The Music of Hindostan c9.s1.12

c9.s1.12

*Saptaka*, a ‘set of seven’, takes the place of our word ‘octave’; the *saptaka* contains seven *svaras*, i. e. not notes, but intervals between them; and all Indian notations assume three *saptakas*, a higher (*tāra*), middle (*madhya*), and lower (*mandra*), arrived at as the average compass of the human voice (in their art songs).