h o m e

h i n d u    m u s i c 

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Sir Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999), American-born violinist, one of the foremost virtuosos of his generation, has written: "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. Indian classical music, compared with our Western music, is like a pure crystal. It forms a complete perfected world of its own, which any admixture could only debase. It has, quite logically and rightly, rejected those innovations which have led the development of Western music into the multiple channels which have enabled our art to absorb every influence under the sun. Freedom of development in Indian music is accorded the performer, the individual, who, within fixed limits, is free to improvise without any restraint imposed externally by other voices, whether concordance or discordant - but not to the basic style, which exclude polyphony and modulation."

Author Claude Alvares has said, that the Indian system of talas, the rhythmical time-scale of Indian classical music, has been shown (by contemporary analytical methods) to possess an extreme mathematical complexity. The basis of the system is not conventional arithmetic, however, but more akin to what is known today as pattern recognition. 

Indian music is art nearest to life. That is why Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1856-1939) a 1923 Nobel Laureate in Literature, has aptly described Indian music "not an art but life itself." 

Introduction
History of Music
The Origins of Hindu Music
The Antiquity of Indian Music  
The Development of Scale
The Nature of Sound 
Raga - The Basis of Melody
Tala or Time Measure
Musical Instruments and Sanskrit Writers on Music
Some Ancient Musical Authorities
Raga and Jazz
Colonialist thinking of Indian music
Views about Hindu music
Mantras
Conclusion

  

Introduction

"Even if he be an expert in the Revealed and the traditional scriptures, in literature and all sacred books, the man ignorant of music is but an animal on two feet."

"He who knows the inner meaning of the sound of the lute, who is expert in intervals and in modal scales and knows the rhythms, travels without effort upon the way of liberation.    
                                                           - (Yajnavalkya Smriti III, 115).

***

Sound (nada) is believed to be the heart of the process of creation. In Hinduism, the sacred syllable Om embodies the essence of the universe  - it is the "hum" of the atoms and the music of the spheres - and sound in general represents the primal energy that holds the material world together. Sangita, the Indian tradition of music, is an 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 concert halls, imbibing the spirit of Indian culture, and retaining a clearly recognizable continuity of tradition. Whilst the words of songs have varied and altered from time to time, many of the musical themes are essentially ancient. 

The music of India is one of the oldest unbroken musical traditions in the world.  It is said that the origins of this system go back to the Vedas (ancient scripts of the Hindus). Sangita, which originally meant drama, music and dance, was closely associated with religion and philosophy. At first it was inextricably interwoven with the ritualistic and devotional side of religious life. The recital and chant of mantras has been an essential element of Vedic ritual throughout the centuries. 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 teaching this goal. The highest musical experience is ananda, the “divine bliss.” This devotional approach to music is a 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. 

Bow-harps and Flutes - Amaravati A.D. 200.  -   Vina in the hands of Goddess Saraswati

(image source: The Legacy of India - edited by G. T. Garrett).

***

Alain Daneliou a.k.a  Shiv Sharan (1907-1994), son of French aristocracy, author of numerous books on philosophy, religion, history and arts of India, including Virtue, Success, Pleasure, & Liberation : The Four Aims of Life in the Tradition of Ancient India. He was perhaps the first European to boldly proclaim his Hinduness. He settled in India for fifteen years in the study of Sanskrit. In Benaras Daniélou came in close contact with Karpatriji Maharaj, who inducted him into the Shaivite school of Hinduism and he was renamed Shiv Sharan. After leaving Benaras, he was also the director of Sanskrit manuscripts at the Adyar Library in Chennai for some time. He returned to Europe in 1960s and was associated with UNESCO for some years .While in Europe, Daniélou was credited with bringing Indian music to the Western world. This was the era when sitar maestro Ravi Shankar and several other Indian artists performed in Europe and America. During his years in India, Daniélou studied Indian music tradition, both classical and folk traditional, and collected a lot of information from rare books, field experience, temples as well as from artists. He also collected various types of instruments. 

Alain Daniélou was credited with bringing Indian music to the Western world.

***

He has written:  

"Under the name of Gandharva Vedas, a general theory of sound with its metaphysics and physics appears to have been known to the ancient Hindus. From such summaries: The ancient Hindus were familiar with the theory of sound (Gandharva Veda), and its metaphysics and physics. The hymns of the Rig Veda contain the earliest examples of words set to music, and by the time of the Sama Veda a complicated system of chanting had been developed. By the time of the Yajur Veda, a variety of professional musicians had appeared, such as lute players, drummers, flute players, and conch blowers."

The origin of Indian music is enshrined in beautiful tales and legends. It is common Hindu practice to attribute the beginning of a branch of learning to a divine origin through the agency of a rishi. Shiva, also called Nataraja, is supposed to be the creator of Sangita, and his mystic dance symbolizes the rhythmic motion of the universe. He transmitted the knowledge of cosmic dance to the rishi Bharata, through one of his ganas. Tandu. The dance is called tandava and Bharata thus became the first teacher of music to men, and even to apsaras, the heavenly dancers. Similarly, the rishi Narada, who is depicted as endlessly moving about the universe playing on his vina (lute) and singing, is believed to be another primeval teacher of music.  

Buddhist texts also testify to the prevalence of Sangita, both religious and secular, in early India. Music in India, however, reached its zenith during the Gupta period, the classical age of the Indian art and literature.

Music in India, however, reached its zenith during the Gupta Empire, the classical age of the Indian art and literature.

(image source: Early Civilization: Universal History of the World – By John Bowman  volume I Golden Press. New York . Published in 1966. p. 75).

***

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. The essential of a raga is its power to evolve emotion. The term has no equivalent in Western music, although the Arabic maqam iqa corresponds to it. Oversimplified, the concept of raga is to connect musical ideas in such a way as to form a continuous whole based on emotional impact. There are, however, mixed ragas combined in a continuous whole of contrasting moods. Technically, raga is defined as "essentially a scale with a tonic and two axial notes," although it has additional characters.

