Fw: ORIGIN OF MUSIC

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The origin http://www.musicalnirvana.com/introduction/origin2.htmlThe origin

of Indian music can be discussed from two perspectives, the religious one which

believes in divine origin and the secular perspective which tries to trace the

origin with reference to the development of civilization in India.

 

Divine originMusic is an integral part of Hindu Mythology. According to Hindu

Mythology, music originated with the first sound in the universe, OM, also

called Naada Brahma (the first note). OM is believed to be the purest sound

ever made, and just chanting of OM can heal the body. OM is positioned in

Indian philosophical and religious thought as being one with the rhythms of the

universe. The correct rendition of it requires a particular breath-process, and

as such is believed to clear the system and the karmic cycle. There are several

music CDs made around this theme of chanting OM. Preface to one such CD says -

OM is a musical bliss through the regular use of which, a restive heart and

stressful mind can achieve eternal peace and harmony, delirious joy and

happiness of being at one with the Creator.

 

Music in the celestial world was practised by Gandharvas, demigods. Indra and

other gods requested the Creator, Brahma, to give the people something which

not only creates a diversion from their bad ways, but helps in their

upliftment. Brahma agreed and gave music to people through a human with

extraordinary abilities, Narada Muni (sage). Even now, Narada is represented

with images of him carrying a Tanpura.

 

Brahma is also said to be the author of the four Vedas, of which the SamaVeda

was chanted in definite musical patterns. Other vedic hymns were sung in plain

melody, using only 3 notes.

 

Many mythological figures have music association. Sarasvathi, the goddess of

learning and knowledge, is represented as playing the ancient instrument,

Veena. Infact, the most common form of veena is called Sarasvathi Veena.

Ravana, the villain of the epic Ramayana, was proficient in Veena.

 

Considering these beliefs it is not surprising that even to this day, music and

musical instruments are considered sacred. All classical composers are

considered saints and are worshipped (especially the Carnatic composers like

Sri Purandara and Shri Thyagaraja) as such.

 

Indus Valley Civilization (2600-1900 BC)Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was

first excavated in 1920s, in cities of Harappa and Mohanjo Daro. Later several

cities, not only along Indus (Sindhu) river, but also on now dried up rivers

Gaggar-Hakra (Saraswati) have been discovered ( IVC Map). The discoveries

pertain to a very long period of time - 7000 to 1300 BC ( Timeline). The height

of civilization in terms of writing, long distance commerce, large city

settlements and common measuring weights were seen during 2600-1900 BC, a

period commonly referred to as Indus Valley Civilization. Cities are found all

over what is now western India and Eastern Pakistan, 650,000 Sq. Km., making it

the largest of the four ancient civilizations (Egypt, Mesapotamia, China and

India) (Old World Map). After that period, IVC went into decline, the

settlements became smaller, there was no long distance commerce and no evidence

of writing or measuring weights.

 

Though there have been claims of IVC being the same as RigVedic culture, there

is very little known about the people of IVC or there culture, except from the

figurines they have left behind. The dancing figurines give ample proof that

dancing and thus, music was prevalent during IVC. But linkage from the that

culture to the later cultures of Gangetic plains or the Deccan have not been

established. Afterall, during the later IVC stage (1900-1300 BC) a lot of

civilizational aspects of IVC, like writing, were lost. Thus, we will have to

consider RigVedic period as the starting point for Indian music rather than the

more ancient Indus Valley Civilization.

 

The decline of the major urban centers and the fragmentation of the Indus

culture can be attributed in part to changing river systems that disrupted the

agricultural and economic system. Around 1700 B.C. the tributaries of the

Hakra-Nara River became diverted to the Indus system in the west and the Jamuna

River to the east As the river dried up people migrated to the central Indus

valley, the Ganga-Yamuna Valley or the fertile plains of Gujarat in western

India. The Indus river itself began to change its course, resulting in

destructive floods. Certain distinguishing hallmarks of the Indus civilization

disappeared.

 

Non-Divine OriginThe most ancient Hindu scriptures are the Vedas. There are four

of them - RigVeda, SamaVeda, YajurVeda and AtharvaVeda. The singing or chanting

of the hymns was called Sama Gana. The secular music for pleasure was called

Gandharva gana. It is said the Gandharva gana grew out of Sama-Gaana. Though it

is quite possible that they developed in parallel.

 

There is no consensus on the age of Vedas. Also it is politically a very

explosive question. History, we should note, has always been used to represent

the political views of the historian.

 

Age Of The Veda - Aryan Migration TheoryThe old Iranian language of Avesta, is

very close to Vedic language. Avesta, the old scripture of Zoroastrism (modern

day Parsis) is very much like the RigVeda. The Avesthan people and Vedic people

called themselves, Aryans (Iranian - airya). Infact, Persian kings, proud of

their Aryan origin, named their country Iran, in the aftermath of the Aryan

race theory.

