Music - Sangita

Charles Coleman writes in his book Mythology of the Hindus preface p. ix:

"An account of the state of musical science amongst the Hindus of early ages and a comparison between it and that of Europe is yet a desideratum in Oriental literature. From what we already know of the science, it appears to have attained a theoretical precision yet unknown to Europe, and that too in a period when even Greece was little removed from barbarism."

Anne C. Wilson adds: "It must, therefore, be a secret source of pride to them to know that their system of music, as a written science, is the oldest in the world. Its principles were accepted by the Mahommedan portion of the population in the days of their pre-eminence, and are still in use in their original construction at the present day."

Dr. Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) the late curator of Indian art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and author of The Dance of Shiva: Essays on Indian Art and Culture, has written:

"Music has been a cultivated art in India for at least three thousand years. The chant is an essential element of Vedic ritual; and the references in later Vedic literature, the epics, the scriptures of Buddhism, show that it was already highly developed as a secular art in centuries before the beginning of the Christian era. Its zenith may perhaps be assigned to the Imperial age of the Guptas - from the 4th to the 6th century A.D. This was the classic period of Sanskrit literature, culminating in the drama of Kalidasa; and to the same time is assigned the monumental treatise on the theory of music and drama."

(source: The Wisdom of Ananda Coomaraswamy - presented by S. Durai Raja Singam 1979 p. 84).

Music in India has a history of at least three thousand years. The Vedic hymns, like all Hindu poetry, were written to be snug; poetry and song, music and dance, were made one art in the ancient ritual. Sangita, the Indian tradition of music, is as old as Indian contacts with the Western world, and it has graduated through various strata of evolution: primitive, prehistoric, Vedic, classical, mediaeval, and modern. It has traveled from temples and courts to modern festivals and retaining a clearly recognizable continuity of tradition.

Sangita which originally meant drama, music and dance, was closely associated with religion and philosophy.

According to Indian philosophy the ultimate goal of human existence is moksha, liberation of the atman from the life-cycle, or spiritual enlightenment; and nadopasana (literally, the worship of sound) is taught as an important means for reaching this goal. The highest musical experience is ananda, the "divine bliss." This devotional approach to music is significant feature of Indian culture.
The Indian music tradition can be traced to the Indus (Saraswati) Valley civilization. The goddess of music, Saraswati, who is also the goddess of learning, is portrayed as seated on a white lotus playing the vina.

Indian music is based upon a system of ragas and is improvised or composed at the moment of performance. The notes which are to convey certain definite emotions or ideas are selected with extreme care from the twenty-five intervals of the sruti scale and then grouped to form a raga, a mode or a melodic structure of a time. It is upon this basic structure that a musician or singer improvises according to his feeling at the time. Structural melody is the most fundamental characteristic of Indian music. The term raga is derived from Sanskrit root, ranj or raj, literally meaning to color but figuratively meaning to tinge with emotion.

German author Albert Weber writes in his book, Indian Literature - By Albrecht Weber ISBN: 1410203344 (p. 27):

"The Hindus scale - Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Nee has been borrowed by the Persians, where we find it in the form of do, re, ma, fa, so, le, ci. It came to the West and was introduced by Guido d' Arezzo in Europe in the form of do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti....even the 'gamma' of of Guido (French gramma, English gamut) goes back to the Sanskrit gramma and Prakrit gamma and is thus a direct testimony of the Indian origin of our European scale of seven notes."

He observes: "According to Von Bohlen and Benfrey, this notation passed from the Hindus to the Persians," and from these again to the Arabs, and was introduced into European music by Guido D'Arezzo at the beginning of the 11th century."

More information on how the Indian system of music traveled to Europe is provided by Ethel Rosenthal's research in her book, The Story of Indian Music (South Asia Books; ; 1 edition (August 1, 1990) ISBN 8186142908) and its Instruments, on page 3, in which she observes, "In The Indian Empire, Sir William Wilson Hunter remarked that:

"A regular system of notation had been worked out before the age of Panini and the seven notes were designated by their initial letters. This notation passed from the Brahmins through the Persians to Arabia, and was then introduced into European music by Guido d' Arezzo at the beginning of the 11th century....Hindu music after a period of excessive elaboration, sand under the Muhammadans into a state of arrested developments......."

Sir William Wilson Hunter (1840-1900) further observes, "Not content with the tones and semi-tones, the Indian musicians employed a more minute sub-division, together with a number of sonal modifications which the Western ear neither recognizes or enjoys. Thus, they divide the octave into 22 sub-tones instead of 12 semi-tones of the European scales. The Indian musician declines altogether to be judged by the new simple Hindu airs which the English ear can appreciate."