Musical notes and intervals were carefully and mathematically calculated and the Pythagorean Law was known many centuries before Pythagoras propounded it. They were aware of the mathematical law of music.

(source: India: A synthesis of cultures – by Kewal Motwani  p. 78-95).

The word raga appears in Bharata's Natyasastra, and a similar concept did exist at the time, but it was Matanga (5th century) who first defined raga in a technical sense as "that kind of sound composition, consisting of melodic movements, which has the effect of coloring the hearts of men." This definition remains valid today. Before the evolution of the raga concept in Bharata's time, jati tunes with their fixed, narrow musical outlines constituted the mainstay of Indian music. These were only simple melodic patterns without any scope for further elaboration. It was out of these jati tunes that a more comprehensive and imaginative form was evolved by separating their musical contents and freeing them from words and metres.

Music lessons.

***

Indeed a raga is basically a feeling, the expression of which has come to be associated with certain notes and twists of melody. A musician may compose in the same raga an indefinite number of times, and the music can be recognized in the first few notes, because the feelings produced by the musician's execution of these notes are intensely strong. The effect of Indian music is cumulative rather than dramatic. As the musician develops his discourse in his raga, it eventually colors all the thoughts and feelings of the listeners. Clearly, the longer a musician can dwell on and extend the theme with artistic intensity the greater the impact on the audience. 

Alain Danielou (1907-1994) head of the UNESCO Institute for Comparative Musicology wrote:

""Unlike Western music, which constantly changes and contrasts its moods, Indian music, like Arabic and Persian, always centers in one particular emotion which it develops, explain and cultivates, upon which it insists, and which it exalts until it creates in the hearer a suggestion almost impossible to resist. The musician, if he is sufficiently skilled, can "lead his audiences through the magic of sound to a depth and intensity of feeling undreamt of in other musical systems."

(source: Northern Indian Music - By Alain Danielou Praeger, 1969 p. 115).

Dr. Ananda Coomaraswamy has written: "Indian music is essentially impersonal, reflecting "an emotion and an experience which are deeper and wider and older than the emotion or wisdom of any single individual. Its sorrow is without tears, its joy without exultation and it is passionate without any loss of serenity. It is in the deepest sense of the word all human." 

(source: The Dance of Shiva - By Ananda Coomaraswamy p. 94). 

It is an art nearest to life; in fact, W. B. Yeats called Indian music, "not an art, but life itself," although its theory is elaborate and technique difficult.

The possible number of ragas is very large, but the majority of musical systems recognize 72 (thirty-six janaka or fundamental, thirty six janya or secondary). New ragas, however, are being invented constantly, as they have always been, and a few of them will live to join the classical series. Many of the established ragas change slowly, since they embody the modes of feeling meaningful at a particular time. It is for this reason that it is impossible to say in advance what an Indian musician will play, because the selection of raga is contingent upon his feelings at the precise moment of performance.

Indian music recognizes seven main and two secondary notes or svaras. Representing definite intervals, they form the basic or suddha scale. They can be raised or lowered to form the basic of suddha scale. They can be raised or lowered to form other scales, known in their altered forms as vikrita. The chanting of the Sama Veda employed three to four musical intervals, the earliest example of the Indian tetrachord, which eventually developed into a full musical scale. From vaguely defined musical intervals to a definite tetrachord and then to a full octave of seven suddha and five vikrita was a long, continuous, and scientific process. For instance, Bharata's Natyasastra, the earliest surviving work on Indian aesthetics variously dated between the second century B.C. and the fourth century A.D., in its detailed exposition of Indian musical theory, refers to only two vikrita notes, antara and kakali. But in the Sangita Ratnakara, an encyclopedia of Indian music attributed to Sarngadeva (1210-1247), the number of vikritas is no less than nineteen; shadja and panchama also have acquired vikritas. It was during the medieval period that Ramamatya in the south, and Lochana-kavi in the north in his Ragatarangini refered to shadja and panchama as constant notes. Indian music thus came to acquire a full fledged gamut of mandra, madhya, and tar saptak. 

The scale as it exists today has great possibilities for musical formations, and it has a very extensive range included in the microtonal variations. The microtones, the twenty-two srutis, are useful for determining the correct intonation of the notes, their bases, and therefore their scales (gramas). The Indian scale allows the musician to embellish his notes, which he always endeavors to do, because grace plays the part in Indian music that harmony does in European music.

Whilst Indian music represents the most highly evolved and the most complete form of modal music, the musical system adopted by ore than one-third of mankind is Western music based on a highly developed system of harmony, implying a combination of simultaneously produced tones. Western music is music without microtones and Indian music is music without harmony. The strongly developed harmonic system of Western music is diametrically opposed in conception and pattern to the melodic Indian system. Harmony is so indispensable a part of Western music today that Europeans find it difficult to conceive of a music based on melody alone. Indians, on the other hand, have been for centuries so steeped in purely melodic traditions that whilst listening to Western music they cannot help looking for a melodic thread underlying the harmonic structures.

Indian musical instruments are remarkable for the beauty and variety of their forms, which the ancient sculptures and paintings in caves of India have remained unchanged for the last two thousand years.

***

The fundamental and most important difference between the European and Indian systems of rhythm is respectively one of multiplication and addition of the numbers two and three. The highly developed tala, or rhythmic system with its avoidance of strict metre and its development by the use of an accumulating combination of beat subdivisions, has no parallel in Western music. On the other hand, the Indian system has no exact counterpart to the tone of the tempered system, except for the keynote, of Western music. Consequently, just and tempered intonations are variously conceived which eliminate the possibility of combining the melodic interval theory of the sruti system with the Western modulating, harmonic, arbitrarily tempered theory of intervals. With its tempered basis, larger intervals, and metred rhythms, Western music, is more easily comprehended than Indian music, which seems to require a certain musical aptitude and ability to understand its use of microtones, the diversification of the unmetred tala, and the subtle and minutely graded inflection.

