Indian Antiquary Vol 41

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 167

JULY, 1912.]
ANCIENT HINDU MUSIC
163
But it will be noticed that this nomenclature is different from the one which bas just been referred to as being given in another part of the same work. As a matter of fact, the names of the seven notes of the sdman have varied from time to time and in different parts of the country, 13 the enumeration and notation by the first seven numerals being more modern, A. C. Barnell professes to have identified them by means of a standard pitch-pipe with f, e, d, c, B, 4, G, and adds that it is also the doctrine of the Naradacisca (adhy. ii) according to oral information and quotes the first of the two blokas given above. He further remarks that the common Hindu scale corresponds with the European key of C. But it is easy to show that Dr. Burnell is certainly wrong (1) either in his identification of the seven notes with sie, d, &c., or (2) in supposing that this identification is borne out by the Narali-fiksha. For, though the author is quite correct in saying that the common Hindu scale (that is, of the present day) corresponds with the European key of C, it does not follow that the common ancient Hinda scale was the same as to-day's. As a matter of fact, it will be shown in the sequel that if c be taken as the shadja, the gândhara and the nishada as given in all Sanskrit treatises on musie, will be represented by e band b b, and not by e and b as is the modern Hindu practice in northern India. Moreover, Dr. Burnell evidently had not before him the second of the two ślokas quoted above; otherwise he would have seen that though the order was smooth up to the fourth note which was identified with the shadja, it was no longer so with the remaining notes, the fifth, sixth, and seventh, being the dhairata, tbe nishida and the pachama respectively, and not the nishdda, the dhaivata and the pañchama, as one would expect if the enumeration of the notes had proceeded in the descending order of pitch. From all this it is evident that Dr. Burnell's identification of the seven notes of the saman, even if it be correct, is not in accordance with the Náradi-bulsha, and it is very desirable that an expert should ascertain the relations of the notes of the saman, while it is still possible to find Brâhmaņas who can chant it.
Though we do not know all we desire about these notes, we can gather some information about the scale from their names. Thus it would appear that there was a time when only fuar Rotes were used, which were designated by the names the first, the second, the third, and the fourth and formed a descending scale, that at a later time the scale was extended below and upwards by the notes mandra and lerushļa respectively, and that atisvara was the last addition to its lower end.
In music proper, designated by the term gan lharva, seven notes are recognised and named shadja, rishabha, gândhdra, madhyama, pajichama, dhaivata, and nishada (rometimes also called saptama or the seventh), and represented by the syllables 8a, ri, ga, ma, pa, dha, and ni respectively. The earliest mention of these is found in the Anugitd and the Garbhopanishad. Telang assigns the former to the third or fourth century B. C., and the scale must be assumed to have dated from that period. How long before, the adman scale of seven not was in existence and whether it was identical with this one, are questions on which I am unable to throw light. In Greece, Pythagoras (flourished 540-510 B. C.) is said to have been the first to establish the eight complete degrees of the diatonic scale.
As regards the meaning of the names of notes, it is easy to see that the madhyama is so called because it forms the middle note, the pajichama because it is the fifth, and the saptama (another name for the nishada) because it is the seventh note, in the shadjagrama. The various derivations of these and the remaining notes given by different writers and quoted in the commentaries on the S. R. by Kallinatha and Simhabhupala are simply fanciful, and need not be mentioned here. It may be noted, however, that one of the attempts, which interprets the name shadja as meaning the producer of the (other) six' (notes), besides being opposed to ordinary grammar,
13 A. C. Burnell, loc. cit.