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AUGUST, 1912.]
ANCIENT HINDU MUSIC
185
CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF ANCIENT HINDU MUSIC. BY RAO SAHIB PRABHAKAR R. BHANDARKAR, B.A., L.M. & S.; INDORE.
(Continued from p. 164.) DUT if the arutis have received such bad treatment from somo Sanskrit authors, they have had a
still worse fato at the hands of mo lern writers. Thus Sir W. Jones says!7:-"If I ulerstand the native musicians, they have not only the chromatic, but even the second, or new, en harmonic, genus; for they unanimously reckon twenty-two srutis, or quarters and thirds of a tone, in their octave: they do not pretend that those minute intervals are mathematically cģual, but .consider them as equal in practice, and allot them to the several notes in the following order ; to sa, ms, and pa, four; to ri and dha, three; to ga and ni, two; giving very smooth and significant names to cash sruti. Their original scale, therefore, stands thus :
sa, ri, ga, na, pa, dha, ni, sa,
4 8 3 6 2 6 46 4s 8 2 s "The semi-tones accordingly are placed as in our diatonic scale ; the intervals between the fourth and fifth, and between the first and second, are major tones; but that between the fifth and sixth, which is minor in our scale, appears to be mojot in theirs; and the two scales are made to coincide by taking a gruti from pa an l adding to dha, or, in the language of Indian artists, by raising Ne pretnals to the class of Sinta and her sisters; for every śruti they consider as a little nymph, and the nymphs of the Panchama, or the fifth note, are Málini, Chapalí, Lóla and Servaretnd, while Santa and her two sisters regularly belong to Dhaivila: such at least is the system of CÓHALA, One of the ancient bards, who has left a treatise on music.
"Sóma seems to admit, that a quarter or a third of a tone cannot be separately and distinctly heard from the Vind; but he takes for granted, that its effect is very perceptible in their arrangement of modes; and their sixth, I imagine, is almost universally diminished by one áruli ; for he only mentions two modes, in which all the seven notes are unaltered. I tried in vain to discover any difference in practice betwen the Indian scale, and that of our own; bat knowing my car to be very insufficiently exercised, I requested a German professor of music to accompany with ... violin a llindu latanist, who sung by note some popular airs on the loves of CRISHNA and RÅDHA; He assured me, that the scales were the same ; and Mr. SEOR& afterwards informed me, that, when tie voice of a native singer was in tune with his harpsichord, he found the Hindu series of seven noues to ascend, like ours, by a sharp third."
Now I can well bolieva the inability of Sir W. Jones to discover any difference between the J. lian and European scale, and the German professor's confirmation of their unity. For, p..ctically, the present-day Hindu scale'may be considerei indistinguishable from the modern Esropean scale, and Mr. Shore is quite right when he says that it ascends, like the other, by a shirp third' (major third). But that is about the only correct thing in this passage, almost all other assertions being errors, which have since been repeated by other writers, who have accepted them without examination. It is necessary therefore, to point them out hors seriatim :
(1) In the first place it must be obvious to the reader that no one has a right to assume that the scale mentioned in Sanskrit treatises is the same as that of the present day. As a matter of fact, it will be shown in the sequel that they differ,
11 On the Musical Modes of the Hin-1s (Works Vol. IV.)
1. The names of the frutis given by Sir W. Jones differ from those commonly found in Sanskrit treatises. Were they taken from Samotta Narayana ?
P Whenever tho prosent-day Hinda salo is referred to in this essay, it should be clearly understood that the posent Hindustant system of music is in view, and not the progont Carnatic systor, unless the contrary is ex p ly stated.