 

The first systematic theory of the relationships between human languages began

when Sir William Jones, the Chief Magistrate of Calcutta and the founder of the

Asiatic Society, proposed in 1786 that Greek and Latin, the classical languages

of Europe, and Sanskrit, the classical language of India, had all descended

from a common source (The Third Anniversary Discourse On The Hindus,1786 ). The

evidence for this came from both the structure of the languages - Sanskrit

grammar has similarities to Greek - and the vocabulary of the languages. Thus,

father in English compares to Vater in German, pater in Latin, patêr in Greek,

pitr. in Sanskrit, pedar in Persian, etc. On the other hand, father in Arabic

is ab, which hardly seems like any of the others. This became the theory of

Indo-European languages, and today the hypothetical language that would be the

common source for all Indo-European languages (Language Family Tree -

Indo-European) is now called Proto-Indo-European.

 

First it was thought that India was the possible origin of all civilization

(Enlightenment scholars like Voltaire). The famous German philosopher Kant

placed the origin of mankind in Tibet. Eighteenth century German scholar,

Friedrich Schlegel (1772-1829), supposed that a new people had formed itself in

northern India, swarmed towards the West, populating Europe. Later it was

postulated that the original home of Indo-Europeans was Central Asia, (because

of common word roots for winter and snow, but not for rice or ocean, also

presence of horse - so the original home must hav been a cold place away from

the oceans) and various groups of people migrated south to occupy India and

Iran, West to occupy Europe. French writer Arthur de Gobineau (1816-1882)

proposed that Eurpean aristocracy was Aryan, peasants were not Aryan and

Anti-Semitic ideas against the Jews was born.

 

German scholar Max Muller (1823-1900), who picked up this prevelent theory,

explained that Indo Aryans came to India from north west and conquered the

Dravidian people who lived there, pushing them to the south, sometime around

1500 to 1000 B.C. He thought the high castes were Aryan people, while the lower

castes non-Aryan (just like it was argued in Erupoe). After the excavations and

discovery of Indus valley civilization (Harappa, Mohanjodaro - 1920 AD), Sir

Mortimer Wheeler a British archeologist, in 1946 theorized that Aryans invaded

the cities of Indus Valley bringing that non-aryan civilization to an end.

Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) became the accepted theory.In recent times there is

little support for the theory of an invading army of Aryans coming down from

Eurasia and destroying the cities of settlers on the Indus valley or elsewhere.

There is no archaeological evidence for destruction of IVC civilization by

invading armies in Indus Valley civilization sites or elsewhere. AIT has been

replaced by a migration theory, which talks about movement of people from

Steppe of Central Asia to Europe and south and east Asia, spreading

Indo-European languages (The Spread of Indo-European and Turkish Peoples off

the Steppe). Indian civilization is thought to be the product of these

migrating people and those who already existed here ( Romila Thapar - The Aryan

Question Revisited). Now it is thought that Indus Valley Civilization was

abandoned because of shift in river courses rather than because of an invading

army of Aryans. Tributeries of Saraswathi diverted to join Jamuna around 1700

BC, leading to drying up of Saraswathi, probably causing the abandonment of

settlements and eventual decline of IVC.

 

Some writers, aligned with the ideology of Hindutva, dismiss Aryan Invation

Theory as colonial propaganda. The writers include Shrikant G. Talageri (The

RigVeda - A Historical Analysis ), David Frawley ( The myth of Aryan Invation

Of India), Dr. Dinesh Agrawal (Demise of Aryan Racial/Invasion Theory), Dr

Subhash Kak ( The Aryans and Ancient Indian History ), N.S. Rajaram (Aryan

Invasion), Dr. S. Kalyanaraman ( Sarasvati-Sindhu Civilization), Koenraad Elst

( The Vedic Harappans in writing) and Dr. S.R. Rao (The Lost City of Dvaraka).

They have proposed that Aryans are original to India and spread through out

Asia and Europe. We can call this the Out Of India theory (OIT).

 

Max Muller's scholarship and integrity have been questioned (Max Muller - A

Missionary Bigot) , and he has been daemonized, by the backers of OIT. OIT

proponents argue that Muller and other 19th century Eurpoean scholars believed

in divine origin of life as given in the Bible. Archbishop of Ireland had

decreed in 1664 that creation took place at 9 a.m. on 23-10-4004 BC and one who

will say anything else about it will be considered a heretic. Since, life on

earth only started around 4000 B.C., according to their beliefs, they had to

make everything else fit into that time frame.

