The Music of Hindostan c13.s2.88

c13.s2.88

Reckoning by akṣara, that is, by the number of notes in a period (parvan). The parvan, as we shall see in the chapter on the Sāman chant, is the amount that can be conveniently sung in a breath, and the akṣaras which fill it are there of two kinds—long (dīrgha) and short (hrasva)—and occasionally the long note is intensified or lengthened, or both of these, in which case it is called vṛddhā (increased). Secular music similarly starts from a long (guru) and a short (laghu) note, and adds on one side the prolate note (pluta) and on the other the quick note (druta, from dru, to run). The laghu is then taken as the unit (mātrā), and the four notes have relative value, thus: