throat register; thethird, high or head register. The seven notes in each successiveoctave are the repetition of those of the previous one.So we see that the multitude of rdgas can be reduced to sevenjdtis, or primary modes and that the primary modes are builtup out of seven notes or svaras. These svaras are of unequalsize as indicated by the number of frutis or microtones theycomprise. The equivalent of our major tone has four,the equivalent of our minor tone has three, the semi-tone twoqrutis. There are three major, two minor and two semitoneswithin the compass of an octave which gives the totalamount of twenty-two frutis. The series starts with a majortone called sa, then follows a minor tone ri, then a semi-tonega, then a major tone ma, a major tone pa, a minor tone dha,and lastly a semitone ni.X 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0o 2x 12 13 14 15 I6 x7 x8 19 20 2 2 2l l l I l l i l l l l lThe twenty-two frutis of the Indian Octave.This division of the octave into twenty-two ?rutis is thefirst major deviation from the system we follow. Naturallyit is this which has attracted most attention, and the discussionas to what size those Crut.s are has raged for more than acentury. Sir William Jones says on this point: (I. c. p. 135):'Let us proceed to the Indian system which is minutely explained in agreat number of Sanscrit books by authors who leave arithmetic andgeometry to their astronomers and properly discourse music as an artconfined to the pleasures of imagination.'In the heat of the discussion of the exact nature of thefrutis this has often been lost sight of. The essence andraison d'etre of music, from the Indian point of view, is

Development of Indian Music27Sir William Jones asked the same question and he reports(pp. 141-142):'I tried in vain to discover any difference in practice between the Indianscale and our own; but, knowing my ear to be very insufficiently exercised,I requested a German professor of music to accompany with his violina Hindu lutenist, who sang by note some popular airs on the loves ofCrishna and Radha; he assures me that the scales were the same.'From these premises and with the scheme of the sa-grdmain front of him, he then proceeded to identify the notes ofthis scale with ours and arrived at the conclusion that itcorresponded 'pretty nearly to our major mode: Ut re mifa sol la si ut.' (p. 142).1l SA RI GA MA PA )1AI1111 1111 11 111 lll I 111 11vI 1i lIIL13A. M SoLRI v GLl1iill I I lll ii i 1111 111111If we accept this statement, which was plainly corroboratedby the actual practice of his day, and turn to the ma-grdmastarting from the fourth, we see that that gives a scale withan augmented fourth, in other words a scale starting with atritone, an interval abhorred in the West but very popularin India. Indeed, taken in the sense in which Sir William tookit, the two grdmas would be the basis of the moder SouthIndian melakarta system in which thirty-six out of the total ofseventy-two basic rdgas have a perfect fourth, and thirtysixan augmented fourth.There are, however, indications that, whatever the currentpractice was in the eighteenth century, it certainly did notrepresent the practice of the days when this system was inventedor formulated. For one thing there would have been no sensein calling that one fruti which changes the relative size of thefifth and sixth note 'the indicative ?ruti,' because the augmentedfourth would be the same even if the ma-grdma were taken as amurchand of the sa-grdma. The character of the tritone is notmaterially affected by the middle notes changing from amajor and a minor to a minor and a major tone respectively.But apart from that fact there is another and much morecompelling reason to reject this interpretation of the sa-gramaas a counterpart of our major mode. All the treatisesincludingthe Rdgavibodha, a seventeenth century work,which was known to Sir William-lay down the rule that the

I28Development of Indian Musicnotes were realized at the end of their constituent frutis, sothat the picture of the sa-grdma and the ma-grdma reallylooks as you see it on this second chart, with the interval offour frutis between ni and sa and not between sa and ri.It consequently represents the mode from D-d, the mediaevalDorian, which you heard a few minutes ago. The ma-grdma,then, is the mediaeval Mixolydian, (or Greek Hypophrygic)from G-g, and the ancestor of the South Indian Rdga Harikambojiand the North Indian Jhinjoti.Vi 4 ,lu ( ^ MA IM 1A NU1111111111 11 11111111, 111 11 1

