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Music in the Thanamga Sūtra
161
These two equations had become almost axiomatic Kālıdāsa, thus, speaks of the 'sadjasamvādmih kekāh' ('the peacock's call, harmonious with the sadja') while the pañcama of the kokila was almost a by-word, as it still is With these notes as our axis-sounds, notes which, had an accoustically harmonic relation with each otner in the ancient şadja-grāma—we can, in principle, arrive at the other notes But again there is a difficulty None of these two birds produce sounds that are themselves constant, meaning that the birds do not produce single sounds The peacocks call is distributed over a range of at least two tones and the kokila makes a whole melodic movement consisting of a large cluster of notes How is one to pick out şadja and pañcama from this range of pitches 240
The Thānamga account makes another classification on this point which is relevant to our discussion It equates the svaras not only with the calls of birds and animals but also with sounds produced by what it terms as 'non-living objects', these being, in this instastce, musical instruments An equation of this kind is not found in any non-Jain text 41
sadja, the Thānamga says, is produced by the mrdanga, rsabha by the gomukha and so forth The instruments named are of the percussion or the horn group-instruments that have a relatively limited range of tones—and yet none of them are instruments that sound at a constant pitch 42 They could not have acted as tuning forks They must, moreover, have come in different shapes and sizes & consequently they must have had different ranges of pitch It is difficult to imagine of any specific instrument inherently producing only one definite svara
We can only conclude that in all probahılıty the relation between svaras and the sounds of birds, animals as well as musical instruments was also conceived on a psychic rather than a physical plane This may also account for the difference we find in the traditional lists of birds and animals, since such flexibility is quite conceivable in matters perceived on a supra-sensory plane, without
40 It must here be added in good faith that a ascoustie study of the ratios between the sounds made by the various animals listed in ancient texts might, perhaps, provide a clue as to the pitch-positions and tonal relatious of ancient svaras, 41 Sudhākalasa, a Jain author of the 14th cen ury, makes a similar classification of notes into jiva, and ajiva categories 'sacetenakståh ke' pi kecinniścetanodbhavāl, Sangitopanışadsároddhara 1, i0 This classification was, evidently, borrowed from he Thanamga 42 Bharata indeed speaks of tuping them see Nafyaśāstra 34, 217, notice especially the expression sithi lancitavadhrastaniteşu yathögrāmaragamärjanalipteşu mrdargesu"
