The Music of Hindostan c13.s2.104

c13.s2.104

What makes these five groups interesting is that they offer a connecting link between the prosodial feet given on p. 196 (*ya-ma-ta-ra*, &c.) and some of the fundamental principles of Indian musical time. In the second, third, and fourth of them we have all the eight three-syllable feet. *Dvitīyaḥ* represents, according to the note you begin upon, three of them, ◡ ◡ —, ◡ — ◡, — ◡ ◡; *tṛtīyaḥ* two more, ◡ ◡ ◡ and — — —; and *caturthaḥ* the remaining three, — — ◡, — ◡ —, and ◡ — —. *Pañcamaḥ* similarly represents ◡ ◡ and — —; and, according as one or other note is dwelt upon, ◡ — or — ◡ also. That this is the true view is made more likely by the position of *pañcamaḥ* after the others; for the two-syllable feet follow the three-syllable in the *memoria technica*. *Aditālaḥ* is placed first, as much as to say ‘this *laghu* (crotchet) you are to take as your unit (*mātra*) throughout the list’. We see also the genesis of the rest (‘): for, stress-accent being foreign to this versification, there would, without it, be nothing in a series of *tṛtīyaḥ*s to mark that they were to be taken in sets of three. This is borne out also by the comparative rarity of genuine Hindu songs which are in three time (it is commoner with Mohammedan); what we should call 3/8 and 6/8 are not unknown, but they are not favourite rhythms.