Historical Development of Indian Music: A Critical Study c8.12

c8.12

Charles Darwin is of opinion that music evolved from the imitation of the cries and calls of the animals. Alfred Einstein also holds similar views. He says that comparative musicology, which deals with the primitive development of music, has admitted that primitive men may have been attracted by bird-song in the first place and have continued to use it as a model for imitation. Similar belief prevails among the Indian people. It has been mentioned in the Nāradīśikṣā (first century A.D.) : ‘ṣaḍjam vadati mayūro’ etc., i.e., the call of the peacock is similar to the tonality or pitch of the note ṣadja, that of the bull to that of ṛṣabha; that of the goat to that of gāndhāra; that of the crane to that of madhyama; that of the cuckoo to that of pañcama; that of the horse to that of dhaivata and that of the kuñjara or elephant to that of niṣāda. The Śikṣā also shows the physicophysical origin of the musical sounds or notes from the friction of the air with different parts of the human body.