The two phenomena, which have already been stated as the foundation of musical modes, could not long have escaped the attention of the Hindus, and their flexible language readily supplied them with names for the seven Swaras, or sounds, which they dispose in the following order: Shadja, pronounced Sharja, Rishabha, Gandhara, Madhyama, Pachama, Dhaivata, Nishada, but the first of them is emphatically named Swara, or the sound, from the important office, which it bears in the scale; and hence, by taking the seven initial letters or syllables of those words, they contrived a notation for their airs and at the same time exhibited a gamut, at least as convenient as that of Guido: they call it Swaragrama or Septaca, and express it in this form:

Sa, ri, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni,

three of which syllables are, by a singular concurrence exactly the same, though not all in the same places, with three of those invented by David Mostare, as a substitute for the troublesome gamut used in his time, which he arranges thus: Bo, ce, di, ga, lo, ma, ni.

(source: The Story of Indian Music - By Ethel Rosenthal p. 3 and 177-178).

The ancient Western world was aware of the existence of a highly developed system of Indian music. According to Curt Sachs, it was the South Indian drum tambattam that was known in Babylonia under the name of timbutu, and the South Indian kinnari shared its name with King David's kinnor. Strabo referred to it, pointing out that the Greeks believed that their music, from the triple point of view of melody, rhythmn, and instruments, came to them originally from Asia. Arrian, the biographer of Alexander, also mentions that the Indians were great lovers of music and dance from earliest times. The Greek writers, who made the whole of Asia, including India, the sacred territory o fdionysos, claimed that the greater part of music was derived from India.

Sir Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999), American-born violinist, one of the foremost virtuosos of his generation, was convinced that:

" We would find all, or most, strands beginning in India; for only in India have all possible modes been investigated, tabulated, and each assigned a particular place and purpose. Of these many hundreds, some found their way to Greece; others were adopted by nomadic tribes such as the Gypsies; others became the mainstay of Arabic music."

(For additional information on Indian Music, Visit - Music of India http://trumpet.sdsu.edu/M345/Music_of_India1.html).

Regarding the growth and development of music in India, Yehudi Menuhin, the well known violonist who visited India (1952) writes in an American literary magazine The Saturday Review of Literature that he found "there was so much new and satisfying to him that in India the equilibrium of life is better balanced than elsewhere, a greater unity of thought and feeling prevail than in the West." In his view Indian music, culture and philosophy "are quite sufficient, soundly conceived and adequate for the needs not only of Indian but capable of being beneficial if adopted in a wider sphere of humanity. Indian music is a traditional crystalized form of expression in which the performers and auditors partake of the resignation of environment and fact. It invites to attain a sense of meditation, of oneness with God."

(source: Ancient Indian Culture At A Glance - By Swami Tattwananda p. 147-148).

The Sakuntala furor has lasted till almost today. One of the noblest "overtures" in European music is the Sakuntala overture of the Hungarian composer Carl Goldmark (1830-1915).

(source: Creative India - By Benoy Kumar Shenoy p. 110).

The Hindus first developed the science of music from the chanting of the Vedic hymns. The Sama Veda was especially meant for music. And the scale with seven notes and three octaves was known in India centuries before the Greeks had it. Probably the Greeks learnt it fromt he Hindus. It is interesting to know that German composer, Richard Wagner was indebted to the Hindu science of music, especially for his principal idea of the "leading motive"; and this is perhaps the reason why it is so difficult for many Western people to understand Wagner's music. He became familiar with Eastern music through Latin translations, and his conversation on this subject with Arthur Schopenhauer. (refer to Quotes1-20 page for Schopenhauer).

(source: India And Her People - By Swami Abhedananda - p.221).

As M. Bourgault Ducodray (1840 - 1910) writes: "The Hindu music will provide Western musicians with fresh resources of expression and with colors hitherto unknown to the palate of the musicians." It seems Wagner got the idea of leading motive from India through Latin translations. The Gregorain mode in Western music introduced by Pope Gregory, the Great, are of Indian inspiration, which he got when he was ambassador at Constantinople. Indian music has ardent admirers in the West. Romain Rolland told Dilip Kumar Roy that by his capacity for continuous improvisation, the executant in Indian music was always a creator, while in European music he was only an interpreter. George Duhamel, the eminent French author and critic, told Roy that Indian music was "indeed a novel but delightful experience with me. The music of India is without doubt one of the greatest proofs of the superiority of her civilization."

