Natyasastra , Chapter 28. Ancient Scales of IndianMusic.
With Sañjivanam commentary by Acarya Brihaspati.
Introduced and Trans. by Bharat Gupt. Delhi: Brahaspati Publication..
.
Contents.
1. ATODYAVIDHI 1.
In Praise of Saraswati.
Commentator's Lineage.
The Purpose of this Commentary.
Translator's Note.
.
2. ATODYAS.
4.
Four Kinds of Atodya.
Three Kinds of Atodya Usage.
Employment of Tata Kutapa.
Avanaddha Kutapa.
Unification of Voice.
Instruments and Acting.
.
3. GANDHARVA 12.
Definition of Gandharva.
Aim of Gandharva.
Origin of Gandharva.
Constituents of Gandharva.
Adhisthanas or Seats of Notes.
Elements of Gandharva as Classified.
on the Wooden Vina.
Elements of Music for Human Vina.
Rules for words.
Rules for Tala.
.
4. SVARAS OR THE NOTES 25.
Vadi and other Notes.
Definition of Vadi.
Definition of Samvadi.
Definition of Vivadi.
Anuvadi Notes.
.
5. GRAMAS AND SRUTIS 41.
Notes and Srutis.
Tuning of the Ancient Mattakokila.
Vina to Pure Notes.
The Suddha or Pure Notes.
Pancama in Madhyamagrama.
Difference in Gramas.
.
6. DEMONSTRATION OF TWENTY-TWO SRUTIS 50.
Sruti Demonstration on Sruti Darpana.
.
7. MURCCHANAS 61.
Murcchanas of Sadjagrama.
Murcchanas of Madhyamagrama.
Two Methods of Obtaining the
Same Murcchana.
.
8. TANAS 73.
Tanas and their Forms.
Pravesa and Nigraha.
Tuning a Vina to a given Murcchana.
.
9. SADHARANA 82.
Definition of Sadharana.
The Simile.
Svara and Jati Sadharana.
Kakali and Antara and Jati Sadharana.
Sadja and Madhyama Sadharana.
.
10. MODIFICATION OF NOTES 88.
Kakali Nisada.
Rule for Antara Svara.
.
11. THE JATIS 99.
Jatis of Sadjagrama.
Jatis of Madhyamagrama.
Jatis with Sadharana Notes.
Svara Jatis.
Vikrta Forms of Svara Jatis.
Rule for Nyasa.
.
12. HYBRID JATIS 107.
Constituents of Hybrid Jatis.
Number of Notes in Hybrid Jatis.
Grama Classification for Hybrid Jatis.
.
13. AMSA NOTES FOR JATIS 118.
No Omission of Madhyama.
Ten Characteristics of a Jati.
.
14. DEFINITION OF AMSA NOTE 127.
Range of Ascent in Tara.
Range of Descent in Mandra.
.
15. NYASA AND APANYASA NOTES 132.
Sanyasa and Vinyasa Notes.
.
16. ALPATVA 135.
Antara Marga.
Hexatonic Use.
Pentatonic Use.
.
17. AMSA AND GRAHA NOTES OF VARIOUS JATIS 143.
The two Amsa Jatis.
The three Amsa Jatis.
The four Amsa Jatis.
The five Amsa Jatis.
The six and seven Amsa Jatis.
Definition of a Jati Gana.
.
18. CHARACTERISTICS OF SADJAGRAMA JATIS 152.
Sadji.
Arsabhi.
Dhaivati.
Naisadi.
Sadjakaisiki.
Sadjodicyava.
Sadjamadhyama.
.
19. CHARACTERISTICS OF MADHYAMAGRAMA JATIS 169.
Gandhari.
Raktagandhari.
Gandharodicyava.
Madhyama.
Madhyamodicyava.
Pancami.
Gandharapancami.
Andhri.
Nandayanti.
Karmaravi.
Kaisiki.
.
20. APPENDIX I 191.
Excerpts from Natyasastra Chapter 29.
Employment of Jatis According to Rasas.
.
21. APPENDIX II 202.
Table of Eighteen Suddha Jatis.
.
Introduction.
.