Western music, as it appears today, is a relatively modern development. The ancient Western world was aware of the existence of a highly developed system of Indian music. According to Curt Sachs (1881-1959) author of The History of Musical Instruments (W W Norton & Co ASIN 0393020681) 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, rhythm, and instruments, came to them originally from Thrace and 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 of Dionysos, claimed, that the greater part of music was derived from Asia. Thus, one of them, speaking of the lyre, would say that he caused the strings of the Asian cithara to vibrate. Aristotle describes a type of lyre in which strings were fastened to the top and bottom, which is reminiscent of the Indian type of single-stringed ektantri vina. 

Curt Sachs considers India the possible source of eastern rhythms, having the oldest history and one of the most sophisticated rhythmic development. It is probably no accident that Sanskrit, the language of India, is one in which there is no pre-determined accent upon the long and short syllables; the accents are determined by the way in which it falls in the sentence. Sanskrit developed in the first thousand years B.C. Each section of the ancient holy book, the Rigveda, has a distinct rhythm associated with each section so that the two aspects are learned as one.

The vina is really neither a lute nor a harp, although it is commonly translated in English as lute. Generally known in its construction as bow-harp, the vina must have originally been developed from the hunting bow, a type of musical bow, pinaka, on which a tightly drawn string was twanged by the finger or struck with a short stick. To increase the resonance a boat-shaped sound box was attached, consisting of a small half-gourd of coconut with a skin table or cover, through which a bamboo stick was passed longitudinally, bearing a string of twisted hair resting on a little wooden bridge placed on the skin table. This was the ekatari, or one-stringed lute of India, which soon produced its close relative, the dvitari or two-stringed lute. Later, additional strings were inevitably added. Whilst it is possible to trace the passage of the slender form of the fingerboard instrument, pandoura, from Egypt to Greece, it was not until they came into contact with the Persians that the Greeks became acquainted with the bow, a fact which may reinforce the view of the Indian origin of the Greek lute.

Although many varieties of the vina have been evolved, it existed in its original form, now extinct, in the vedic and pre-vedic times. This is known from the excavations at Mohenjodaro and Harappa. There is sufficient evidence that some of these musical instruments were constructed according to the heptatonic, sampurna, scale with seven notes. However, in the other contemporary civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia, similar instruments have been found. The vina is often shown in the hands of the musicians on the early Buddhist sculptures at Bhaja, Bharhut, and Sanchi and is still in use in Burma and Assam. In Africa, it is used by many Nilotic tribes. A bow-barp, known as an angle-harp, closely resembling the Indian vina can be seen in the mural paintings at Pompeii.

***

The two earliest Greek scales, the Mixolydic and the Doric, have an affinity to early Indian scales. Some recent British writers, for example the editors of The New Oxford History of Music, have attempted to exclude Indian influence by making the somewhat strange suggestion that the term "India" meant countries much nearer. Whilst the evidence pointing to the direct influence of India on Greek interest in Indian art. In addition, there are parallels between the two systems, which may or may not be connected. It is certainly true that the seven note scale with three octaves was known in India long before the Greeks were familiar with it. Pythagoras scheme of cycle of the fifth and cycle of the fourth in his system of music is exactly the same as the sadjapancama and saja-madhyama bhavas of Bharata.  Since Bharata lived several centuries after Pythagoras, it has been suggested that he borrowed the scheme from Pythagoras. At the same time it has been pointed out that Indian music, dating as it does from the early Vedic period, is much anterior to Greek music, and that it is not unlikely that Pythagoras may have been indebted to Indian ideas. In almost all other fields of scholarship in which he was interested, a close identity between his and the older Indian theories has already been noted.

Whilst no title of any Sanskrit work on music translated at Baghdad is available, there is not doubt that Indian music influenced Arab music. The well-known Arab writer Jahiz, recording the popularity of Indian music at the Abbasid Court, mentions an Indian instrument known as kankalah, which was played with a string stretched on a pumpkin. This instrument would appear to be the kingar, which is made with two gourds. Knowledge of Indian music in the Arab world is evidenced by an Arab author from Spain, who refers to a book on Indian tunes and melodies. Many technical terms for Arab music were borrowed from Persia and India. Indian music, too, was influenced in return, incorporating Persio-Arab airs, such as Yeman and Hiji from Hijaz. At the beginning of their rise to power, the Arabs themselves had hardly any musical system worth noting and mainly practiced the existing system in the light of Greek theory. Since Indian contact with western Asia had been close and constant, it would appear likely that the Arabic maqam iqa is the Persian version of the Indian melodic rhythmic system, traga tala, which had existed for more than a thousand years before maqam iqa was known. 

Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999) had one of the longest and most distinguished careers of any violinist of the twentieth century. He 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. However, none of these styles has developed counterpoint and harmony, except the Western-most offshoot (and this is truly our title to greatness and originality), with its incredible emotional impact corresponding so perfectly with the infinite and unpredictable nuances, from the fleeting shadow to the limits of exaltation or despair, or subjective experience. Again, its ability to paint the phenomena of existence, from terror to jubilation, from the waves of the sea to the steel and concrete canyons of modern metropolis, has never been equalled."

(source: Indian and Western Music - Yehudi Menuhin / Hemisphere, April 1962, p. 6.).

"Indian music has continued unperturbed through thirty centuries or more, with the even pulse of a river and with the unbroken evolution of a sequoitry."

(source: The Music of India - By Peggy Holroyde  p. 119).

Peter Yates (1909 -1976) music critic, author, teacher, and poet, was born in Toronto, had reason when he said that “Indian music, though its theory is elaborate and its technique so difficult, is not an art, but life itself.” 

(source: The Dance of Shiva – by A K Coomaraswamy  p. 79-60).

"Despite predisposition in India's favor, I have to acknowledge that Indian music took me by surprise. I knew neither its nature nor its richness, but here, if anywhere, I found vindication of my conviction that India was the original source."

"Its purpose is to unite one's soul and discipline one's body, to make one sensitive to the infinite within one, to unite one's breath of space, one's vibrations with the vibrations of the cosmos."

