The Music of Hindostan c13.s2.105

c13.s2.105

But *caturthaḥ* introduces us suddenly to a five rhythm, instead of, as we should have expected, a three rhythm. It is interesting to see how this comes about. Since the earliest, and by far the most prevalent metre is the *śloka*, which primarily counted the syllables and only secondarily weighed them also, the number of syllables in a unity of any sort came to have a greater importance than we should naturally have attached to it. Hence, when only three syllables were taken together (leaving aside ◡ ◡ ◡ and — — — which we have already disposed of), the trisyllabic forms — ◡ ◡ and — — ◡, for instance (of four and five mātrās), seemed to be more nearly related to each other than the trisyllabic — ◡ ◡ and disyllabic — — (each of four mātrās). Similarly, it being possible to proceed from — ◡ ◡ (four mātrās) to — — ◡ (five mātrās) or to — ◡ (three mātrās), the former step which kept the number of syllables seemed more natural than the latter which changed it. This may give a hint as to the hitherto unexplained delight of the Greeks in five rhythm; but it would be going too far to assert that it is the origin of five rhythm in general; for this appears quite independently in places as remote, in more than a geographical sense, as Finland and the Malay Archipelago, and others.