Leopold Stotowski, Yehudi Meuhudin and others have spoken in glowing words of the subtle intricacies of Indian rhythm from which the West has much to learn. Ravi Shanker has held spell-bound many a Western audience, by playing on his Sitar.

(source: The Soul of India - By S. Patel p. 45-48).

Ancient Indians made 'rock music'

Archaeologists have rediscovered a huge rock art site in southern India where ancient people used boulders to make musical sounds in rituals.

The Kupgal Hill site includes rocks with unusual depressions that were designed to be struck with the purpose of making loud, musical ringing tones. It was lost after its discovery in 1892, so this is the first fresh effort to describe the site in over a century. Granite percussion The boulders which have small, groove-like impressions are called "musical stones" by locals. When struck with small granite rocks, these impressions emit deep, "gong-like notes".

(source: Ancient Indians made 'rock music' - BBC.com).
In Shiva’s temple, stone pillars make music - an architectural rarity

Shiva is the Destroyer and Lord of Rhythm in the Hindu trinity. But here he is Lord Nellaiyappar, the Protector of Paddy, as the name of the town itself testifies — nel meaning paddy and veli meaning fence in Tamil. Prefixed to nelveli is tiru, which signifies something special — like the exceptional role of the Lord of Rhythm or the unique musical stone pillars in the temple.In the Nellaiyappar temple, gentle taps on the cluster of columns hewn out of a single piece of rock can produce the keynotes of Indian classical music. “Hardly anybody knows the intricacies of how these were constructed to resonate a certain frequency. The more aesthetically inclined with some musical knowledge can bring out the rudiments of some rare ragas from these pillars.”

The Nelliyappar temple chronicle, Thirukovil Varalaaru, says the nadaththai ezhuppum kal thoongal — stone pillars that produce music — were set in place in the 7th century during the reign of Pandyan king Nindraseer Nedumaran. Archaeologists date the temple before 7th century and say it was built by successive rulers of the Pandyan dynasty that ruled over the southern parts of Tamil Nadu from Madurai. Tirunelveli, about 150 km south of Madurai, served as their subsidiary capital.

Each huge musical pillar carved from one piece of rock comprises a cluster of smaller columns and stands testimony to a unique understanding of the “physics and mathematics of sound." Well-known music researcher and scholar Prof. Sambamurthy Shastry, the “marvellous musical stone pillars” are “without a parallel” in any other part of the country. “What is unique about the musical stone pillars in the Tiruelveli Nellaiyappar temple is the fact you have a cluster as large as 48 musical pillars carved from one piece of stone, a delight to both the ears and the eyes,” The pillars at the Nellaiyappar temple are a combination of the Shruti and Laya types.

This is an architectural rarity and a sublime beauty to be cherished and preserved.

(source: In Shiva’s temple, pillars make music - telegraphindia.com).

 

There are many pillar in the Vithalla temple in Hampi which sound like various musical instruments when struck. There is one at the Ajanta caves too. In fact these are 56 pillars of Vithala Temple Complex in Hampi ruins dating back to 13th century of Vijayanagara Empire. These type of pillars emanating the sa..re..ga..ma.. notes are also found in Belur and Halebid in Karnataka.

(For more refer to "If dreams were made out of stone, it would be Hampi" - karnataka.com).

For more on Music, please refer to chapter on Hindu Music).

 

Games

Chess

Chess, the game of mind and intellect, was a gift of India to the world in the late 6th or early 7th century.

Sissa's request and Chess
Among the fascinating legends told about the origin of chess is the story of Sissa, a Brahmin and the inventor of the game. In western India, Raja Balhait had asked his advisers to create a game that demonstrated the values of prudence, diligence, foresight, and knowledge. Sissa brought a chessboard to the raja and explained that he had chosen war as a model for the game because war was the most effective school in which to learn the values of decision, vigor, endurance, circumspection, and courage. The raja was delighted with the game and ordered its preservation in temples. He considered its principles the foundation of all justice and held it to be the best training in the art of war.

The raja said to his subject Sissa, "Ask any reward. It will be yours." Being a scientist, Sissa felt rewarded by the pleasure his invention was giving others; but the kind insisted, and finally Sissa said, "Give me a reward in grains of corn on the chessboard (ashtapada). On the first square one grain, on the second two, on the third four, on the fourth double of that, and so on until the 64th and last square."

The raja would not hear of it. He insisted that Sissa ask for something of more worth than grains of corn. But Sissa insisted he had no need of much and that the grains of corn would suffice. Thereupon the raja ordered the corn to be brought; but before they had reached the 30th square, all the corn of India was exhausted. Perturbed, he looked at Sissa, who laughed and told his raja that he knew perfectly well he could never receive the reward he had asked because the amount of corn involved would cover the whole surface of the earth to a depth of nine inches.