(source: Unfinished Journey - By Yehudi Menuhin p.  250 - 268).

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History of Music

The beginnings of Indian music are lost in the beautiful legends of gods and goddesses who are supposed to be its authors and patrons. The goddess Saraswati is always represented as the goddess of art and learning, and she is usually pictured as seated on a white lotus with a vina, lute, in one hand, playing it with another, a book in the third hand and a necklace of pearls in the fourth.

The technical word for music throughout India is the word sangita, which originally included dancing and the drama as well as vocal and instrumental music. Lord Shiva is supposed to have been the creator of this three fold art and his mystic dance symbolizes the rhythmic motion of the universe.

In Hindu mythology the various departments of life and learning are usually associated with different rishis and so to one of these is traced the first instruction that men received the art of music. Bharata rishi is said to have taught the art to the heavenly dancers - the Apsaras - who afterwards performed before Lord Shiva. The Rishi Narada, who wanders about in earth and heaven, singing and playing on his vina, taught music to men. Among the inhabitants of Indra's heaven we find bands of musicians. The Gandharvas are the singers, the Apsaras, the dancers, and the Kinnaras performers on musical instruments. From the name Gandharva has come the title Gandharva Veda for the art of music.

Among the early legends of India there are many concerning music. The following is an interesting one from the Adbuta Ramayana about Narada rishi which combines criticism with appreciation.

"Once upon a time the great rishi Narada thought himself that he had mastered the whole art and science of music. To curb his pride the all-knowing Vishnu took him to visit the abode of the gods. They entered a spacious building, in which were numerous men and women weeping over their broken limbs. Vishnu stopped and enquired of them the reason for their lamentation. They answered that they were the ragas and the raginis, created by Mahadeva; but that as a rishi of the name of Narada, ignorant of the true knowledge of music and unskilled in performance, had sung them recklessly, their features were distorted and their limbs broken; and that, unless Mahadeva or some other skillful person would sing them properly, there was no hope of their ever being restored to their former state of body. Narada, ashamed , kneeled down before Vishnu and asked to be forgiven."

Vedic Music

It is a matter of common knowledge to all music lovers that Indian classical music has its origin in the Sama Veda. Yet the singing of the Sama Veda has practically disappeared from India. What is heard nowadays is sasvara-patha and not sasvara-gana, that is to say, only musical recitation of the Sama Veda, not its actual singing. 

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The Origins of Hindu Music

“animals tamed or wild, even children, are charmed by sound. Who can describe its marvels?” (Sang. Darp. I-31). 

Under the name of Gandharava Veda, a general theory of sound with its metaphysics and physics appears to have been known to the ancient Hindus. From such summaries as have survived till modern times, it seems that the properties of sound, not only in different  musical forms and systems but also in physics, medicine, and magic. The rise of Buddhism with its hostility towards tradition brought about a sharp deviation in the ancient approach to the arts and sciences, and their theory had often to go underground in order to avoid destruction. It was at this time that the Gandharva Veda, with all the other sacred sciences, disappeared; though the full tradition is said to survive among the mysterious sages (rishis) who dwell in Himalayan caves. 

When the representatives of the old order, who had been able to maintain their tradition under ground through the centuries of persecution, arose again, their intellectual and cultural superiority was in many fields so great that Buddhism was defeated. In hardly more than a few decades, Buddhism, by the mere strength of intellectual argument, was wiped out from the whole Indian continent over which it had ruled for a thousand years. It was then (during 6^th and 7^th century) that an attempt was made, under the leadership of Shankaracharya, to restore Hindu culture to its ancient basis.   

A number of eminent Brahmins were entrusted with the task of recovering or re-writing the fundamental treatises on the traditional sciences. For this they followed the ancient system which starts from a metaphysical theory whose principles are common to all aspects of the universe, and works out their application in a particular domain. In this way the theory of music was reconstructed. In this way the theory of music was reconstructed.  

Musical theory and theory of language had been considered from the earliest times as two parallel branches of one general science of sound. Both had often been codified by the same writers. The names of Vashishtha, Yajnavalkya, Narada, Kashyapa, Panini are mentioned among these early musicologist-grammarians. Nandikeshvara was celebrated at the same time as the author of a work on the philosophy of language and of a parallel work on music. His work on language is believed to be far anterior to the Mahabhashya of Patanjali (attributed to the 2^nd century B.C.) into which it is usually incorporated, though it is thought to be probably posterior to Panini, who lived no later than 6^th century B.C. The chronology of works on music would seem, however, to place both Panini and Nandikeshvara at a much earlier date. The work of Nandikeshvara on the philosophy of music is now believed to be lost but fragments of it are undoubtedly incorporated in later works. At the time of the Buddhist ascendancy, when so much of the ancient lore had to be abandoned, grammatical works were considered more important than musical ones.

A part of Nandikeshvara’s work on dancing, the Abhinaya Darpana, has been printed (Calcutta 1934) with English translation by M. Ghosh). An earlier translation by Ananda Coomaraswamy appeared under the title The Mirror of Gesture (Harvard Univ. Press. 1917). 

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The Antiquity of Indian Music 

The period extending from the Mahabharata war to the beginnings of Buddhism may well have been one of the greatest the culture of India has known, and its influence extended then (as indeed it still did much later) from the Mediterranean to China. Traces of its Mediterranean aspect have been found in the Cretan and Mycenean remains as well as in Egypt and the Middle East.  

The Vedas, which until the beginning of this period had been transmitted orally, were then written down, and later on, the Epics and Puranas. Most of the treatises on the ancient sciences also belong to the age, though many may have been to a certain extent re-shaped later on. Ananada K. Coomaraswamy, in his book, Arts and Crafts of India and Ceylon, speaks of this “early Asiatic culture and as far south as Ceylon….in the second millennium B.C..” 