30Development of Indian Musicplain words is the oldest treatise extant, the aforementionedBharatandtycdstra, which probably goes back to the 2ndcentury B.C. but represents an already fully developed musicalsystem with a fixed set of technical terms, which must havetaken centuries to crystalize.Excuse me for quoting one sentence in Sanskrit, because it isthese words which contain the whole explanation. Bharatasays (chapter 28, the prose after sloka 22) : : 'in the madhyamagramathe pa has to be tuned one fruti down' andthen continues 'paicamasya 9rutyutkarsapakarsabhyam yadantaram mardavad ayatatvad va tavad pramn?agrutih.Which means: the interval which results from the tuning upor down of that ?ruti of the pancama (up from ma to sa-grama,down from sa- to ma-grdma) is called the "indicative ?ruti"by reason of the resulting state of mrdu or dyata.'So we see that the question of size did not enter into thespeculations of Bharata at all. The reason why that frutiwas called "indicative" was that it engendered a certain state,'mrdu' in the sa-grdma and 'dyata' in the ma-grdma. Youwill agree with me that everything now depends on the correcttranslation of these two terms. Joanny Grosset, who translatedthis 28th chapter in 1888 in a booklet entitled Contributiond I'Etude de la Musique Hindoue put it (p. 57)L'intervalle d'une cruti qui represente 1'61evation ou l'abaissement depancama, sa diminution (mdrdava) ou son augmentation (dyatatva),est la gruti-type, indicatrice (pramdna." (the interval that represents theraising or lowering of the pancama, its diminution (mdrdava) or its augmentation(dyatatva) is the indicative pramana cruti).This is incorrect because the Sanskrit says: represents theindicative 9ruti on account of its mdrdava or dyatatva, usingthe ablative case.Fox Strangways does not mention this sentence, but wefind it again in Danielou, who translates it as follows (p. 116):'In the magrdma the pancama must be lowered by one sruti. The differenceof pancama is the very measure of crutis (which can be described as adifference of) softness or accentuations, of expression or of length.'It is presumably on this passage that he builds his laterassertion that Bharata, of the second century B.C. in commonwith Ahobala of the eighteenth century, knew the definitionof pitch by length of string (p. 130).Now it is quite clear that mdrdava and dyatatva are designationsof two different states. The former is derived from theword mrdu, which means soft, and can thus be translated bysoftness. The other is derived from the word dyata, which

Development of Indian Musicmeans extended, but is also used of the string of a bow when itis strung. As description of a condition, dyatatva can thusbe rendered by tautness or tenseness.Have these terms really any connection with Indian musicalconceptions ? Bharata does not explain them in the courseof his chapters on music, as he takes them for granted. It isin the Sangitaratndkara of the twelfth century, that we findthem again in a suitably illuminating context. In the firstchapter of that book (I. 3.29) we find the statement that aFruti can be one of five things, according to the effect it produces.It can be mrdu-soft, dipta-burning, karunapitiableor compassionate, dyata, taut or tense, and finallymadhyama, middling or neutral.This is clearly the set of categories Bharata refers to. The?ruti in question is called indicative on account of the softness(in the sa-grama) and the tenseness (in the ma-grdma) resultingfrom its being shifted.Now, if you look at the scheme again, remembering thatthe sa-grdma starts on sa and the ma-grdma on ma, youwill see that the only difference between the two is, that thesa-grdma starts with a minor and the ma-grdma with a majorthird.One could raise the same objection as before, namely that itreally does not affect the actual size of the interval whether thepramana fruti belongs to pa or dha, the total number ofVrutis remaining the same in either case.But, supposing the ma-grdma was taken as a mtirchand ofthe sa-grdma, it then would have a major third composed of amajor tone and a minor tone to contrast against the minorthird of the sa-grdma consisting of a minor tone and a semitone.This certainly would offer a certain kind of contrastbut a rather mild one. If, however, one shifts the pramdnacruti as is indicated for the ma-grdma, from the end of pato the beginning of dha, the sequence of notes in both gramasbegins with a minor tone (ri in the sa-grdma and pa in thema-grdma) after which the semitone, ga, of the sa-grdma,stands against the major tone, dha of the ma-grdma, whichis the strongest possible contrast admissible in this system.Consequently the pramdna-?ruti is indeed indicative of twodifferent tone-characters, mrdu, soft in the sa-grdma with theminor third, and dyata, tense or taut in the ma-grdma with themajor third.This approach from the angle of emotional effect is entirelyin accordance with the general attitude of the ancient Indianmusicians towards their subject. What matters is what one31