The raja did not know which to admire more: the invention of chess or the ingenuity of Sissa's request. The number involved is 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains. This number had been previously calculated by the early Indian mathematicians, who incidentally, had invented the decimal system long before it reached the Arabs and Europe.

(source: Feast of India: A Legacy of Recipes and Fables - By Rani p. 84).

For more on Chess refer to Indian Chess: From Origin To Fame - By K R Banerjee

Chess, one of the world's oldest war games, which was invented in northern India. The original pieces were based on the infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariots of the ancient Indian army. These troops were led onto the chessboard by the king and his chief minister, the vizier.

For a long time the invention of chess was ascribed to various peoples ranging from the Egyptians to the Welsh, and ever since the Arabs transmitted it to Europe more than a thousand years ago, it has been held in great esteem there. It commands an authority which no other board game has ever attained, and has been described as " a philosophy, a contest of mental athletics." It was after the discovery of Sanskrit by European scholars that the Indian ancestry of chess was realized and acknowledged.

Said al-Andalusi (1029-1070) Arabic scholar, focused on India as a major center for science, mathematics and culture.

“That which has reached us from the discoveries of their clear thinking and the marvels of their inventions is the (game) of chess. The Indians have, in the construction of its cells, its double numbers, its symbols and secrets, reached the forefront of knowledge. They have extracted its mysteries from supernatural forces. While the game is being played and its pieces are being maneuvered, there appear the beauty of structure and the greatness of harmony. It demonstrates the manifestation of high intentions and noble deeds, as it provides various forms of warnings from enemies and points out ruses as well as ways to avoid dangers. And in this, there is considerable gain and useful profit.”

(source: In the eleventh-century, an important manuscript titled The Categories of Nations was authored in Arabic by Said al-Andalusi, who was a prolific author and in the powerful position of a judge for the king in Muslim Spain. A translation and annotation of this was done S. I.Salem and Alok Kumar and published by University of Texas Press: “Science in the Medieval World”. This is the first English translation of this eleventh-century manuscript. Quotes are from Chapter V: “Science in India”).

Sir William Jones (1746-1794) wrote that chess had been known to Indians in antiquity as Caturanga, meaning the four wings of the army, which are described in the Amarakosa as elephants, horses, chariots, and infantry. One of the early Sanskrit texts, the Bhavishya Purana, contains a tale of a prince who lost all his possessions in a game of chess played with dice. Chess must indeed go deep into early Indian history, because it was associated with astronomical symbolism throughout its growth.

According to H. J. R. Murray, who published his monumental study A History of Chess
(Benjamin Prublisher. December 1985 ASIN 0936317019) in 1913, chess descended from an earlier Indian game called astapada, played on a board containing 8 x 8 cells. Chaturanga was taken to Persia in the sixth century during the reign of Anushirvan (531-579) where it came to be known as Chatrang, which according to the Arabic phonetic system it became Shatranj. The earliest reference to chess in Persia, is found in the Karnamak-i-Artakh Shatr-i Papakan, written about 600. In the tenth century, the poet Firdusi related a traditional story in his epic poem Shahnama of how chess came to Persia through an envoy of the Kind of Hind (India). Subsequently, it became known to the Arabs and also to the Byzantine court. For example, Al Masudi, writing about 950, mentions that chess had existed possibly as long as a thousand years before his generation.

From India, Chaturanga traveled to China and then to Japan. The earliest reference to chess in China is found in Niu Seng-Ju's Yu Kuai Lu (Book for Marvels) written at the end of the eighth century. The countries of Southeast Asia learned chess both directly from India, and as in the case of Siam, indirectly from China. Indian games seems to have reached as far as Mexico. Writing in 1881, Edward Tylor, the first important exponent of parallelism in cultural development, pointed out that the ancient and popular Mexican game of patolli was very similar to the Indian pachisi, and and concluded that it must have come from India.

In China the first indisputable sources appeared only around 800 AD. "The King of Kanauj had sent the game of chess to the court of Sasanian King Kusrau I Anshirvan (531-579).

Several games now familiar across the world owe their origins in India, particularly, the games of chess, ludo (including ladders and snake), and playing cards.

The famous epic Mahabharata narrates an incidence where a game called Chaturang was played between two groups of warring cousins. In some form or the other, the game continued till it evolved into chess. H. J. R. Murray, in his work titled “A History of Chess”, has concluded that “chess is a descendant of an Indian game played in the 7th century AD”. The Encyclopedia Britannica states that “we find the best authorities agreeing that chess existed in India before it is known to have been played anywhere else.”