The ancient Kinnari Vina or Kin, for example, became known in China as the Khin, a stringed instrument said to have been played by the first Emperor, Fu-Hi (circa 3000 BC), The Kin is further mentioned in ancient Chinese chronicles such as the Chi Ki (2^nd century B.C) in reference to events of the 6^th or 7^th century. According to the Li Ki, Confucius (551-478) always had his Khin with him at home, and carried it when he went for a walk or on a journey. 

In Genesis, (iv, 21 and xxxi, 27) a stringed instrument of the same kind is called Kinnor. David used to play the Kinnor as well as the nebel (flute).
    

Shiva, Yoga-Dakshinamurti with Rishis, Snake dancers, and Musicians  - The Art Institute of Chicago.

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The antiquity of Indian theatrical art and musical theory was well known to the ancient world. According to Strabo (Geography X, II 17) the Greeks considered that music, “from the triple point of view of melody, rhythm and instruments” came to them originally from Thrace and Asia. “Besides, the poets, who make of the whole of Asia, including India, the land or sacred territory of Dionysos, claim that the origin of music is almost entirely Asiatic. Thus, one of them, speaking of the lyre, will say, that he causes the strings of the Asiatic cithara to vibrate.” Many ancient historians spoke of Dionysos (or Bacchos) as having lived in India.  

The many stories that tell how the various styles of North Indian music were invented by musicians of the Muhammadan period have probably no basis in reality. Under Muslim rule, age-old stories were retold as if they had happened at the court of Akbar, simply to make them more vivid, and in conformity with the fashion of the day. Such transferences of legend are frequent everywhere. In Western countries, many a pagan god in this way became a Christian saint and many ancient legends were rearranged to fit into Christian world. Some episodes in the life of the Buddha, for example, found their way into the Lives of the Saints where the Buddha appears under the name of St. Josaphat.    

The impartial ear of sound-measuring instruments makes one marvel at the wonderful accuracy of the scales used by the great “Ustads” of Northern India – scales which in everyway confirm with the requirements of ancient Hindu theory. 

To say that they pertain to, or have been influenced by, the Arab or the Persian system shows a very superficial knowledge of the subject. These systems, originally mostly derived from Indian music, have become so reduced and impoverished in comparison with it that no one can seriously speak of their having had any influence on its development. In fact the whole of the theory and most of the practice of Arab as well as Persian music is the direct descendant of the ancient Turkish music. At the beginning of the Muslim era, the Arabs themselves had hardly any musical system worth the mentioning, and all the Arabic theoreticians – Avicenna, (born about 980 A. D)  Al Farabi, Safi ud’din, and others – are claimed by the Turks as Turkish in culture if not always in race. In fact, they merely expounded in Arabic the old Turkish system was well known to medieval Hindu scholars who often mention it (under the name of Turushka) as a system closely allied to Hindu music. The seventeen intervals of the octave, as used by the Arabs, are identical with seventeen of the twenty-two Indian shrutis, and there is no modal form in Arabic music which is not known to the Hindus. 

(source: Northern Indian Music - By Alain Danielou Praeger, 1969 volume I p. 1-35).

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The Development of Scale

All music is based upon relations between sounds. These relations can, however, be worked out in different ways, giving rise to different groups of musical systems. The modal group of musical systems, to which practically the whole of Indian muisc belongs, is based on the establishment of relations between diverse successive sounds or notes on the one hand and, on the other, upon a permanent sound fixed and invariable, the "tonic".

Indian music like all modal music, thus exists only by the relations of each note with the tonic. Contrary to common belief, modal music is not merely melody without accompaniment, nor has a song or melody, in itself, anything to do with mode. The modes used in the music of the Christian Church are modes only in name, though they may have been real modes originally. But much of Scottish and Irish music, for example, is truly modal; it belongs to the same musical family as Indian music and is independent of the Western harmonic system. 

Music must have been cultivated in very early ages by the Hindus; as the abridged names of the seven notes, via, sa, ri, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni, are said to occur in the Sama Veda; and in their present order. Their names at length are as follows: 

Shadja, Rishabha, Gandhara, Madhyama, Panchama, Dhaivata, Nishada.

The seven notes are placed under the protection of seven Ah'hisht'hatri Devatas, or superintenting divinities as follows:

Shadja, under the protection of Agni
Rishabha, of Brahma
Gandhara, of Saraswati
Madhyama, of Mahadeva
Panchama, of Sri or Lakshmi
Dhaivata, of Ganesa
Nishada, of Surya

"The note Sa is said to be the soul, Ri is called the head, Ga is the arms, Ma the chest, Pa the throat, Dha the hips, Ni the feet. Such are the seven limbs of the modal scale." (Narada Samhita 2, 53-54). 

"Shadja is the first of all the notes and so it is the main or chief note." Datilla explains that the Shadja (the tonic) may be established at will at any pitch (on any shruti) and that, by relation with it, the other notes should be established at the proper intervals.

The Hindus divide the octave into twenty two intervals, which are called Sruti, by allocating four Sruti to represent the interval. The sruti or microtonal interval is a division of the semitone, but not necessarily an equal division. This division of the semitone is found also in ancient Greek music. It is an interesting fact that we find in Greek music the counterpart of many things in Indian music. Ancient India divided the octave into twenty two and the Greek into twenty-four. The two earliest Greek scales, the Mixolydic and the Doric show affinity with early Indian scales. The Indian scale divides the octave into twenty-two srutis. 

Gramas

Indian music is traditionally based on the three gramas. First reference to Grammas or ancient scales is found in the Mahabharata and teh Harivamsa. The former speaks of the 'sweet note Gandhara', probably referring to the scale of that name. The Harivamsa speaks enthusiastically of music 'in the gramaraga which goes down to Gandhara', and ot 'the women of Bhima's race who performed, in the Gandhara gramaraga, the descent of the Ganges, so as to delight mind and ear.' 

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The Nature of Sound

"Sound (Nada) is the treasure of happiness for the happy, the distraction of those who suffer, the winner of the hearts of hearers, distraction of those who suffer, the winner of the hearts of hearers, the first messenger of the God of Love. It is the clever and easily obtained beloved of passionate women. May it ever, ever, be honored. It is the fifth approach to Eternal Wisdom, the Veda."

