A Comparative Study of Some of the Leading Music Systems of the 15th, 16th, 17th & 18th Centuries c12.15

c12.15

These points of Bharata and Sharangdeva were strictly followed by Somnath also We cannot say for certain whether or not he understood their real significance. Perhaps he did not. The verses may be translated thus:--The first wire should be tuned to the lowest possible pitch, and it will be the first sruti The next three should be so tuned that each will be a little higher than the next preceding one. (Thus there would be four wires on the key board) Next place twenty two small frets under the fourth wire in such a way that each will produce a sound a little higher than that of the preceding one, care being taken to see that between any two consecutive sruti sounds, no dissimilar "dhwani", or sound is permitted to appear. (The author means to say that the ratio between any two consecutive sruti sounds should be the same all through) The fourth wire will produce the sound of shadja Among the frets, the third will produce rishabha, the fifth will produce gandhara and so forth Compare the statement of Sharangdeva:--