Hindustani Music and Science in Thirteenth Century BC: A Study of Pt. Sharangdev's 'Sangeet Ratnakar'

Modern Studies of Music has crossed its disciplinary Boundaries and opened new of study in the field of music. The contemporary research works deals with the areas like the physics of music, the mathematics of music, the psychology of music, the psychology of music, the impact of music on human mind and body, the science of music etc. The present research paper is the study of the music-science interaction through the study of Sangeet Ratnakar written by Pt. Sharangdev‘ in 13th Century A.D. Hindustani music carries a long history and the information about the music of any particular point in time can be drawn out from the treatises written from time to time. Such treaties may not or may not be explaining music; such as Vedas, these are basically religious but also carry information about the music prevalent 3000 years ago. Some historical books such as daily records of kings also carry music information. Such as „Ain-e-Akbari‟, the record book of daily events in the kingdom of King Akbar around 500 years ago. A number of treatises are also written by various music scholars and musicologists from time to time, describing and explaining the music of their time. One such Grantha/Treatise is written by Pt. Sharangdev. Pt. Sharangdev was born around 1210 A.D. He was the court singer of king of Devgiri who was of Yadav ancestry. Musicologists of Hindustani Music and Carnatic Music both acknowledge the authenticity of the Grantha by Pt. Sharangdev.1 The Treatise Sangeet Ratnakar has the definition of Music in the start that vocal, instrumental and dance are all known as music. Music is of two types, viz. Margi and Desi. The treatise is divided into seven chapters viz. Swargatadhayay, Raga Vivekadhayay, Prabandhadhayay, Prakeernadhayay, Taladhayay, Vadhyadhayay amd Nritnadhayay. Modern studies have revealed that human mind is affected by listening, Learning and performing music. "When one is involved in playing music, a lot of things are going on in the brain. The perceptual systems involved are sight for reading a score, sounds for hearing, touch and so forth. The decoding and symbolic interpretation of a score engages related systems. One includes planning both fine and gross movements which require a great deal of coordination. The execution of movements of thousands of muscle fibers and muscle groups creates feedback from what has happened. And learning and memory are involved in every single step, not to mention the involvement of

A study on the effect of Music on GSR (Galvanic skin response) of Children was studied which shows positive result that music affects the emotions of the listener. ‗…experiment was conducted to determine the effects of music upon GSR of children. An excerpt of a musical selection judged by college students to be exciting and one judged to be calming were played in counterbalanced order to a group of kindergarten, third grade, and sixth grade children while continuous measures of GSR were being taken‖3 It was found that the students showed the effect of music and the responsiveness of children towards the effects of music was more than that of college students Another research conducted on 200 subjects, 100 Music Majors and 100 Music non-majors of which, 50 male and 50 female in each group. The subjects were blind folded and were told to perform pencil maze and it was told to them that their performance was not correct and they have to repeat the task again, until they felt anxious. The responses were measured through GSR and found that in the presence of music there was significant change in the anxiety level of subjects. The research concluded that Music may have coordinated between the emotional and rational stress of the subjects.4

Human mind is affected by music was known to the musicians of 13th century is confirmed from the study of ‗Sangeet Ratnakar‟. Pt. Sharangdev quotes some references of the impact of music on human mind referring to a child who is unaware of the taste of music, also stops crying on listening music.5 Effect of music can also be confirmed from the anecdote that dates back 500 years approx. during the reign of King Akbar in India. A famous competition of Tansen and Baiju Bawra is recorded in history which proves the effect of music on arrivals. Once there was a competition between Tansen and Barju Bawra. When Tansen sang, many deers came near and started listening to his music. Tansen put a garland in the neck of one of those deers. When he finished his singing, all deers went back. When Baiju Bawra sang, the same deer wearing garland came back. He removed the Garland from deer‘s neck and presented to Tansen, proving the controlling effect Music's on Animals. This anecdote of the competition indicates the knowledge of the effects of music to the musicians of that time. The emotional content of different notes was also a part of music knowledge of thirteenth century. Pt. Sharangdev, speaking about the emotional aspect of music says that specific notes induce specific induces Karuna Rasa, and the was 'Ma' and 'Pa' induces Hasya and Shingara Rasas.6 The induction of emotions in the listener in not only through notes but through rendering of 'Jatis' which have these notes as 'Ansh'7 i.e. through the jatis in which these notes occupy major time span, must have been used induce emotion rather than only notes. How the thirteenth century musicians calculated the emotional content of these notes is still to be uncovered but it is confirmed that they were keen towards the conceptual study of music.

