The Music of Hindostan c15.8

c15.8

² It is tempting to see in the pracaya the counterpart of the pyknon. The pyknon was the cluster of three notes at intervals of a diesis (quarter-tone) which occurred in the Enharmonic genus (or of a semitone in the Chromatic). Thence there was a leap to the mesē just as there was a leap from the anudātta, or pracaya, to the udātta. But the pyknon was not an amorphous cluster; one of its three notes stood out from the other two, was in fact of the nature of a tonic. This is closely analogous to the toneless pracaya in which the toned anudātta stood out. And this ‘toneless tone’ may, further, be in principle the forerunner of the drone, frequently relegated to the drum, which might be called from one point of view toneless, from another, toned. The formation of the svarita tells us that the interval which was taken as a leap in ascent was bridged in descent; and this is borne out by the practice of modern Rāga, which prefers on the whole disjunct motion in ascent and conjunct in descent.