   - Sangita Bhashya.

Sound is said to be of two kinds, one a vibration of ether, the other a vibration of air. The vibration of ether, which remains unperceived by the physical sense, is considered the principle of all manifestation, the basis of all substance. It corresponds with what Pythagoras called the "music of the spheres" and forms permanent numerical patterns which lie at the very root of the world's existence. This kind of vibration is not due to any physical shock, as are all audible sounds. It is therefore called anahata, "unstruck". The other kind of sound is an impermanent vibration of the air, an image of the ether vibration of the same frequency. It is audible, and is always produced by a shock. It is therefore called ahata or "struck".

Thus, the Sangita Makaranda (I 4-6) says: "Sound is considered to be of two kinds, unstruck and and struck; of these two, the unstruck will be first described. "Sound produced from ether is known as 'unstruck'. In this unstruck sound the Gods delight. The Yogis, the Great Spirits, projecting their minds by an effort of the mind into this unstruck sound, depart, attaining Liberation."

"Struck sound is said to give pleasure, 'unstruck' sound gives Liberation." (Narada Purana).

But "this (unstruck sound) having no relation with human enjoyment does not interest ordinary men." (Sang. Ratn 6.7.12).

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Raga - The Basis of Melody

"I don not dwell in heaven, nor in the heart of yogis. there only I abide, O Narada, where my lovers sing." (Narada Samhita I.7).

"That which charms is a raga." (Sang. Darpan 2-1).

Each raga or mode of Indian music is a set of given sounds called notes (svara-s) forming with a permanent tonic certain ratios. To each of these ratios is said to correspond a definite idea or emotion. The complex mood created by the mixture and contrast of these different ideas or emotions is the mood or expression of the raga. The harmonious relations which exist between the notes and which can be represented by numerical ratios do not exclusively belong to music. The very same relations can be found in the harmony which binds together all the aspects of manifestation. These ratios can express the change of the seasons and that of the hours, the symphony of colors as well as that of forms. Hence the mood of a raga can be accurately represented by a picture or a poem which only creates an equivalent harmony through another medium. The expression of a raga is thus determined by its scale. It results from the expressions of each of the intervals (shrutis) which the different notes form with the tonic.

The Raga poems: Poems describing the mood of the raga are found in a number of Sanskrit works of music. References to them in other works seem to show that many of them were originally part of a treatise (now believed lost) by Kohala, one of the earliest writers on music.

Raga is the basis of melody in Indian music and a substitute for the western scale. "It is the attempt of an artistic nation to reduce the law and order the melodies that come and go on the lips of the people." In Raga Vibodha, it is defined as 'an arrangement of sounds which possesses varna, (color)  funishes gratification to the senses and is constituted by musical notes." says Matanga. 

Indian ragas are also supposed to be able to reproduce the conditions and emotions associated with them. The Dipak raga is supposed to produce flames in actuality; and a story is told of the famous musician named Gopal Naik (Baiju Bawara) who, when ordered to sing this by the Emperor Akbar went and stood in the Jamuna up to his neck and then started the song. The water became gradually hotter until flames burst out of his body and he was consumed to ashes. The Megh mallar raga is supposed to be able to produce rain. It is said that a dancing girl in Bengal, in a time of drought, once drew from the clouds with this raga a timely refreshing shower which saved the rice crop. Sir W. Ousley, who relates many of these anecdotes, says that he was told by Bengal people that this power of reproducing the actual conditions of the raga is now only possessed by some musicians in western India. 

In connection with the sciences of raga, Indian music has developed the art of raga pictures. Mr. Percy Brown, formerly of the School of Art, Calcutta, defines a raga as "a work of art in which the tune, the song, the picture, the colors, the season, the hour and the virtues are so blended together as to produce a composite production to which the West can furnish no parallel." 

Vina player from Mysore.

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It may be described as a musical movement, which is not only represented by sound, but also by a picture. Rajah S M Tagore, thus describes the pictorial representations of his six principal ragas. Sriraga is represented as a divine being wandering through a beautiful grove with his love, gathering fragrant flowers as they pass along. Near by doves sport on the grassy sward. Vasanta raga, or the raga of spring, is represented as a young man of golden hue, and having his ears ornamented with mango blossoms, some of which he also holds in his hands. His lotus-like eyes are rolling round and are of the color of the rising sun. He is loved by the females. Bhairava is shown as the great Mahadeva (Shiva) seated as a sage on a mountain top. River Ganga falls upon his matted locks. His head is adorned with the crescent moon. In the center of his forehead is the third eye from which issued the flames which reduced Kama, the Indian Cupid, to ashes. Serpents twine around his neck. He holds a trident in one hand and a drum in the other. Before him stands his sacred bull - Nandi. Panchama raga is pictured as a very young couple in love in a forest. Megh raga is the raga of the clouds, and the rainy season. It is the raga of hope and new life. The clouds hang overhead, and already some drops of rain have fallen. The animals in the fields rejoice. This raga is said to be helpful for patients suffering from tuberculosis. Nattanarayana is the raga of battle. A warrior king rides on a galloping steed over the field of battle, with lance and bow and shield. Lakshmana Pillay has said: "Thus, each raga comes and goes with its store of smiles or tears, of passion or pathos, its noble and lofty impulses, and leaves its mark on the mind of the hearer." 

Sir Percy Brown read a paper on the raga which he called Visualized Music. He described it as a combination of two arts, music and painting. He mentioned a miniature painting which was called 'the fifth delineation of the melody Megh Mallar Saranga, played in four-time at the time of the spring rains. He wrote: "Todi ragini is one of the brides of Vasanta raga. The melody of this raga is so fascinating that every living creature within hearing is attracted to it. as the raga has to be performed at midday." 

This art seems to have come originally from northwest India. The Indian tendency is to visualize abstract things. 

