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
detected in the murchanas of ancient
Somehow, the ancient Indian music scholars
any importance to the said tones nor made

very much be
shadja gram.
did neither give
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 21 st 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.