In present times not many people know that the Natyasastra is also the primary text (aptavakya prasthanagrantha) for music. This traditionally accepted fact was forgotten in modern times for two reasons. One, there was a rupture in the study of the sastras of performing arts. Two, modern manuals like that of Bhatkhande with printed compositions of contemporary music, came to be reagrded as the real sastras of practical worth. The situation was remedied by the sixties somewhat, when the great line of Bharat Muni, Matanga, Bhoja, Sarngadeva and others, was given its due recognition..
.
Many doubts, however, are still raised about the worthwhileness of revisiting are ancient tradition. It is often regarded as obscure, outdated and not useful for present-day practice. About the Natyasastra practicularly, it is sometimes argued that it presents a music meant for theatre and not for the independent art (Lath, A Study of Dattilam, p. 22). This controversy is a creation of the post-industrial era in India, when as in the West, the realationship of music with poetry, dance, painting and sculpture was ruptured. Such issues, however, have been raised in the world of Indian music only. In literary studies, with a better formal tradition of critical training, nobody has ever raised the question whether the metres (chandas) given in the two chapters (15 and 16) of the Natyasastra are meant for theatrical employment or for literary use..
.
To the traditional scholar, the holistic system of the Natyasastra was quite clearly expressed in its principle of rasa-bhava-prakriya, a yardstick used for all visual and aural content, abhinaya, dialogue, dance and musical dhruvas. In the ancient times acceptability of gramas, jatis, srutis, and murcchanas was universal as is evident from innumerable references to gandharva in the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Yajnavalkya Smrti and many other literary texts (Gupt, Dramatic Concepts: Greek and Indian, pp. 23-8). The Natyasastra, thus embodies a musical system which was widely prevalent in India, in theatre and all other performing arts. What is more, the Natyasastra alone preserves an exhaustive account of the ancient musical grammar. Fragmentary works like the Naradiyasiksa or Dattilam yield fruit only through a comparison with the Natyasastra..
.
From the late Brahmanic age to the late Puranic, the standard term for the art of music was 'gandharva'. Bharat Muni has devoted nine chapters to gandharva (from 28th to 36th), quantitatively about one-fourth of the Natyasastra. It seems that during the early epic age certain melodic tunes called the Jatis were in vogue all over India. This fund as Jatis was used to formulate a grammar consisting of scale-groups (gramas), scales (murcchanas), notes (svaras) and note intervals or microtones (srutis). The analysis of notes and their intervals was facilitated by harps (vinas). Without a large number of strings on a single harp, the mutual consonances of notes and a comparison of their varying pitch was not possible. Such as enterprise could not have been undertaken in the early Vedic age when presumably complicated multistring harps were unknown. The twenty-eighth chapter of the Natyasastra given to this analysis is called 'atodyavidhi' or 'rules relating to instruments' for the obvious reason that scale analysis and instrument playing are taken to be synonymous..
.
It has been customary to trace the origin of the Indian svara-system to Vedic chants. As is well known, these chants used only three notes in the Rgvedic recitation, and up to seven notes in the later Saman chants. This kind of origin tracing suits not only the Darwinian mind-set but also the Indian habit of finding the seed of all and everything in the Vedas. The Natyasastra also hints, ''asya yonirbhavet ganam'' ("the origin of this, gandharva, is in gana'', i.e., samagana, adds Abhinava). But whether or not there was an evolution from the tritonal (uddata, anudatta and svarita) Vedic chants to the septatonic and three-gamut-usage of gandharva, the grama-murchhana system is the first record of a complex and mature musical grammar. It was never surpassed in complexity and variety and is partially observed to this day in Indian music in a different nomenclature with some alterations. What is even more important, the aim of creating an intense emotional feeling through specific notes and embellishments, is still pursued with the same zest..
.
The twenty-eighth chapter of the Natyasastra limits itself to the employment of notes or svaras in music. It begins with an announcement, 'I shall now enunciate the rules relating to the playing of instruments' ('atodyavidhimidanim vyakhyasyamah'). But we are soon told that the human body is also an instrument, thus covering vocal music in the ambit of atodyavidhi. The instruments are classified into four kinds: strings, drums, reeds and cymbals. These instruments along with lead and side singers make up the musical ensemble (kutapa) which was used in theatre and elsewhere. The four-fold division of instruments is a most rational classification and covers all kinds of instruments found not only in India but anywhere else in the world. Only now a new category of electronic or 'vaidyutam', if one may so call them, needs to be added..
