Historical Development of Indian Music: A Critical Study c8.38

c8.38

The expert singers and chanters of the Vedic age knew fully well the specific laws and method of application of the three registers: bass, medium and high i.e., *mandra*, *madhya* and *tāra*. The three ancient register notes or *sthānasvaras*, raised, not-raised and balancing circumflex i.e. *udātta*, *anudātta* and *svarita* came to be used as three kinds of pitches of speaking as well as singing voices. The rhythm and tempo were used in accordance with different types of feet of the Vedic metres, *gāyatrī*, *jagatī*, *anuṣṭupa*, etc. The time-measure or *tāla* was observed in hymnal songs and different types of *sāmagāna* in two different ways, with beat and without beat i.e. *sa-śabda* and *nis-śabda*. The *sa-śabda* time measure was kept with the clapping of hands and the *nis-śabda* one by wavering of the hands or different limbs of the body. From these two fundamental time-measures or time-observing processes there evolved various kinds of timemeasures in the *gāndharva* or *mārga* type of music, in the classical period.