Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c6.1

c6.1

By legend and tradition Indian music is supposed to be derived from, and have its roots in, the Vedas.¹ Let us see if the music of the Vedic age offer any materials for the rāgas. The Sāman chants appear to be melodies of three notes (tetrachord?) known as udātta (raised), anudātta (not raised) and svarita (sounded, graced). This seems to be borne out by the sūtras of Pāṇini (5th century B.C.) who defines the svarita note as an adjustment or amalgamation of the two notes udātta and anudātta.² If the Vedic chants were music confined to three notes, they were not melodies or rāgas in our sense, for a rāga must at least have five notes (pentatonic). The śikṣās (branches of the Prātiśākhyas) seem to give a different interpretation to the three Vedic notes. According to this later definition, udātta stands for niṣāda and gāndhāra, anudātta for ṛṣabha and dhaivata, and svarita for ṣadja, madhyama and pañcama.³ According to the tonic values of the notes, ṣadja and madhyama are made of 4 śrutis which is made to equate with the Vedic notes known as ‘svarita.’ The notes ṛṣabha and dhaivata are made of 3 śrutis and answer to anudātta notes, while niṣāda and gāndhāra, made of 2 śrutis, correspond to udātta. The seven notes therefore are implied in the three