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Indian music spells and spreads Divinity

The Sama Veda contains the world’s earliest writings on musical science.

Music, painting and drama are considered divine arts in India.

Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, known as ‘The Eternal Trinity,’ were the first musicians. Shiva, in His aspect of Nataraja (the Cosmic Dancer) is scripturally represented as having worked out the infinite modes of rhythm in the process of universal creation, preservation and destruction.

Brahma and Vishnu accentuated the time beat, with Brahma clanging the cymbals and Vishnu sounding the Holy Drum or Mridangam.

Saraswati, the Goddess of Wisdom, is symbolised as performing on the Veena, the Mother of all stringed instruments.

Lord Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu, is shown in Hindu art with a flute, on which He plays the enrapturing song that recalls to their true home the human souls wandering in Maya (delusion).

Ragas for seasons

The foundation stones of Hindu music are ‘ragas’ or fixed melodic scales.

The six basic ragas branch out to 126 derivative ‘raginis’ (wives) and ‘putras’ (sons). Each raga has a minimum of five notes: a leading note (‘vadi’ or King), a secondary note (‘samavadi’ or Prime Minister), helping notes (‘anuvadi’ or attendants) and a dissonant note (‘vivadi’ or enemy).

Each of the six basic ragas has natural correspondence with a certain hour of the day, season of the year and a presiding deity who bestows a particular potency.

Thus, ‘Hindole Raga’ is heard only at dawn in the spring to evoke the mood of universal love. ‘Deepaka Raga’ is played during the evening in summer to arouse compassion. ‘Megha Raga’ is a melody for midday in the rainy season to summon courage. ‘Bhairava Raga’ is played in the mornings from August to October to achieve tranquillity. ‘Sri Raga’ is reserved for autumn twilights to attain pure love. ‘Malkounsa Raga’ is heard at midnight in winter for valour.

The ancient rishis discovered these laws of sound alliance between nature and man. Because nature is an objectification of Aum, the Primal Sound or Vibratory Word, man can obtain control over all natural manifestations by reciting certain mantras or chants.

Historical documents tell of the remarkable powers possessed by Tansen, 16th Century court musician to Akbar the Great.

Commanded by the Emperor to sing a night raga while the sun was overhead, Tansen intoned a mantra that instantly enveloped the whole palace by darkness.

Indian music divides the octave into 22 ‘srutis’ or demi-semitones.

Go with Fauna

Each of the seven basic notes of the octaves is associated in Hindu mythology with a colour and the natural cry of bird or beast.

Do with green and the peacock; Re with red and the skylark; Mi with gold and the goat; Fa with yellowish white and the heron; Sol with black and the nightingale; La with yellow and the horse; Si with a combination of all colours and the elephant.

Indian music outlines 72 ‘thatas’ or scales. A musician has creative scope for endless improvisation around the fixed traditional melody or raga.

He or she concentrates on the sentiment or definitive mood of the structural theme and then embroiders it to the limits of his own originality.

The Hindu musician does not read set notes; at each playing, he or she clothes anew the bare skeleton of the raga, often confining to a single melodic sequence, stressing by repetition all its subtle microtonal and rhythmic variations.

Sanskrit literature describes 120 ‘talas’ or time measures.

Bharata, the traditional founder of Hindu music, is said to have isolated 32 kinds of talas in the song of a lark.

The origin of tala or rhythm is rooted in human movements, the double time of walking, and the triple time of respiration in sleep, when inhalation is twice the length of exhalation.

India has long recognised the human voice as the perfect instrument of sound.

Hindu music therefore largely confines itself to the voice range of three octaves.

Hindu music is subjective, spiritual and individualistic art, aiming not at symphonic brilliance but at personal harmony with the Over-Soul.

All the celebrated songs of India have been composed by devotees of the Divine.

The Sanskrit word for musician is ‘bhagavathar’ (he who sings in praise of God).

The ‘sankirtans’ or musical gatherings are an effective form of yoga or spiritual discipline, necessitating intense concentration, absorption in the seed thought and sound.

Because man himself is an expression of the Creative Word, sound exercises on him a potent and immediate effect.

The above article, which appeared in the India Heritage Newsletter, was compiled and edited by Harsh Gupta, a Wellington based Chartered Accountant.

Email: ihwellington@gmail.com

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