The Music of Hindostan c15.s1.135

c15.s1.135

ā - jya - do - ham - ma ā - jya - do - ham - ma mūr - dha-nan-dā - i NOTATION. The various systems are all modern—of the last few centuries, perhaps; and that followed in one MS. would not help to the elucidation of another. The signs employed are sometimes letters which appear to be abbreviations of technical terms, sometimes numerals which bear some as yet unexplained relation to the ordinals of the Sāman scale. They are written over the syllables of the text to indicate the substantive (prakṛti) notes, between them to indicate grace-notes (vikṛti), practically the ‘ligatures’ of Plainsong. Secular music has also till quite lately, the last century, dispensed with notation; and it must be remembered that a written notation would be a hindrance rather than a help when everything was learned by heart¹ or extemporized.