 

Also, several new sites along rivers other than Indus have been excavated in

Pakistan, Rajastan and Gujarat in the last two decades. Many of the sites are

on the banks of a dried up river, which the OIT backers assert is the river

Sarasvti mentioned extensively in the RigVeda. Thus, the Indus Valley

Civilization has been renamed as Sindhu - Sarasvati Valley Civilization by the

backers of OIT ( Sarasvati Sindhu (Vedic / Indus) Civilization, Language and

Script). They assign the Age of Vedas between 6000BC to 4000BC (chronology of

sarasvati river).

 

Many modern vedic scholars do not agree with this OIT (Autochthonous Aryans? The

Evidence from Old Indian and Iranian Texts ). They point to lack of positive

evidence and political inclination of the proponents of OIT. Ofcourse, OIT

tremendously benefits the Hindutva proponents of the sangh parivar. Some

writers like Rajaram, went to the extent of manufacturing evidence to support

their theory ( Horseplay in Harappa). Infact OIT proponents seem to be guilty

of exactly the same thing they accuse Muller and other scholars of - writing

history to suit their ideology.

 

Prof. Michael Witzel (Age of the Veda) gives the date of RigVeda between 1700 BC

and 1200 BC based on the following.

 

RigVeda is a pre-iron age (copper/bronze) age text of the Greater Panjab (incl.

parts of Afghanistan). SamaVeda, which is slightly later than RigVeda, mentions

iron. This sets a late date of c. 1200 for RigVeda, the earliest iron in India.

The date of the demise of the Indus civilization is c. 1900 BC. RigVeda is post

Indus Civilization. Chariots of Indo Aryan type first occur around 2000 BC west

and east of the Ural mountains Horses are indeed not found in South Asia before

1700 BC Sama VedaThough, Vedas are considered the source of Indian Music, it

should not be assumed that classical music in its present form was fully

developed by then. Infact, concept of Raga, Tala, Shruti or even Nava Rasas

come only later.

 

All except SamaVeda were sung using only three notes, Anudaatta (low),

Udaatta(middle) and Svarita(high). As used today the Anudaatta, Udaatta and

Svarita svaras of RigVeda, can be equated with Ni, Sa, and Ri of the North

Indian Kafi scale (Kharaharapriya of the Carnatic). In early manuscrpts of

RigVeda, the text was written along with accent notes. Anudaatta is marked with

an underline and Svarita is marked with a small vertical line above the

syllable. Udaatta is left unmarked.

 

Sama Veda consists of about 1900 verses, called samans. Ninety-five percent of

the verses of Sama Veda Samhita are in Rig Veda Samhita. One can see from the

text of the Sama Veda mantra that the chanting notation in it is much more

elaborate than that in the corresponding Rig Veda mantra. SamaVeda was chanted

using all seven notes (prathama, dvitheeya, tritheeya, chathurtha, panchama,

shashta and sapthama), in descending order, of the Vaidika scale (or of sama

gana) which have been equated to (Ma,Ga,Ri,Sa,Dha,Ni,Pa) of the Laukika or

Gandhara scale in later classical sanskrit texts like NaradiyaShiksha.

 

RigVedic hymns are directed at Gods, to be chanted during sacrifices to please

them. It is possible Gods were thought to be fond of music and that it would be

easier to please them if the hymns were sung rather than just chanted. Thus,

many of the Rig Vedic hymns were set to music and sung and were known as

samans, rather than just hymns (Rik). The chanted Sama-Veda hymns or Samans

were believed to possess the supernatural qualities capable of petitioning and

even supporting the deities that controlled the forces of the universe. Since

Rig Vedic hymns are just metered they could not be sung using all the seven

notes. Thus started a tradition of insertion of a number of seemingly

`meaningless' words or syllables (stobha) for musical and lyrical effect, such

as o, hau, hoyi, va, etc. It was these stobha syllables which were extended

vocally with long duration on various notes of the Sama-Veda scale by the

priests who had the special function of summoning the gods to the celebration

through the use of droning (monotone) on a number of these tones, believing

them to hold magical properties. The wife of the chief sacrificer (i.e. chief

priest, brahmana) would play the Vina, during sacrifices.

 

Precise methods of singing the Samans were established and preserved in three

different schools, the Kauthumas, Ranayaniyas, and the Jaiminiyas, the oldest.

Each has maintained a distinct style with regard to vowel prolongation,

interpolation and repetition of stobha, meter, phonetics, and the number of

notes in scales. Accordingly, there has been a fervent regard for maintaining

continuity in Sama-Veda singing to avoid misuse or modification over many

years. Since written texts were not in use, in fact prohibited, the priests

memorized the chants with the aid of accents and melodies, and passed this

tradition down orally from one generation to the next for over three thousand

years ( Hinduism and Music).