32Development of Indian Musichears and how this affects the soul. The emotional effectis what determines the musical value. Hence Sir WilliamJones hit the nail on the head when he spoke of:'the authors who leave arithmetic and geometry to their astromonersand properly discourse on music and an art confined to the pleasures ofimagination.'I do not want to say that those who start calculating andcyphering do not thereby discover valuable and correct data,but I do want to say that this mathematical aspect of musicwas not present in the mind of Bharata when he defined thepramdna-qruti which was destined to become the startingpoint of elaborate mathematical processes in the West sometwo thousand years after his death.By this I do not wish to imply that the Indians themselveshave never subjected their musical system to mathematicalanalysis. Later writers, especially those from the seventeenthcentury onwards, like Ahobala, certainly have done so with avengeance, but although they profess to base themselves onBharata, that author himself,-whoever he may have beenand whatever knowledge of the underlying mathematicallaws he may have possessed-never made that a point in histreatise. He is severely practical and treats music as a partof the greater unity of theatrical arts, where the aim was theintimate emotional interplay between the actors and theiraudience, the creation of definite emotional states and conditionsin the souls of the spectators. It is this art and notmathematics which he pursues.It will be worth while to see what-if anything-has remainedof this basic difference between the sa and the magrama,namely the initial minor and major thirds, in themodem rdgas that have developed from that basis. If thereis any truth in my contention, the Karaharapriya, the modemdescendent of the sa-grdma ought to stress the minor third,Jhinjoti, the offspring of the ma-grdma the major third.Through the kindness of one of my Indian friends I havebeen able to secure an instance of each of them sung by thesame artist, an extremely accomplished singer, Khan SahibAbdul Karim Khan who, alas, is not alive any more. Theadvantage of having the two sung by the same man is that hestarts the ragas from the same tonic, or rather, that he singsthem against the same drone. Thereby it is possible to comparethe two. Indian music does not recognize absolute orfixed pitch. It is severely modal and, as long as the internalarrangement of tones and semitones is not upset, one can starta raga from any pitch. So each singer chooses his (or her)

Development of Indian Music33pitch to suit his own voice. The drone never changes, neitheron the drum nor on the accompanying tambura as long as thesame singer performs, whatever the succession of rdgasperformed. If two singers follow one another, the secondwill bring his own set of accompanying instruments, tamburaand drums mostly, in order to avoid lengthy and laboriousretuning. If the unspeakable harmonium is there (as is thecase in these records) the drone can be changed without moreado.I will play the two records immediately after one another,and you will hear how the first starts with the minor third andcontinually stresses that interval, whereas the second openswith the major third and brings it in again and again in thecourse of the melody.Example : Karaharapriya and Jhinjoti ---To show you how vividly the emotional effect of the interplayof the major and minor third is realized, I shall concludewith a short record by the same singer, in a rdga called Sindh-Kafi, which, as its name shows, is reckoned to belong to theKafi class and consequently should have a minor third and aflat seventh all through. Here, however, the natural thirdandthe natural seventh-are flashed into the picture againand again, and I don't think I could give a better illustrationof mdrdava and dyatatva combined in the same melody.Example: Sindh-Kafi-When looking at Indian music, we may start calculating andcyphering to our heart's content, but we should never forgetthat the primary aim of the whole system, frutis, svaras,gramas, jdtis, rdgas and all, was from the beginning and stillis, rakti, musical charm.As Damodara says in his Mirror of Music-as late as theseventeenth century:Gitavaditranrtyanam raktih sadharano gunahato raktivihinam yan na tat sangitam ucyate (1. 6-7).'Rakti is the common quality of vocal music, instrumentalmusic and dance alike. Hence that which is devoid of rakticannot be called music.'

34Development of Indian MusicAPPENDIXContinuing his exposition of the notes and the grimas,Bharata mentions the phenomena of "kskali" and "antara,"accidentals affecting ni and ga respectively. (Bharatanatyaiastra28, verse 32 and following prose). With regard to theantarasvara, he gives an explanation in which he uses"mardava" as a technical term, but applies it to dha. In thepassage quoted in the lecture, mirdava referred to pa onlyand denoted the change back from the ma to the sa grama,when the pa became a note of four qrutis again. Evidentlymardava henceforth denotes the process by which a noteacquires four srutis.He says (page 320 of the Benares edition of the text):"One murchana (viz. the first in the sa-grima, starting onsa) can be made twofold (viz. belonging to both gramas) inthe following way: when the ga is made like the dha (in thema-grama) by the shift of two qrutis, the murchana comes tobelong to the other of the two gramas (gramyayor-readgrimayor-anyataratvam). In consequence ma and thefollowing notes assume the function of ni and the followingnotes in regular order in the madhyamagrama. This twofoldnessis due to the dha's being subject to mardava and to thefact that all the other notes have the same number of qrutis(in both grimas). By the raising of ga by two 9rutis a four9ruti note is created, with the same effect as what happens withthe one-qrutinterval between pa and dha (viz. the change ofgrama). The other notes however, ma and so on, remainwhat they were, as they have the same number of rrutis ..."What actually happens is, that, if one wants to play thema-grama starting from sa, one changes the minor third intoa major one, by making ga into a major tone, raising it bytwo grutis. This produces the same effect as playing the magramafrom ma with the dha as a four-$ruti note. Consequentlythe crucial difference between the two gramas is this differencebetween the minor third in the sa- and the major third in thema-grama.sa ri ga ma pa dha nisa-grama .. 1111 III 11 1111 1111 III IIsa ri ga ma pa dha niwithantarasvara 1111 III 11 II I111 III II(ga) .. (ma) (pa) (dha) (n) (sa) (ri) (ga)The new sequence is identical with the ma-grama, as shownby the names between brackets, applied according to Bharata'sown instructions as given above.