For the emergence of sound from human body Pt. Sharangdev Considers both physical and the meta-physical causes for the production of sound. According to him the metaphysical cause decides what to speak and the physical cause decides the physical properties of sound produced. The process of sound production starts with "Aatma' (The individual Self) which when wishes to speak activates the 'man' (Consciousness). The 'man' activates the inner heat which inspires the air present inside the body to move upwards through navel, heart, throat, 'mudha' (The upper inside of mouth where tongue can touch) and mouth to produce the available sound which carries the massage which the 'Aatma' (the individual self) wishes to convey.8

The musical sound or the 'Naad' according to this shloka is of thrre types, the lower tone or 'Mandra Naad;' the middle tone or the ‗Madhya Naad' and the upper tone or the 'Taar Naad.' This classification of sounds is on the basis of the path of sound if it belongs to the lower, middle or upper octave i.e. the classification based on the physical property 'Pitch' of sound. Also the notes of a raga are divided into the categories of 'vadi', 'Samvadi', 'Anuvadi' and 'vivadi' notes. The above categorization is based on the ‗time span‘ each note occupies during the presentation of a raga. The vadi is the most prominent note because it occupies maximum time span, the second important samvadi occupies second largest time span. The other notes of raga are considered as anuvadi. The vivadi note is not used in the raga as such but to amplify the beauty and aesthetic expression. This note is used just a few times in whole performance.9 of 13 or 9 microtones, i.e. there is a prominent note in both the halves of the octave. "The entire raga is so oriented that all the movements [of notes] tend to gravitate towards this note, called the vadi. Vadi means that which sounds. In other words it is that which dominates‖10

The five types of Gitis told by the scholars are all formed by varying the properties of the sound used in them. Some scholars, such as Matang Muni defined seven types of Gitis and some such as Pt. Sarangdev defined Gitis of five types viz. Shuddha, Bhinna, Gaudi, Vesra and Sadharni.11 According to Pt. Sharangdev apart from the melodiousness the different properties of Gitis are: 1) Unidirectional Movements of Notes: Movement of notes is unidirectional, i.e. are moving in a single direction. The pitch is either constantly increasing or decreasing. This type of song is termed as Shuddha Giti.12 2) Curvical Movement of Notes: The Vakra movement of the pitch and subtle gamakas are the properties of this Giti, i.e. Order of pitch of small part of sequence is opposite to the movement of the whole. For example, the movement from middle Sa to higher Sa is vakra if it is of the type ‗Sa Re Ga Pa Ma Ga Pa Ma Dha Ni‟. The movement Ga Re, Ma Ga, Pa Ma is the downward movement of pitch but the result of whole frame is upward movement of pitch. This Type of song is termed as Bhinna Giti in Musical Treatise ‗Sangeet Ratnakar‘13 3) Notes in form of Gamakas in all three octaves: This Giti is formed if dense Gamaka is sung in all the three octeves. The lower octave notes are sung softly. This chin is touched to chest (where heart is located) and 'HO…' is spoken while singing notes. This type of song is known as Gaudi Giti.14 4) Fast use of notes: When notes are sung in high speed according to four varnas, it is called as vaig-swara Giti or Vesra Giti.15 5) Sadharni Giti: This is formed when the properties of all the above four Gitis are mixed together.16 The Giti Gayan system was popular during the medieval period of Hindustani classical music and is mentioned in granthas, which describe different Gitis in terms of the nature and properties of sound used in a particular Giti. According to the definition of Shuddha Giti is the pitch movement is linear; Bhinna Giti, the the pitch movement is in the form of Gamakas; and Vesra Giti, pitches are sung at high speed one after another and the sequencing of pitches is according to the four varnas. We can also say that the Giti Gayan system, or different Gitis were differentiated and defined by taking into consideration the properties of sound very precisely especially pitch and intensity of sound.

From the above discussion it is clear that Hindustani Classical Music and Science were very close in Thirteenth Century BC. Effect of Music on Mind and Body, Three Types of Musical Sound and Giti Gayan according to „Sangeet Ratnakar‟ are discussed in this research report and found that the musicologists of that time were having scientific thinking and also study music interdisciplinary in relation to mind, body and physics of sound. More detailed study of the treatise will also reveal the mathematical nature of music. We can also state that scientific understanding of music and implementation of music scientifically was part of musical thought of Thirteenth Century.

1. Sangeet Ratnavali, Pt. Ashok Kumar Yaman (2008). Abhishek Publications, Chandigarh, 2008, Pg. 730 2. Dr. Norman M. Winbergen : Prof of Neuro biology and Behaviour University of California, Irvine Music research in behaviour and brain. Past, Present and Future. Pg 50 3. George, H. Zimny and Edward, W. Weidenfeller (1962). Effects of Music upon GSR of Children, Child Development, Vol 33, No. 4, Dec 1962, Pg. 896 4. O. Peretti and Kathy Swenson (1974). Effects of Music on Anxiety as Determined by Physiological Skin Responses, Journal of Research in Music Education, Sage Publications , Vol. 22, No. 4, 1974, Pg. 281

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Assistant Professor, Department of Music, Mata Gujri Khalsa College, Kartarpur