The Music of Hindostan c10.67

c10.67

Unfortunately it is not possible at present to give such a detailed account of the Indian *Mūrchana* (the equivalent of *Harmoniā*); more will perhaps be possible when Bharata’s *Nātyaśāstra* has been adequately translated. He speaks of the Predominant (*aṃśa*) as the foundation and source of musical charm (*rāga*), as determining the tetrachord (*aṅga*) above (*tāra*) and below (*mandra*), as distinctly perceptible in a combination of different notes, as a prominent (*balin*) note provided with consonances (*samvādī*) and assonances (*anuvādī*), and as giving birth to the initial (*graha*) and final (*nyāsa*) and to three other notes of which the meaning is not given³ (*vinyāsa, apanyāsa*, and *samnyāsa*), but which help in some way to constitute the tetrachord. The initial and final are definitely said to begin and end the tetrachord, and the initial is always a Predominant. Finally, the Predominant may, according to the particular mode, be any one of five notes; and this seems to fix the meaning of Predominant definitely as ‘the note of conjunction of two tetrachords’: for if modern Indian *rāgas* are analysed they will be found, if ‘pure’ or ‘mixed’, to contain from one to five possible points of conjunction; if ‘altered’, more.