The six principal ragas are the following:

1. Hindaul - It is played to produce on the mind of the bearer all the sweetness and freshness of spring; sweet as the honey of the bee and fragrant as the perfume of a thousand blossoms.

2. Sri Raga - The quality of this rag is to affect the mind with the calmness and silence of declining day, to tinge the thoughts with a roseate hue, as clouds are glided by the setting sun before the approach of darkness and night.

3. Megh Mallar - This is descriptive of the effects of an approaching thunder-storm and rain, having the power of influencing clouds in time of drought.

4. Deepak - This raga is extinct. No one could sing it and live; it has consequently fallen into disuse. Its effect is to light the lamps and to cause the body of the singer to produce flames by which he dies.

5. Bhairava - The effect of this rag is to inspire the mind with a feeling of approaching dawn, the caroling of birds, the sweetness of the perfume and the air, the sparkling freshness of dew-dropping morn.

6. Malkos - The effect of this rag are to produce on the mind a feeling of gentle stimulation.

(source: Hindu Superiority - By Har Bilas Sarda p. 371).

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Tala or Time Measure

Claude Alvares has written: "The Indian system of talas, the rhythmical time-scale of Indian classical music, has been shown (by contemporary analytical methods) to possess an extreme mathematical complexity. The basis of the system is not conventional arithmetic, however, but more akin to what is known today as pattern recognition."

To quote Richard Lannoy author of The Speaking Tree: A Study of Indian Culture and Society:

"In the hands of a virtuoso the talas are played at a speed so fast that the audience cannot possibly have time to count the intervals; due to the speed at which they are played, the talas are registered in the brain as a cluster configuration, a complex Gestalt involving all the senses at once. While the structure of the talas can be laboriously reduced to a mathematical sequence, the effect is subjective and emotional.....The audience at a recital of Indian classical music becomes physically engrossed by the agile patterns and counter-patterns, responding with unfailing and instinctive kinesthetic accuracy to the terminal beat in each tala."

Their ability with instruments is repeated with the voice. The extraordinary degree of control of the human voice has been described by the musicologist, Alain Danielou, who has stated that Indian musicians can produce and differentiate between minute intervals (exact to a hundreth of a comma, according to identical measurements recorded by Danielou at monthly recording sessions). This sensitivity to microtones is, from the purely musicological point of view, of little importance, like the mathematical complexity of the talas. Nevertheless, as Lannoy puts it:

"It is an indication of the care with which the "culture of sound" is developed, for Hindus still believe that such precision in the repetition of exact intervals, over and over again, permits sounds to act upon the internal personality, transform sensibility, way of thinking, state of soul, and even moral character."

(source: Decolonizing History: Technology and Culture in India, China and the West 1492 to the Present Day - By Claude Alvares p. 73-74).

"In other words, the Hindu has never divorced the physical from the spiritual; these 'ancient physiologists' ascribed an ethical significance to physiological sensitivity. The aristocratic cult of kalokagathia, 'beautiful goodness', has never been abandoned in India, even if its metaphysic bears little resemblance to the kalokagathia of the ancient Greeks.

(source: The Speaking Tree: A Study of Indian Culture and Society - By Richard Lannoy p. 275).

Musical time in India, more obviously then elsewhere, is a development from the prosody and metres of poetry. The insistent demands of language and the idiosyncrasies of highly characteristic verse haunt the music, like a 'presence which is not to be put by.' 'The time-relations of music are affected both by the structure of the language and by the method of versification which ultimately derives from it.' says one student of Indian music from the west. Until late, there was practically no prose in India and everything had to be learnt through the medium of verse chanted to regular rules. Both in Sanskrit and in the vernacular all syllables are classified according to their time-lengths, the unit of time being a matra. Very short syllables of less than a matra also occur.

Great stress has always been laid by Indian grammarians upon giving 'the exact value' to syllables inverse; and as there is no accent at all in Indian verse the time-length is all important. This may account for the great development of time-measures in Indian music.  Rajah S M Tagore says that the word tala refers to the beating of time by the clapping of hands. Sometimes it is also done by means of small hand-cymbals, which are called tala or kaitala or kartal (hand-cymbals). 

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Musical Instruments and Sanskrit Writers on Music

The Vedic Index shows a very wide variety of musical instruments in use in Vedic times. Instruments of percussion are represented by the dundubhi, an ordinary drum; the adambara, another kind of drum, bhumidundubhi, an earthdrum made by digging a hole in the ground covering it with hide; vanaspati, a wooden drum; aghati, a cymbal used to accompany dancing. Stringed instruments are represented by the kanda-vina, akind of lute; karkari, another lute; vana, a lute of 100 strings; and the vina, the present instrument of that name in India. This one instrument alone is sufficient evidence of the development to which the art had attained even in those early days.  There are also a number of wind instruments of the flute variety, such as the tunava, a wooden flute; the nadi, a reed flute, bakura, whose exact shape is unknown. 'By the time of the Yajur Veda several kinds of professional musicians appear to have arisen; for lute-players, drummers, flute-players, and conch-blowers are mentioned in the list of callings.'

                        Kalyayana-vina                                                Sarinda                    Katyayana-vina                Chikara

That vocal music had already got beyond the primitive stage may be concluded from the somewhat complicated method of chanting the Sama Veda, which goes back to the Aryan age. These hymns of the Rig Veda and Sama Veda are the earliest examples we have of words set to music. The Sama Veda, was sung according to very strict rules, and present day Samagah - temple singers of the Saman - claim that the oral tradition which they have received goes back to those ancient times. The Chandogya and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishads both mention the singing of the Sama Veda and the latter also refers to a number of musical instruments.

Sarangi (Bengal)                         Sarangi                    Mahati Vina                 Kinnari

Mayuri Esraj Vina (Southern) Ektar

Group of stringed instruments: Dilruba, Bin Sarangi and Peacock sitar      Some ancient instruments: Svaramandala. Brahma cina, Kural and Bastram.

