Paradox in Indian Classical Music

Paradox in Indian Classical Music

RKDas

In India, the practising musicians and the musicologists seldom meet for any amicable solution on any disputable topic of music. Nobody wants to hear each other for any general agreement.

Musicologists neither talk about the tunefulness of notes nor want to investigate about the root of tunefulness. They mostly quote from the works of the greats from the past, even though the quotes are logically unacceptable and practically un-demonstrable. Qualified musicians know the practical secrets of tunefulness of tones without any apparent logical explanation.

Learned musicologists seldom have any practical idea of tunefulness of notes and their tones, but still they talk about the notes in details citing the mathematical relation. To support their views, they quote many long and fine numbers in cents and savarts referring to the findings of the reputed researchers from the West as if they know more of the Indian music than the Indians.

In contrast to the musicologists, the practising musicians take help of drone (e.g. tanpura) and the concept of the consonance or samvad to determine the tuneful tones. The musicologists of the past and the present dont mention use of drone or samvad anywhere in their works to determine the tuneful tones of Indian music.

Indian musicologists talk of the three grams (sort of scale/ gamut comprising seven notes), but describe the application of only two grams. They describe the grams on the basis of shruti (finer tones/ microtones) oriented notes but never give any specific- uniform size of shruti for any notes. Even if they talk of such size, by calling it praman shruti, do not use the same for determination of the tonal position of the notes of a gram.

Scientific explanation of shruti is not available with any ancient scholar. They do not talk about the how, why, who, when, what of the shruti in a pedagogical manner giving any perceivable scientific demonstration. The greatest problem with them is that they assume everything of shruti (fine tones) and swar (note) is precisely already known. Their work seems to be a product of inductive process rather than the deductive one. Derivation or deduction is what satisfies a scientific mind most.

There is no consistency in the number of shrutis in Indian music. Ancient music of India talked of 22 shrutis in which each note or tone was located at the farthest end of the group of 4/3/2 shrutis. Some famous personalities of music like Bhatkhande, proposed the positioning of tones at the starting end of the group of shrutis; this very concept is being followed by the most of the contemporary musicians, even though it is against the vision of the most important pillars of Indian music: Bharat, Matanga and Sharnga dev. The scholars of Carnatic music believe in 24 shrutis in a saptak like the 24 hangams in Arabic music, whereas Hindustani music, following the ancient system, vote for only 22 shrutis.

It will be wise to note, according to the humble study and the introspection of present author that the origin of shruti concept lies in the fact that 1) shruti means- Veda (shruti is another name of veda, Indian source of all divine knowledge), ear and fine tone; 2) all our knowledge is derived from shruti (hearing/ listening) of Veda, thus it is an attempt to connect musical sound with the most ancient scripture (and also for divine connection); 3) shruti is a sort of rough but fine estimation of raising or lowering a musical sound (pitch), without any fixed interval (measure).

There is no mention of genesis of all the notes in any valuable treatises (leaving aside the hypothetical but tangible works of Shrinivas and Ahobal) on the basis of samvad (consonance), a universal concept, which is the most practical, musical and scientific origin of tuneful tones. Mathematically derived tones (out of the consonance concept of perfect fourth or perfect fifth) lead us to imperfect tar sa or imperfect mandra sa, but practically produced tones on the basis of tanpura drone of sa-ma/ sa-pa sound a perfectly satisfactory and tuneful, including sa-s of any saptak/ octave.

Musicologists dont talk about the detailed application of alankars too. The special mention of alankars in Brihaddeshi and Sangit Ratnakar, in the making of the rags, leads one to think that the alankars might have played the roles of the important rag phrases of modern times.

The concept of murchhana (gamut) gives rise to the possibility of maximum 12 tuneful tones in a saptak/ scale with respect to the drone of a tanpura. Admitting existence of such 12 tones in a saptak/ scale is a basic necessity of Indian practical music but never any ancient Indian musicologist talked about the origin of practically existing vikrit re, vikrit ma and vikrit dha, going beyond the fixed concept of nine tones, advocated by Bharat.

It is worth mentioning here that universally, Indian, Western, Islamic and Far East music accept existence of only 12 practical tones for folk and non- folk music of natural origin. Muslim musicians of India had a simple approach of five charhi (raised), five utri (lowered) and two fixed tones (sa, pa) in a scale/ saptak. The vikrit notes mentioned in the immediately paragraph above, are utri re, charhi ma and utri dha by the traditional Muslim musicians. As they find no mention in the treatises of Indian music, they are credited to be the contribution of Islamic music, i.e. Persian and Arabic music.

In fact, the said three tones can very much be detected in the murchanas of ancient shadja gram. Somehow, the ancient Indian music scholars did neither give any importance to the said tones nor made mention of any rags comprising these tones. These tones komal re, tivra ma and komal dha may be a conscious effort of Amir Khusro or Miyan Tansen, who innovatively introduced many novel music concepts and imaginations in the rag dari music of north India. Such kind of contribution not only enriched Indian music but made the medieval Indian music further beautiful and attractive.

There is a bit exception on the number of notes in South Indian Carnatic music that talks of 16 notes for actual 12 tones by altering the names of some of the tones. The rags and the scales of Carnatic art music are more of artificial origin being the derivative of mathematical intricacy. Such melodies are more of craft, the work of brain storming; such scales, e.g. kanakangi and many others has no root or connection to the theory of olden rag music discussed by Bharat, Matanga and Sharnga dev.