.
An ensemble was used in three ways: with a predominance of strings and song; with a predominance of drums; and with instruments supporting dramatic movements (abhinaya). The usage of ensemble (kutapa) had to be classified because of its centrality in managing the aural content (geyapadas, carcaris and dhruvas, etc.). Prescriptions for employment of kutapa has led some scholars to believe that gandharva in the Natyasastra was meant only for theatre. But if it were so, Bharata Muni would have stated that gandharva is that which is used in theatre only. However, gandharva is defined as ''that which is a mixture of strings and other instruments, and which has three basic elements of svara, tala and pada.".
.
This definition is a corrective for our concept of music in which the verbal content is no longer considered as a basic element but as an intervention. For the ancients, pada or song was the beginning of music, strings were the middle and drumming was the end. Music as merely notes and rhythm, svara and tala, was inconceivable. The instruments emulated the human voice and the drums followed its rhythmic statement. This pattern obtains even now in Indian music. The post-Renaissance European concept of music as instrumental tonal orchestration has deprivileged the verbal composition, as a result of which, there is a revision in the concept of music even in traditional societies. That music is primarily svara and tala, seems to be a growing view among urban musicologists and music critics in India. That is why one hears terms like 'raga sangita', 'kantha sangita' and 'vadya sangita' which have acquired legitimacy in discussions on music and are now dislocating traditional terms like ragadari, gayana and vadana. Bharata Muni's gandharva should remind us of the necessity of words, i.e., the logocentric elements (vyakta sabda) in determining the final meaning (artha nispatti) of music in co-ordination with notes and rhythm, i.e., the non-sensical elements (avyakta sabda)..
.
For Bharata Muni music was named gandharva because it was dear to the celestial gandharvas. On the nomenclature 'gandharva', I have suggested that the art was given the name as it was then most highly developed in Afghanistan (Khandar) (Dramatic Concepts: Greek and Indian, pp. 21-3). But historical reasons aparts, the statement of Bharata Muni has another meaning; that being dear to gods and gandharvas, music is a means to spiritual upliftment and its performance always results in earning unseen spiritual merit (adrstaphala). Renewal of such a conviction is much needed today when classical Indian music is fast becoming a promising road to stardom and commercial success. Perhaps it is not wrong to suggest that a fresh spiritual input expressed through new compositions can give another lease of life to Indian music, as it has done many times earlier in history..
.
The grammar of the ancient Indian scales rotated around seven primary ideas: svara, vaditva, sruti, svarasadharana, grama, murcchana and jati. The Indian septette was not made of tetrachords like the Greek one, but consisted of two trichords (sadja, rsabha, gandhara and pancama, dhaivata, nisada) placed on either side of a middle note (madhyama). All notes underwent flattening or raising (sadharanata). Unlike the present-day practice in which sadja and pancama are unalterable or immovable from their positions, in the ancient scales all notes were altered. A thorough analysis of the note alterations or sadharanata is given in the commentary. Here a very original contribution is made by Acarya Brhaspati in the analysis of the sadharanata process by expounding the concept of ista and anista (desirable and undesirable) consonances. The Acarya shows that intervals of one, six, seven, nine and thirteen srutis between two notes are ista, whereas those of two, five, eight and ten srutis are anista. All svaras undergo raising or lowering to avoid an anista interval. It is obvious that this concept is based on the presumption that in a given scale the notes undergo variations of pitch during usage, i.e., when they are used in relation to each other, consecutively in a monophonic melodic line. That the usage of raga-like mutual consonances was also the norm in ancient times, is an unstated presumption by Acarya Brhaspati. It is taken for granted that the jatis were also used for some sort of raga-like exposition or ragadari..
.
