Fundamental of Ancient Indian Music and Dance

Author(s): Sureshchandra Benarji
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 49

Fundamentals of Ancient Indian Music and Dance
agreeable manner, speedy ascent and descent, skill in singing and playing instruments, revealing the proper sthāna (or, acc. to some, tāna) to singers, hiding their defects, skilfulness in respect of mārga and deši rāgas, capacity for produing rāgas in the improper sthāna as in the proper one. An expert flutist can produce various svaras in a single hole due to the intensity or otherwise of the wind, its fast and slow speed, filling or not filling, increase or decrease.
The following are the defects of a flutist :
Excess of wrong application, the reverse of the merits stated above, not reaching the intended sthāna, shaking of the head.
The faults of blowing a flute are as follows : Yamala-completing one blowing by another. Stoka---though heavy, yet unable to reach the proper sthānas. Kęśa-able to reach the proper sthāna, but too light. Skhalita --stopping at intervals.
According to others, the following are the defects of blowing: Kampita-that which emanates, with distorted svara, from
the mouth having cough. Tumbaki-sound resembiing that of the tumba (a kind of
gourd). Kāki--sound, devoid of tārasthāna, resembling the cawing
of crows. Sandasta-insufficient scanty. avyavastihta--sometimes less, sometime more than usual, harsh.
In this connexion, it may be added that the blowing of a flute may be fivefold : (i) Kampitā--the shaking of the flute attached to lips; it is
necessary for accomplishing varņa and alamkāra. (ii) Valitā -it arises due to the move noat of fingers; it is
necessary to produce samcāri varņa.
1 Gamaka or alapa in the improper place. 2 Can it mean blowing with clenched teeth ?