Venkatmakhi (1633) of South India gave an excellent system to the Carnatic music, introducing 72 mela karta, but the real art that touches both our heart and mind are beyond the jugglery of many impractical scales of the rags. Hindustani music thinks possibility of only 12 tuneful practical tones in a saptak and ventures not for fanciful combination of notes to make any astonishing rags.

There are many Indian music scholars, knowledgeable musicians: singers and (melodic) instrument players, who are dominating the art music scene of 21st century, get never tired while talking on the microtones or shrutis. They are elusive on the topic whether the svar is primary element of music or the shruti. Following the concepts of ancient scholars, they proclaim that shruti is primary. It is a fact that milk is primary and yoghurt is secondary, similar to the fact that language is primary and grammar is secondary; likewise by applying the logic of common sense it is easier to say that the svar/ sur is primary and the shruti is secondary. It is so, because music exists and is practised and enjoyed without any knowledge of shruti (by the folk musicians) as well as in the absence of shruti, therefore shruti is apparently a redundant concept without which practical music loses almost nothing.

Shruti surely plays a little important role in determining the probable pitch of a tuneful tone of sargam to give a tentative idea; shruti decides the tentative position of a tone, frequency-wise how much up or down a musical tone is. Our ancestors of music never scientifically measured the shrutis but used various cerebral logics to describe the shruti oriented sounds. They made imaginary tables to understand the shrutis, that have almost no real connection to the practically audible musical sounds.

The concept of consonance/ samvad was determined by the great Indian musicologists with the number of shruti intervals, e.g. 9 and 13 shruti intervals; posing conditions that the corresponding notes must be associated with same number of shrutis (sa- ma, sa- pa, where sa- ma- pa are associated with 4 shrutis; re- dha, where re- dha are associated with 3 shrutis and ga- ni, where ga- ni are associated with 2 shrutis;). The author is amused on the fact in which our great musicologists of the distant past (who had no real knowledge of a much of practical music) overlooked the practically existing consonances like (using contemporary terminology) komal re- tivra ma, komal re- komal dha, shuddha re- pa, komal ga- komal dha, komal ga- komal ni, shuddha ga- shuddha dha, shuddha ga- shuddha ni (antar gandhar- kakali nishad) and tivra ma- shuddha ni which are profusely applied in both Indian vocal and instrumental music.

Now, question arises with the present researcher thinker, on the basis of the preceding evidence, is it okay to rely on every thing that is stated by our ancestors and is it fair to stick to the print superstition?

Many of our scholars have a tendency of describing a simple thing as a complicated one (such a strong tendency is noticed in the early Christian Smriti era in which rules of prohibitions/ dos and donts are described in details) unnecessarily, just only to showcase their scholarship and the logic of their razor sharp brain. Sage Bharat introduced the concept of chatuh sarana to prove the existence of twenty two shrutis in an octave. It is rather ridiculous to note that no scholar even discusses the point what the meaningful concept of sarana actually is in chatuh sarana. In fact sarana is connected to saran, i.e. moving/ shifting from one point to the other (e.g. anusaran). The chatuh sarana is the act of shifting-moving just for four times.

Bharat, the greatest thinker of arts and drama and his successors never mentioned the meaning of sarana, considering it either a simple or a common word. Later, whoever wanted to the concept followed the theory given by him, but no body pointed out the simple meaning of sarana. Sarana was used for determining and proving the fact that there are 22 shrutis. The approach seemed not scientific.

The technique or method of our great musicologists appears to be faulty and unacceptable, it is so because whatever they say appears as if we already know the solution. Bharat determines the size/ measure of a shruti, by calling it a praman shruti but uses not to determine the notes. The author feels that such unfair approach kills the spirit of an analytic researcher.

Bharat and Matanga do not relate jatis with any melody. It seems to the author that the jatis, most possibly were the harvest of fertilized brain of Bharat; for there is no mention of artistes who practised jati singing. Sharngadev tried to correlate shuddha jatis with prevalent melodies or rags of his times but failed referring relations of vikrit jatis with any existing melodies for they were of artificial origin.

There is no logic why there would be 6 rag and 30/ 36 raginis, how they are tonally related. Mostly there is no logic why rags got any particular fanciful name especially in Carnatic music, whereas some names of Hindustani rags are based on tonal logic.

Carnatic rag system is a way deviated from the rag system of the greats like Bharat, Matanga and Sharnga dev. Carnatic music consider its system and rendition pure and pristine, but it has imbibed more of Arabic influence in terms of gamaka and imperfect approach to the tone of a note unless there is steady lingering on the very tone.

Neither of Bhatkhande, Brihaspati and Venkatmakhi agrees to the traditional and original shastriya sangeet of India but the contemporary systematic- traditional music that is in vogue.

Names are different but tonal movements are considered same for 1) kalyan and iman, 2) rageshri and khambhavati. There is no discernible structural difference maintained between rags jaunpuri and asavari by most of the musicians. Name is puriya kalyan but kalyan ang is not noticeable at all in the presentation whereas iman/ yaman ang is prominently noticeable. Rags dhanashri and bhim palasi has no practical difference in their tonal structure.

Tabla players do not follow the system of nomenclature of the strokes, they would call a particular sound by na or ta whenever required though they are not two different sounds. The would call a rhythm by the name of ek tal (literally means one clap) but it uses four claps in its structure.

Such absurdity and inconsistency has become a part of Indian music. There are many such additional paradoxes rampant in Indian music but there is no body to rectify. Moreover, there is tendency, according to which there is nobody who is ready to accept any change whether it is positive or negative.