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No EMBER, 1912.]
ANCIENT HINDU MUSIC
263
This arrangement at once makes clear why the ga of the Olassical Hinda Scale differs from, the ga of the modern Hindu scale. In the former, the first tetracbord is really a descending one, whereas in the latter it is ascending. It will be noticed presently that in the Bh. we are told that if the note antara ga (which corresponds to modern ga) is to be used, we can do so only in going up the scale.
It will be noticed that the arrangement of the shadjagrama as given above is such as to tempt one to think that it consisted of two disjunct tetrachords; and this is indeed the way in which it came to be looked upon by later writers. But at the time we are speaking of, the octave was not recognised and the grâmas consisted only of seven notes.69 This leads to the conjecture that the original descending tetrachord ma. ga, ri, sa was, in the first instance, extended not apwards as pa, dha, ni, sa, but downwards 83 & conjunct tetrachord sa, ni, dha, pa, the common note being sa; the three now notes pa, dha, ni were subsequently transferred (as octaves) above the keynote mi, thus producing the heptachord shadjagrama. Some further support is given to this view by the quotation from the Naradi-Sikshá given above (ante, Vol. XLI, p. 162). Indeed the matter would have been beyond all doubt, if in that quotation the nishada had been spoken of as the fifth note and the dhaivata as the sixth.
dhir'
i
ga
pa' Shadjagrama, ma
ma > (The accents Original ga
indicate OCtetrachordri
taves.) sa
(sa ni
Added tetrachord
pa. The madhyamagráma seems to have been a later development in the evolution of Hindu music; for, in defining it, the Bh, tells us bow the shadjagrama must be modified in order to arrive at the former, viz., by flattening the paichama by one gruts. In this gráma the keynote mu was placed at the commencement (see above). We have, therefore,
The madhyamagra ma.' Sš 4s 26 46 86 25 45 ma pa dha ni sa ri g a [ma]
3
The reader will at once notice that this grama is the same as the Seventh of what are known as Ecclesiastical Modes, whereas the shadjagrama is the Eighth and related to it as a plagal to an authentic one. In India, therefore, it would appear that the plagal mode preceded the authentic one in order of time (Saman cbants, of which we know but little, being kept out of consideration). The contrary, it is stated, was the case in Europe.
Other Notes in the Bharatiya-natya-Bastra. Besides the seven notes discussed above, the Bh. recognises four more, pnder the name svara-8ddharaṇam ( common note '), which is explained to be on 'antara-wara' (an intercalary noto'). These are (1) kákali-nishada, (2) antara-gandhara, (3) shudja-8ddhdra na, and (4) madhyama-sddhdrara.
The values of kakali-nishada and antara-gandhara can be easily fixed from the datum in the Bi., vis., that they are two brutis sharper than nishada and gandhara respectively. The former noto makes the intervals between dha and kdkali ni, and between kákali ni and sa a major
"It is for this rouson that I have placed the 8th note in brackets.
