MUSIC AND MUSICAL THOUGHT I N EARLY INDIA CHICAGO STUDIES IN ETHNOMUSICOLOGY Edited by Philip V. Bohlman and Bruno Nettl EDITORIAL BOARD Margaret J. Kartomi Hiromi Lorraine Sakata Anthony Seeger Kay Kaufman Shelemay Bonnie C. Wade MUSIC AND MUSICAL THOUGHT I N EARLY INDIA Lewis Rowell THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS Chicago and London The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 1992 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 1992. Paperback edition 2015 Printed in the United States of America 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 2 3 4 5 6 ISBN-13: 978-0-226-73033-2 (paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-226-73034-9 (e-book) 10.7208/chicago/9780226730349.001.0001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rowell, Lewis Eugene, 1933– Music and musical thought in early India / Lewis Rowell. p. cm. — (Chicago studies in ethnomusicology) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-226-73032-8. — ISBN 0-226-73033-6 (pbk.) 1. Music—India—Theory. I. Title. II. Series. MT6.R87M9 1992 781’.0954’0902—dc20 91-38791 CIP MN a This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). CONTENTS PREFACE ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiii THE SOUNDS OF SANSKRIT xv ABBREVIATIONS xvii ABOUT THE FRONTISPIECE 3 1 INTRODUCTION 5 1.1 Music and Musical Thought in Early India 5 1.2 The Divisions of Music 9 1.3 Microcosm and Macrocosm 16 1.4 Chronology and Sources 18 2 THOUGHT 23 2.1 Introduction 23 2.2 Continuities of Indian Thought 24 2.3 Systematic Thinking 27 2.4 Symbolic Thinking 32 3 SOUND 35 3.1 Introduction 35 3.2 The Divisions of Sound 35 3.3 The Theory of Sound 38 3.4 Sound: A Lexicon 41 3.5 Causal Sound: Niida 43 3.6 AkiiSa, the Medium of Sound 47 3.7 Sound and the External World 50 3.8 Three Ancient Conceptions of Musical Sound 51 4 CHANT 56 4.1 Introduction 56 4.2 Samavedic Chant 57 v VI CONTENTS 4.2.1 The Role of Memory 64 4.2.2 Chironomy 65 4.2.3 Duration and Tempo 67 4.2.4 Dynamics 68 4.3 The Phonetic Treatises 68 4.4 Some Distinctive Features of Sanskrit and Their Musical Consequences 70 4.5 Narada's Sik$a and the Organization of Musical Pitch 75 4.6 Milieu 85 5 THEATER 91 5.1 Introduction 91 5.2 The Natyasastra 96 5.3 The Preliminary Rituals 101 5.4 The Incidental Music 108 5.5 Instruments 112 5.6 Epilogue 117 6 SASTRA 119 6.1 Introduction 119 6.2 Musical Scholarship 124 6.3 Musical Discourse 130 6.4 The Language of Musical Speculation 134 6.5 Notations 140 7 PITCH 144 7.1 Introduction 144 7.2 The Gamut and Its Tuning 145 7.3 Philosophical Arguments on ,5ruti and Svara 149 7.4 The Gamut and Its Variables 152 7.5 Sonance 157 7.6 The Tanas 160 7.7 Melodic Choices 162 7.8 The Concept of Raga 166 8 TIME 180 8.1 Introduction 180 8.2 The Idea of Time in Ancient India 182 CONTENTS VII 8.3 Tala 188 8.4 Chironomy 193 8.5 Rhythmic Patterns 196 8.6 The Concept of State 199 8. 7 Timing 202 8.8 The Dest Talas 207 8.9 The Influence of Metrics 215 8.10 The Rhythms ofIndian Music 222 9 FORM 225 9.1 Introduction 225 9.2 Formal Archetypes 230 9.2.1 The Human Body 232 9.2.2 Organic Growth 233 9.2.3 Ritual 236 9.2.4 Creation 237 9.3 Formal Components 243 9.4 Formal Tactics 247 9.4.1 Upohana 248 9.4.2 Upavartana 250 9.4.3 Prastara 251 9.5 Ritual Forms 252 9.6 Minor Forms 265 10 SONG 269 10.1 Introduction 269 10.2 The Prabandhas 274 10.3 Song Forms 276 10.4 A Garland of Songs 280 10.5 Expansion of the Genre 281 10.6 Cultural Mapping 284 10.7 The Theory and Practice of Song 290 11 STYLE 295 11.1 Introduction 295 11.2 Gender 298 11.3 Qualifications 301 11.4 GUIJas and DO$as 304 Vll1 CONTENTS 11. 5 The Qualities of Musical Sound 308 1 1.6 Style as a Composite 312 11.7 Levels of Ornamentation 319 11.8 Rasa 327 11.9 The Values of Indian Music 334 12 AFTERTHOUGHTS 338 NOTES 345 GLOSSARY OF SANSKRIT TERMS 381 BIBliOGRAPHY 387 INDEX 397 TABLES 1 The Six Orthodox Systems of Indian Philosophy 28 2 The Forms of the Atman according to the Maitri Upani$ad 37 3 Two Perspectives on Sound Production, according to the Krama System of Kashmir Shaivism 47 4 The Twenty-Five Mute Consonants of Sanskrit 47 5 Three Ancient Conceptions of Musical Sound 52 6 The Sanskrit Morphophonemes 73 7 The Seven Svaras 78 8 Correspondences to the Seven Svaras 89 9 The ga1')a Elas as a Cultural Map of Medieval Indian Song 288 10 Coordinates of Style from Matanga's Brhaddesi 314 11 Coordinates of Musical Style in the Smigitaratnilkara 319 PREFACE What was music like in early India? What were its sounds, rhythms, tunes, and forms? How did it differ from today's music, or from music in the an cient and medieval West? What was it about? What did it mean to those who sang and played it, and to their hearers? I have undertaken this book as an exercise in musical archaeology, with the hope of giving provisional answers to these questions. The aim was not only to pursue a technical investigation of the materials and structures of music but also to increase our awareness and understanding of the intellec tual foundations of India's ancient musical culture. I shall reserve further ex planations for chapter 1, but one guiding assumption of this project must be clearly stated here. My study has been motivated by the unshakable convic tion that the organization of music (by which I mean not only sounds, but also behaviors and concepts) has been continuously informed and molded by the prevailing framework of ideas. Accordingly my purpose has been not only to determine as precisely as possible what we may call the "facts" of music (the tunings, scales, modes, rhythms, gestures, patterns, and formal structures) and the conceptual basis for these facts but also to place these facts and concepts within their proper cultural context and examine their many connections with the fabric of ideas in early Indian philosophy, cos mology, religion, literature, science, and other relevant bodies of thought. I am particularly gratified that this book appears as a part of the Chicago Series in Ethnomusicology, because I have always thought of it as a study in historical ethnomusicology. Readers will find few references to ethno musicological theory and method in these pages, but I shall return to make the connections explicit in my final chapter. Any book could have been several different books, and this one is no ex ception. Specialists in ancient Indian music and music theory would wel come, and perhaps expect, a comprehensive study that proceeds step by step through each of the surviving texts, attempting to resolve every philo logical question, proposing and defending each of the necessary reconstruc tions of the many textual gaps and passages mangled in the scribal tradition, explaining each musical concept and tracing its development throughout the corpus of literature, reconciling the many contradictions, and exploring IX