MUSIC IN ANCIENT INDIA

Musical scene ca. 200 C.E.

Nātyaśāstra \nATyashAstra\ [Sanskrit nm nātya "drama" + nm śāstra "treatise"]

The dramatist Bharata (who is sometimes referred to with the honorific suffix, muni) wrote the original portions of this revered treatise sometime during the first two centuries of the Common Era (0-200 CE). The treatise deals with the varied aspects of drama, including sections on dance and on music (particularly instrumental music) with passages on tuning, scales, modal patterns and functions, instrument types, performance techniques, and accompaniment styles.

For Bharata dhruva \dhruva\ [Sanskrit n "fixed"] were "the kinds of song with which a play was ornamented . . . ." The songs accomplished this ornamentation through their "texts and character, and their dramatic applications" (Powers 1980:78a).

Bharata also speaks of a microtonal interval: the śruti \shruti\ [Sanskrit śru, v "to hear"; "that which is heard"]. He describes 22 of these microtonal intervals constituting an octave. Intervals of three sizes — 4, 3, or 2 śrutis — formed the basis for ancient scales. Although this practice has not been in effect for well over a millennium, modern musicians still use the word śruti to describe microtonal inflections in their playing. Unfortunately, Bharata's explanation does not tell us much about how to produce the twenty-two śrutis. (See Jairazbhoy 1975.)

The musical system of Bharata's day had seven sequential scale steps: sadja \ShaDja\, rsabha \RShabha\, gāndhāra \gAndhAra\, madhyama \madhyama\, pañcama \pancama\, dhaivata \dhaivata\, and nisada \niSada\. Classical musicians and music scholars continue to use these terms.

The principal melodic concept of this period of ancient Indian music was jāti [Sanskrit n. "family," "mode"]. A jāti was mode in a scale (mūrcchanā) which was drawn from either of two possible heptatonic parent scales or grāmas (\grAma\): the sadja-grāma (\ShaDja-grAma\ a scale based on the note, sadja) and the madhyama-grāma (\madhyama-grAma\ a scale based on the note, madhyama). The only difference between these two parent scales was the placement of one śruti.

The music system of Bharata's time seems on the surface to be similar to that of the ancient Greeks in that a jāti would derive from a parent scale (mūrcchanā \mUrcchanA\) founded on the successive notes of two heptatonic intonation systems (sadjagrāma and madhymagrāma).

Bharata describes the relationships between pitches as samvādin \samvAdin\ (consonant), anuvādin \anuvAdin\ (assonant), or vivādin \vivAdin\ (dissonant). The reference pitch in each case is the vādin \vAdin\ (sonant). Distances of nine and thirteen śrutis (sa-ma and sa-pa) were consonant. The mūrcchanās derived from each of the scale steps of the two grāmas, thus the two heptatonic parent grāmas gave rise to 14 mūrcchanās. Bharata describes pitch in terms of an instrument he calls the vīnā. Today's vīnā is a lute, but sculptures of the time (see above) depict bow-harps, suggesting that the sage's instrument may have been unlike most instruments in modern India.

Nāradīyaśiksā \nAradIyashikShA\ [Sanskrit, "Narada's (phonetic) manual"].

We know little about Narada or this text except that portions of it date from about the fifth century with other portions added later. The students for whom Narada intended this, learned about religious chant (Vedic chant), how to deal with the all-important issue of pronouciation, and, notably, issues of musical pitch. In this last context, the author (or authors) make links between the musical scales used in sacred chant and secular singing. That is, Narada suggests that the pitches of musical scales derive from the pitches used to chant the Vedas.

While we do not know how this culture derived the specific intonation of these pitches, Rowell (2000: 31) believes that it parallels the Dorian mode that we ascribe to the Greeks. Given the contact between the India and Greece (particularly with Alexander's conquest of the Indus River Valley starting in 325 BCE), the similarities between the systems may be more than mere chance. Narada spoke of two important pitch distinctions: svara and śruti. The former refers to the musical pitches of a musical scale, while the latter covers a quality of the tone that can be heard, but which the listener will find difficult to distinguish. In other words, the previous notion of a microtonal interval known as śruti has become something of an anachronism by Narada's time.

Bŗhaddeśī \bRhaddeshI\ [Sanskrit, adj bŗhat "great, mighty" + nm deś "region, country, kingdom"].

This treatise — written by the sage Matanga sometime between the 8th and 9th centuries C.E. probably in southern India — augments and supplements material from the Nātyaśāstra and several otherwise unknown earlier sources.

Matanga based his theories of sound on the metaphysical and physiological theories of Tantric yoga. Unlike the Nātyaśāstra, the Bŗhaddeśī is a work of learning, not a practical manual, although it also gives dramatic applications and mnemonic notations (perhaps the earliest examples of notation in India).

Already by this time, the term jāti is apparently antiquated and the terms rāga and bhāsā [\bhAShA\] are in the process of replacing it. Matanga introduces and defines these terms with the pointed observation that Bharata and others have not previously discussed them. Notably, this documents a change from an older system to the system out of which modern Indian music grows. Some of the names mentioned by Matanga are still current for modern rāgas.

This treatise reflects a shift away from the mārga ("the path") approach to music to deśī ("regional") styles. That is, musicians and theorists now recognize that other musical systems in South Asia parallel each other and that there is no single core tradition. Moreover, Matanga's statements verify that India had sacred and secular musical systems.

Sangītaratnākara \sangItaratnAkara\ [Sanskrit sangīt "music" + ratnākara "jewel mine, ocean"]

Written by Sarngadeva during the first half of the 13th century C.E. (approximately 1210-47), the Sangīta-ratnākara incorporates many passages from previous treatises, but also includes long sections on the metaphysical origins of musical sound. In this, Sarangadeva continues in the tradition of Matanga. Notable are Sarangadeva's discussions of rāga (264 altogether) and tāla (time-cycle) which indicates that the system first described by Matanga has become the only system. Musicians and scholars apparently by this time no longer use the word jāti in the same way, suggesting that the older system had by this time vanished. Moreover, the concept of "sangīta" now specifically refers to music as an art form largely independent from liturgical and dramatic contexts (Rowell 2000:33). The new heterogeneous musical style grew out of a number of regional (deśī [\deshI\] traditions, supplanting the old mārga [\mArga\] system.

Śiva as Natarāja

The treatise is also noteworthy because it documents the significant changes underway. After the 16th century, theoretical treatises reflect a split in the classical traditions (paddhati [\paddhati\]) into that of the north or Hindustani (Indo-Aryan) and that of the south or Karnatak [sometimes spelled as Carnatic] (Dravidian). The Sangītaratnākara, then, is a compendium of musical practices as recognized by 13th-century music theorists.

Selected References

Bharatamuni. 1961. The Nātyaśāstra: A Treatise on Ancient Indian Dramaturgy and Histrionics, ed. and trans. Manomohan Ghosh (translator and editor). Calcutta: The Asiatic Society.

Jairazbhoy, Nazir. 1971. Introduction to the Historical Background. In The Rāgs of North Indian Music: Their Structure and Evolution. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

——. 1975. An Interpretation of the 22 Śrutis. In Asian Music 6 (1/2): 38-59.

Powers, Harry. 1980. Subcontinent of India. In The New Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie 9:69-166. London: Macmillan.

Rowell, Lewis. 1992. Music and Musical Thought in Early India. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

——. 2000. Theoretical Treatises. In South Asia: The Indian Subcontinent. The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Edited by Alison Arnold. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc. (5: 17-41).

Vedic Chant	Outline	Karnatak Sangit
	29 January, 2013