Natya Shastra - Music

Music

After the Samaveda, which dealt with ritual utterances of the Vedas, the Natyashastra was the first major text that dealt with music at length. It was considered the defining treatise of Indian classical music until the 13th century, when the stream bifurcated into Hindustani classical music in North India and Pakistan, due to the influence of Persian and Arabic music, and Carnatic classical music in South India, the stronghold of the Hindu kingdoms.

While much of the discussion of music in the Natyashastra focuses on musical instruments, it also emphasizes several theoretical aspects that remained fundamental to Indian music:

• Establishment of Shadja as the first, defining note of the scale or grama. The word Shadja (षड्ज) means 'giving birth to six', and refers to the fact that once this note (often referred to as "sa" and notated S) is fixed, the placement of other notes in the scale is determined.

• Principle of Consonance: Consists of two principles:

• The first principle states that there exists a fundamental note in the musical scale which is Avinashi (अविनाशी) and Avilopi (अविलोपी) that is, the note is ever-present and unchanging.

• The second principle, often treated as law, states that there exists a natural consonance between notes; the best between Shadja and Tar Shadja, the next best between Shadja and Pancham.

• The Natyashastra also suggest the notion of musical modes or jatis which are the origin of the notion of the modern melodic structures known as ragas. Their role in invoking emotions are emphasized; thus compositions emphasizing the notes gandhara or rishabha are said to be related to tragedy (karuna rasa) whereas rishabha is to be emphasized for evoking heroism (vIra rasa). Jatis are elaborated in greater detail in the text Dattilam, composed around the same time as the Natyashastra.

To prove the utility of śrutis in music, Bharata Muni, while explaining Shadja grama and Madhyam grama in chapters 28 and 30 of Bharat Natya Shastra, expounded the Sarana Chatushtai– the only experiment according to Bharata to obtain the correct physical configuration of Śruti Swara arrangement to Shadja Grama notes on any musical instrument (Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni, Sa, corresponding to 4-3-2-4-4-3-2, totalling 22 śrutis in a Saptak). Sarana Chatushtai in recent centuries has been demonstrated and proven by Avinash Balkrishna Patwardhan in the year 1998 on flute as well as on sitar (this has also helped him develop a methodology for producing perfectly tuned flutes for different thatas). This is the only known correct interpretation of the Bharata Muni's Sarana Chatushtai after Bharata Muni himself and probably Sharang Dev.

The Natyashastra also suggests several aspects of musical performance, particularly its application to vocal, instrumental and orchestral compositions. It also deals with the rasas and bhavas that may be evoked by music.