A sequence of any seven consecutive notes was called murcchana. Unlike the universal practice now, the first note of the septette (or scale) was not always 'sa' or 'do'. Any note of the murcchana could be made the tonic. The septette itself was divided into twenty-two srutis or microtones. It is not stated clearly by Bharata Muni in any verse whether all the srutis were equal or not. Nor is it said anywhere that there are two or three kinds of srutis. In his commentary 'Sanjivanam', Acarya Brhaspati has brilliantly demonstrated that the srutis were considered to be of three kinds, 'pramana', 'mahati', and 'upamahati'. Elsewhere in his writings (Sangita Cintamani, First edition, Hathras: Sangita Karyalaya, 1966, p. 105), he has mentioned them as measuring 5, 23 and 18 savarts respectively. The demonstrative experiment of twenty-two srutis (sruti nidarsana) with the help of two vinas, is a fine example of how the ancients could measure tonal variations and analyse scales with simple harps..
.
The value of srutis or their variety depends not only upon a correct deciphering of the sruti nidarsana experiement as given in the Natyasastra, but also upon a correct deciphering of the ancient septette. The basic problem is to fix the locations of the notes and reconstruct their primary or basic positions. The text of the Natyasastra is again silent on the method of doing this. Perhaps it was too obvious to be stated. In 'Sanjivanam', the method adopted is based upon so-called 'natural' consonances of the fourth and the fifth, i.e., the sa-ma and sa-pa consonances. It is presumed that these consonances, stated as of 'nine srutis' and of 'thirteen srutis' in the Natyasastra are universal and perennial and, therefore, were the same in ancient times as they are today. The first step for obtaining the septette is to locate sa, ma and pa. The second is to obtain ni as a fourth from ma. The third step is to obtain ga from ni through the consonance of fifth. Now dha and ri remain to be located and this cannot be done on the basis of the consonances of fourth or fifth, i.e., the nine and thirteen sruti samvadas given in the Natyasastra. For this the learned commentator takes recourse to the consonance of third - a 'natural' or universally known consonance, though not mentioned in the Natyasastra as another kind of samvada (it should have been called sapta sruti samvada). Acarya Brahaspati uses the consonance of third to locate dha. Taking ma as the initial note, dha is positioned at a third from na. Then ri is fixed from dha by the consonance of fifth, thus completing the septette..
.
Looking for a traditional or sastriya justification for the consonance of third, Acaraya Brahaspati gives a nirukta (etymological derivation) of dhaivata, that it is a note heard by a specially perceptive (dhivan) person. Tumburu heard the third chord in a given note. He first heard the third chord in ma. This new chord (note) was named dhaivata. It is the same as ga (antara gandhara) perceived in sa. In other words, sa-ga (antara gandhara) is the same interval as ma-dha. This nirukta of dhaivata may sound too ingenious to some, nevertheless the ma-dha interval, as a seven sruti interval, is clearly stated in the Natyasastra at the time of enumerating the srutis of notes. The seven-sruti interval is certainly common to sa-ga (antara gandhara) and ma-dha. The use of the consonance of the third for ma-dha, therefore, is quite logical..
.
The concept of vaaditva, i.e., dividing all notes into four categories, vadi, samvadi, anuvadi and vivadi is quite fundamental to Indian music and is used even now with slight variation. On the monophonic line, the notes are given a hierarchy in order of the importance of their functions. The note that was used most abundantly, and thus dominated the melody, was called the vadi, like a king above lesser men..
.
The vadi was also the tonic. The samvadi was the consonantal note, at a fourth or fifth from the vadi. The notes that made pleasing combinations with vadi or samvadi were called anuvadis and the two-sruti notes were called vivadis. (Nowadays, notes dissonantal to a given melodic scale are called vivadis)..
.
The vadi was also called amsa and made tonic. Sa or sadja was not the only tonic as it is today. Any of the seven notes could be made tonic according to the murcchana that was sought to be employed. If it had not been so, there would have been only one scale with a few variations, i.e., the basic scale similar to kaphi with antara gandhara (present-day suddha ga) and kakali nisada (present-day suddha ni) variations to yield four scales approximating to thats or melas of kaphi, khamaj, bilaval and kaphi with sharp ni. (As the sadharana of sadja and madhyama were not note positions, fixed flat or sharp, but only fine modifications occurring during usage they could not be made tonic). No musical grammar with merely four scales could have sufficed. On the other hand, the shifting tonic, i.e., making any note as tonic, provides at least fourteen murcchanas (seven of each grama). Moreover, unambiguous evidence of the shifting tonic is provided by the line, 'dvividhaika murcchana siddhih' ('a murcchana can be obtained in two ways', Natyasastra 28:52). If sa were to be the only tonic, no murcchana could have been obtained in two ways..