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Drumming

The drum is one of the most important of Indian musical instruments. It provides the tonic to which all the other instruments must be tuned. It is a royal instrument having the right of royal honors. The drums used in India are innumerable. Mrs. Mann says: "The Indian drummer is a great artist. He will play a rhythm concerto all alone and play us into an ecstasy with it." "The drummer will play it in bars of 10, 13, 16, or 20 beats, with divisions within each bar flung out with a marvelous hypnotizing swing. Suggestions of such rhythm beaten out by a ragged urchin on the end of an empty kerosene oil-can first aroused me to the beauty and power of Indian music."

The Indian drummer can obtain the most fascinating rhythm from a mud pot, and some of them are great experts at this pot-drumming. The mridanga and tabla are both played in the same way, the only difference being that, in the case of the table, the two heads are on two small drums, and not on the same drum. The Mridanga or Mardala is the most common and probably the most ancient of Indian drums. It is said to be invented by Brahma to serve as an accompaniment to the dance of Shiva, in the honor of his victory over Tripurasura; and Ganesha, his son, is said to have been the first one play upon it. The word Mridanga or Mardala means 'made of clay' and probably therefore its body was originally of mud. Other drums include Pakhawaj, Nagara or Bheri or Nakkara, Dundubhi Mahanagar or Nahabet, Karadsamila, Dhol, Dhoki, Dholak and Dak. Damaru, Nidukku, or Budhudaka, Udukku, Edaka and many others.

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In the Ramayana mention is frequently made of the singing of ballads, which argues very considerable development of the art of music. The poem composed by the sage Valmiki is said to have been sung before King Dasratha. The Ramayana often makes use of musical similes. The humming of the bees reminded him of the music of stringed instruments, and the thunder of the clouds of the beating of the mridanga. He talks of the music of the battlefield, in which the twanging and creaking of the bows takes the place of stringed instruments and vocal music is supplied by the low moaning of the elephants. Ravana is made to say that "he will play upon the lute of his terrific bow with the sticks of his arrows." Ravana was a great master of music and was said to have appeased Shiva by his sublime chanting of Vedic hymns.

The Mahabharata speaks of seven Svaras and also of the Gandhara Grama, the ancient third mode. The theory of consonance is also alluded to. 

The Mahajanaka Jataka (c. 200 B. C) mentions the four great sound (parama maha sabda) which are conferred as an honor by the Hindu kings on great personages. In these drums is associated with various kinds of horn, gong and cymbals. These were sounded in front of a chariot which was occupied, but behind one which was empty. The car used to go slowly round the palace and up what was called 'the kettle-drum road'. At such a time they sounded hundreds of instruments so that 'it was like the noise of the sea.'  The Jataka also records how Brahmadatta presented a mountain hermit with a drum, telling him that if he beat on one side his enemies would run away and if upon the other they would become his firm friends.

In the Tamil books Purananuru and Pattupattu (c. A.D 100-200) the drum is referred to as occupying a position of very great honor. It had a special seat called murasukattil, and a special elephant, and was treated almost as a deity. It is described as 'adorned with a garland like the rainbow.' One of the poets tells us, marveling at the mercy of the king, 'how he sat unwittingly upon the drum couch and yet was not punished.'  Three kinds of drums are mentioned in these books: the battle drum, the judgment drum and the sacrificial drum. The battle drum was regarded with same the veneration that regiments used to bestow upon the regimental flag. One poem likens the beating of the drum to the sound of a mountain torrent. Another thus celebrates the virtues of the drummer.

"For my grandsire's grandsire, his grandsire's grandsire.
Beat the drum. For my father, his father did the same.
So he for me. From duties of his clan be has not swerved.
Pour forth for him one other cup of palm tree's purest wine.."

The early Tamil literature makes much mention of music. The Paripadal (c. A.D 100-200) gives the names of some of the svaras and mentions the fact of there being seven Palai (ancient modes). The yal is the peculiar instrument of the ancient Tamil land. No specimen of it still exists today. It was evidently something like the vina but not the same instrument, as the poet Manikkavachakar (c. A. D 500-700) mentions both in such a way as to indicate two different instruments. Some of its varieties are said to have had over 1,000 strings. The The Silappadigaram (A. D. 300), a Buddhist drama, mentions the drummer, the flute player, and the vina as well as the yal, and also has specimens of early Tamil songs. This book contains some of the earliest expositions of the Indian musical scale, giving the seven notes of the gamut and also a number of the modes and ragas in use at that time. The latter centuries of the Buddhist period were more fertile in architecture, sculpture and painting than in music. The dramas of Kalidasa make frequent references to music and evidently the rajahs of the time had regular musicians attached to their courts. In the Malavikagnimitra a song in four-time is mentioned as a great feat performed at a contest between two musicians. The development of the drama after Kalidasa meant the development of music as well, as all Indian drama is operatic. 'The temple and the stage were the great schools of Indian music.'

The oldest detailed exposition of Indian musical theory which has survived the ravages of ants and the fury of men is found in a treatise called Natya Sastra or the science of dancing, said to have been composed by the sage Bharata. There are nine chapters of the Natya Sashtra that deal with music proper. These contain a detailed exposition of the svaras, srutis, gramas, murohhansas, jatis. A translation of a portion of this chapter appeared in Mr. Clement's Introduction to Indian Music, and there is a complete French translation by Jean Grosset. 

The seventh and eighth centuries of our era in South India witnessed a religious revival associated with the bhakti movement and connected with the theistic and popular sects of Vishnu and Shiva. This revival was spread far and wide by means of songs composed by the leaders of the movement and so resulted in a great development of musical activity among the people generally and in the spread of musical education. Sangita Makaranda, said to be by Narada, but not Narada Rishi as his name is mentioned in the book, was probably composed between the eighth and eleventh centuries. He gives a similar account of the Gandhara Grama to that of Sangita Ratnakara. Musical sounds are divided into five classes according to the agency of productions, as nails, wind etc. The 18 Jatis of Bharata are given and he enumerates 93 ragas. 

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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: