The Music of Hindostan c15.s1.25

c15.s1.25

The Gāndhāra scale gave its name no doubt to the Gāndhāra note. The names Madhyama and Pañcama have been discussed in Chapter V. Of Ṛṣabha, Dhaivata, and Niṣāda nothing is known; they may be place-names, like Gāndhāra, or fancy names, like the majority of the śrutis. Of Ṣadja there is something more to be said. Referring once more to the list above we find in line 4 the seventh note left without an assigned organ of the body. In line 14 that same note is called Sa. We remember also that the atisvārya is not a regular note of the scale, but is introduced into it as an extension of the other six. Elsewhere, in the Sangīta-sāra-sangraha, for instance, ṣadja, which undoubtedly means ‘born of six’, is said to be produced from six organs of the body, viz. nose, throat, chest, palate, tongue, and teeth. Putting these together we see that the name ṣadja is merely the mythological expression of the musical fact that the atisvārya was an ‘extra’ note on a different footing from the others.