The game of cards also developed in ancient India. Abul Fazal was a scholar in the court of Mughal emperor Akbar. In his book, “Ain-e-Akbari”, which is a mirror of life of that time, records game of cards is of Indian origins.

Martial arts by the name of Kalaripayattu were a native of Kerala, a state of India. Kalaripayattu consists of a series of intricate movements that train the body and mind. These are believed to have traveled, through Buddhist monks, to eastern China, where they got merged with local martial traditions.

(source: Science and technology in ancient India - Wikipedia). Refer to chapter on War in Ancient India.

For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor

Snakes & Ladders / Mokshapat
The earliest version of Snakes and Ladders is credited to 13th century saint-poet of Maharashtra Gyandev, who called his creation Mokshapat (Moksha=Salvation, pat=cloth). The ‘game’, however, was not about entertainment; it was created to explain the basic tenets of Hinduism to the common man.

The game was drawn out on a cloth divided into blocks called houses, each representing emotions like daya, karuna and darr. The ladders represented virtues and the snakes, vices. The snake at hinsa would take one down to mahanarak while Vidyabhyas would take one to the Shastras. The game was played with dices and cowrie-shells.

The game travelled to Thanjavur in the 17-18th century. It was magnified in size and called Parama Pada Sopana Pata and went through other alterations as well. The morality of the game must have appealed to the Victorians, who took to the game when it was published in 1892 in England.

Ganjipha
The playing cards, too, had a religious sanction. They were circular in shape and varied from 20 mm to 120 mm in size. They were covered with various kinds of material or with lac and paintings, depending on the owner’s economic background. While the poor would use paper or starched cloth for their cards, the wealthy would go in for cards in ivory, tortoise-shell or mother-of-pearl.

There was a basic set of 12 cards featuring various aspects of Indian mythology, but the Dashavtari (referring to the 10 incarnations of Vishnu) Ganjipha was played with 120 cards and three players. The Navagraha Ganjipha was a game with 108 cards divided into nine suites, representing the nine planets. Ganjipha was popular right up to the 19th century among royal families.

(source: Ancient Wisdom Deals A New Hand - Indian Express).

Parchisi
an Indian race game, that dates back at least 2,200 years. Pachisi (also spelt Parcheesi, Pachisi, Parchisi, Parchesi; also known as Twenty-Five) is the National Game of India. The name comes from the Indian word "pacis" which means twenty five, the highest score that could be thrown with the cowry shells. Pachisi is, in fact, the younger sister of Chaupar (or Chausar or Chaupad), a more venerable, complex and skilful game that is still played in India.

Polo
Of the earliest forms of the equestrian game is said to have been played around 34 AD (some even date it to 2,000 BC) in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur where it was locally called Sagol Kangjei (lit. sagol = horse, kang = ball, jei = stick). Muslim settlers in India later introduced the Persian (Chaugan) and the Afghani (Buzkashi) version in the country. The first king of Delhi Sultanate, Qutub-ud-din Aibak, died in 1210 AD of injuries sustained after he fell off his horse during a game of Chaugan. The modern version was codified in the 19th century by British planters in northeast India. It consists of four horse-riders from two teams attempting to score goals, using long Polo sticks to move the ball while they remain on horseback. India also became home to the world's first Polo Club when the Calcutta Club was founded in 1865 by British Indian Army officers.

This game was also played at Angkor Vat. Polo players played under the eye of King Jayavarman VII, seated beneath a parasol on the royal Elephant Terrace at Angkor Thom. (please refer to the chapter on Suvarnabhumi).

Badminton
Though the modern version of the racket sport developed in England, badminton derives its origins from the 2,000-year-old game of battledore and shuttlecock played in ancient India. The first modern rules of the game were evolved in 1876 at Pune in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. It is one of the Olympics newest sports, named after its place of origin at Badminton Hall in Gloucestershire, England, the seat of the Dukes of Beaufort.

(source: About.com)

Kabaddi
Kabaddi is a game of speed, strength, strategy and, most importantly, lungpower. Kabaddi was developed about 4000 years ago to help Indian soldiers develop their self-defense skills (not to mention their pronunciation of the word Kabaddi skills).
It was known by various names in various places. For example Chedugdu, or Hu-tu-tu in Southern parts of India, Hadudu (Men),Chu kit-kit (Women) in Eastern India and Kabadi in Northern India.

(source: Kabadi http://www.geocities.com/kennykabb/).