Concept of Probability in Sanskrit Texts on Classical Music (original) (raw)
Related papers
Concept of Śruti, Svara and Rāga of Classical Music in Sanskrit Texts
Indian Journal of History of Science, 2018
Indian classical music also known as rāga music traces its origin to the style of chanting hymns of the Sāmaveda (2 nd-3 rd Millennium BCE) that is in practice to this day. The transition from the sacred to secular or worldly music is textually evidenced for the first time in the Nāya-śāstra of Bharata (100 BCE-100CE). All texts attest to the fact that the string instrument generically called Vīā, that is in use since Vedic times is indispensable in understanding the subtle nuances of the theory behind Hindu classical music. The present paper reviews some of the well-known texts from a historical perspective to bring out several scientific aspects studied or expounded by our ancient authors regarding technical terms such as śruti, svara, dvigua and rāga that form the foundation of the theory. It is demonstrated that the theory and practice of rāga music is based on the probabilistic concept alpatva-bahutva, first enunciated by Bharata and elaborated later by Dattila, Mataga, Śārgadeva among others.
The influential sixteenth-century Sanskrit treatise Svara-mela-kalānidhi describes a novel system of naming tones, of organizing rāga-s by pitch content, and of reckoning svara-s on 12 fret positions rather than 22 śruti-s. Contrary to its common construal as a sudden rupture in tradition, we highlight the rhetorical means by which the treatise systematically grounds its authority (and that of its ambitious patron, Rāmarāya) in the canon of saṅgīta-śāstra. We also offer a new translation and a new (non-Pythagorean) interpretation of its svayambhu-based tuning system.
Melody and/or Prosody: The Double History of Rāga in Odisha
Before printing became widespread in Odisha (a region of eastern India), Odia-language poetic compositions were inscribed on palm-leaf manuscripts. At the beginning of most compositions, be they individual songs or sections (chāndas) of long-form poetic works (kāvyas), one usually finds written the name of a rāga. 1 A modern reader at least passingly familiar with music in India might assume that this indicated the type of melody in which the composition should be performed. If so they might be surprised to read the opinion of the eminent scholar of Odia literature, Gaurīkumāra Brahmā. He wrote in 1967:
On the Distributional Representation of Ragas: Experiments with Allied Raga Pairs
Transactions of the International Society for Music Information Retrieval
Raga grammar provides a theoretical framework that supports creativity and flexibility in improvisation while carefully maintaining raga distinctiveness in the ears of a listener. A computational model for raga grammar can serve as a powerful tool to characterize grammaticality in performance. Like in other forms of tonal music, a distributional representation capturing tonal hierarchy has been found to be useful in characterizing a raga's distinctiveness in performance. In the continuous-pitch melodic tradition, several choices arise for the defining attributes of a histogram representation of pitches. These can be resolved by referring to one of the main functions of the representation, namely to embody the raga grammar and therefore the technical boundary of a raga in performance. Based on the analyses of a representative dataset of audio performances in allied ragas by eminent Hindustani vocalists, we propose a computational representation of distributional information, and further apply it to obtain insights about how this aspect of raga distinctiveness is manifested in practice over different time scales by very creative performers.
Rāgamālā : An Unpublished Source of Indian Music
The tradition of composing musicological texts and treaties is undoubtedly a glorious part of India's cultural heritage. At the very beginning the oldest documents of Indian literature, the Vedas, convey the first written information on Indian music. It is seen that, since the early days a set of specific rules have been adopted by the scholars and performers to maintain clarity in certain distinct forms of chanting, singing, dancing, instrument playing and other allied activities in the field of performance. 1 This system leads to originate the textual tradition of Indian performing art. The creative diversity became more prominent later on with the establishment of the heterogeneous system of Rāga-Rāgiṇī classification in Indian music. A large number of texts written in ancient and medieval India paid quite a little attention to Rāga-Rāgiṇī classification system. Doctrines of Hanumān, Śiva or Brahma or Someśvara, Bharata, Kallinātha, Indraprastha, Gaṇesa and many such scholars came up in this context. The vivid picture of Rāga-Rāgiṇī classification with explanation is undoubtedly helpful for understanding the origin, development and importance of this cultural practice in respect of the broader canvas of Indian music. A host of eminent scholars have been successful to unfold the profound mysteries embedded in the concept of Rāga-Rāgiṇī classification with the help of available textual documents. However, the work is still far from completion due to lack of available information. A good number of texts on Indian musicology are still lying confined in manuscript form. Rāgamālā, a descriptive work on Indian Rāga-Rāgiṇīs by Kṣemakarṇa is one such unnoticed treasury of medieval India. The work under discussion interestingly represents the existence of the age old concept of Rāga-Rāgiṇī classification system. The present paper is therefore sincerely aimed at tracing out the significance of the said text in researching the unrevealed elements of Indian music. History of musical activities is nothing but a part of human's cultural evolutions. Records of the history collected from different sources of information are helpful to understand how people lived and worked from the earliest times to the present day. The various sources of history are like the many pieces of a puzzle. These sources can be broadly classified into two groups – archaeological and literary. Among the literary sources manuscripts are major components. Handwritten records of the past in the form of books are known as manuscripts.
Indo-Persian Music Theoretical Treatise from the Late 17th Century, by Ras Baras
2016
This study is an attempt to provide a critical edition and English translation of an Indo-Persian treatise entitled Shams al-aṣvāt, a Persian translation-cum-commentary on the monumental medieval Sanskrit musicological work Saṅgītaratnākara of Śārṅgadeva. Shams al-aṣvāt was written in 1698 by Ras Baras, the son of Khushḥāl Khān Kalāvant. The critical edition is followed by an English translation of the edited text. The treatise represents the Subcontinent stream of Persian post-scholastic writings on music theory which began in the 16 th century and lasted to the middle of the 19 th century when Persian lost its status as the literary language of the subcontinent and was replaced by English. In the introduction to the critical edition, the editors try to trace the treatise back to the original Sanskrit work and prove that Shams al-aṣvāt is a translationcum-commentary on Saṅgītaratnākara. The most important conclusions drawn in the present study are that Persian translations of Sanskrit music theoretical works were not merely translations but also "harmonizations", according to the current practice of their time. Furthermore, the present study shows that in order to reconstruct the archetype/autograph regarding musical terms, despite the risk of confusing and mixing newer terms and descriptions with the older ones, an eclectic approach is the most successful and fruitful. Using primary and parallel sources reduces the risk considerably.
Melody Revisited: Tips from Indian Music Theory
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The aim of this article is to tighten the mathematical definition of melody to capture its musical meaningfulness. This is supported by a comparative statistical study of melodic structures of two North Indian ragas, Bageshree and Bhimpalashree, that use the same notes.
CONDITIONED ERROR: A STUDY INTO THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF NOTE-CENTRIC THEORY OF MUSIC
The dominant streak of the theoretical discourse regarding Hindustani Classical music rests its weight on the note-centric vision of music, which demands in turn the existence of absolute or ideal notes. It seems to override the other possible discourses that would put words (alankar) and/or phrases (anga) at the centre. The skewed discourse has affected the practitioners' view as well as some of the attempted mathematical models. This paper challenges the very idea of existence of such ideal notes and proves that such notes do not exist in a system where the tonic is flexible. The notes used are based purely on the musician's perception owing to the musician's individual traits as well as the schooling.