.
The ancient difinitions of vadi and samvadi, anuvadi and vivadi have also undergone a change of meaning due to the mela-that system of obtaining scales by fixing the tonic on sa. For instance, samvadi is still regarded as a consonantal note at a fourth or fifth from vadi. But as vadi is no longer as the same as the amsa (tonic), the samvadi is merely a consonant of vadi, not that of tonic. This has another result. The vadi and samvadi in a raga today are not fixed on any unambiguous or well defined principle, but on covention. Often schools (gharanas) of musicians differ on which of the notes are vadi-samvadi in a single raga..
.
In spite of the altered definitions of samvaditva, the practice of making some notes dominant, some less dominant and some weak in the monophonic line continues to be the same as in ancient times. In other words, alpatva (sparse use) and bahutva (abundant use) are still in vogue as conepts. Similarly, the use of the three registers tara, mandra and madhya is still prevalent. The ten characteristics of a jati (namely amsa, graha, nyasa, apanyasa, sadava, audava, tara, mandra, alpatva and bahutva) are fully utilised in the same conceptual manner for raga making. Amsa, however, is no longer an extant term as the tonic is now fixed on sa and is not shiftable to other notes. To put it another way, there is only one amsa which is sa. The preservation of ten characteristics affirms the vital continuity in the Indian method of creating music through the melodic line..
.
The method of shifting the tonic from one note of the scale to another provided the ancient musicologist an insight into fine microtonal alterations that occur in the notes. Thus, when ma was made the tonic in the primary scale (approximate to kaphi) described above, it was discovered that pa had to be lowered by one sruti to make a consonance of fourth with ri. The new scale beginning with ma as ma, pa, dha, ni, sa, ri, ga was made a class apart from the earlier mentioned sa, ri, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni sequence where the consonance of fourth existed between sa and pa. This led to the generic division of scales, where each primary scale form was given the name of 'grama'. Thus, where the consonace of fifth existed between sa and pa the melody, i.e., the jati was said to belong to Sadjagrama, and where the same cosonance obtained between pa and ri it was considered to be part of Madhyamagrama. It was found that in the prevalent melodies or jatis, the sa-pa consonance obtained in some while pa-ri obtained in others. The jatis were thus classified according to gramas. An admission of this is found in the verse, 'jatibhih srutibhiscaiva svarah gramatvamagatah ("The notes were clasified into two gramas by jatis and sruties"..
.
The Natyasastra has classified eighteen jatis, seven as 'pure' and eleven as 'hybrid'. The pure made 146 modified forms. The eleven hybirds also had many variations. Thus, the total variations available to the ancient musician were nearly two hundred. How many of them were really used is a matter of guess as there is always a gap between theoretical possibility and practical achievement..
.
The Natyasastra represents a musical system which obtained in India from the earliest times till the fourteenth century AD. It was gradually replaced by the mela system which is still in sway. It has been forcefully argued by Acarya Brhaspati that the melas (in the North they were modifed and called thats) were conceived under the direct impact of the Persian 'maqam' system in which twelve notes called rast, sahnavaz, doka, kurd, sika, girka, hijaz, nava, hisar, husaini, aganu and nimamahur, were recognised as the basic intervals of an octave. It is not very certain if the twelve intervals were supposed to be exactly equal as is the case with tempered scale on the piano-forte today. None the less, it is quite obvious that the Arabic-Persian system was primarily different from the ancient Indian system in the respect that it never shifted the tonic from a particular note, i.e., rast. The mela system also had the primary maqam-like characteristic of an immovable tonic on sa. It also acquired five more notes, and gave them new names by prefixing 'komala' (flat) and 'tivra' (sharp) adjectives to the traditional seven notes. This was done first of all by Locana in his Ragatarangini (circa fifteenth century AD). The first known South Indian treatise on the mela system (again circa sixteenth century AD). Svaramelakalanidhi of Ramamatya uses 'cyuta' and 'sadharana' for flat and sharp variations of the seven notes. It is, therefore, quite logical to deduce that the mela system was a tailoring of the ancient murcchana system to follow the principles of the maqam grammar..
.
It has been argued by many that the mela scales were an indigenous development, most probably poineered at Vijayanagar by Vidyaranya. The theory of its nurturing by maqams, let alone its genesis under their influence, has been resented. It has been pleaded that the abandoning of the transpositional tonic and the inclusion of denominations of note-positions like komala rsabha, cyuta pancama, etc., to increase the total number of notes in an octave to twelve from the traditional seven, was necessitated by a big change in the nature of musical instruments, particularly the strings. The transition that occurred was the phasing out of the harp-like vina by the universal usage of the zither-like vina on which immovable frets were fixed to denote notes. As the players got accustomed to associating particular frets with particular notes, it is argued, the renaming of the same frets for different notes, a necessity in the murcchana system, became difficult. The players, therefore, opted for the simpler system that of mela in which the notes and the fret could maintain an unchanging relationship. But this does not seem to be a very plausible reason. In the earlier Indian system, the same strings were given new names of notes each time a murcchana was changed. Now that frets had replaced the strings, players trained in renaming could have renamed the frets as they renamed the strings. The impact of maqams, hence, seems a more plausible reason for the creation of melas.This resulted in a certain amount of tempering in many ragas, which was perhaps later attempted to be remedied by inventing movable frets as on sitar and surbhahar..
.
The present-day utility of the twenty-eighth chapter of the Natyasastra is not only for establishing continuity in Indian music by highlighting its characteristics like vaditva, nyasa, apanyasa, sadava, audava, etc., but also for reconstructing the jatis as melodies. The jatis can be sung and played as are the ragas. The exercise was very fruitfully undertaken by Acarya Brhaspati in the fifties, when he instructed a now very senior vocalist, Ustad Gulam Mustafa, to sing some of the jatis. A few recordings of these are available in the archives of the Sangeet Natak Academy, New Delhi. As was the case with the reconstruction done by the Acarya, the alapana of the jatis is bound to sound like the alapana of the contemporary ragas. It cannot be otherwise because the embellishments and ornamentations are contemporary and thus the result sounds like present-day music. It is only the melodic scale that is different and the melody does not conform to the known characteristics of extant ragas. The major advantage in reconstructing the jatis thus lies in augmenting the present melodic repertoire. Moreover, it can be a more rational method of doing so than what is rampant nowadays, the hit and trial method of combining ragas and passing them off as new creations..
.
The text of the Natyasastra reproduced here is from the critical edition of the Natyasastra, Vol. IV, published by the Oriental Institute Baroda, 1964. It has been corrected to eliminate the grammatical and printing errors which escaped the notice of editors earlier.
The commentary 'Sanjivanam' was first written in early sixties by Acarya Brhaspati, but was left unfinished as he undertook to propagate his deciphering of ancient musical system through articles and book-length studies. It was written afresh after his retirement from official assignments in 1977-8, while he was teaching me the text of the Natyasastra and other sastras of music. 'Sanjivanam' was the last of his works, a 'concentrate' (sarabhuta) of his researches into ancient music put down in the traditional methodology of verse by verse commentary which takes the reader to a closest possible encounter with the text of Bharata Muni..
.
The present translation is an attempt at bringing to light the central significance of the twenty-eighth chapter of the Natyasastra and its elucidation through 'Sanjivanam'. I have purposely kept the teminology of translation closer to the spirit of the Sanskrit terms rather than using parallel terms of Western usage. It is expected that this shall not only keep the reader closer to the original but shall avoid confusions that often arise when alien systems are relied upon. As translating Indian sastras of performing arts is yet to become a well-defined discipline, lapses in my work may be more than a few. However, if the conceptual vision of Bharata Muni's svara system is made available to the readers, the translation would have achieved its purpose..
.
.
February,1996.
.
Bharat Gupt