MUSIC AND PERFORMING ARTS IN VEDAS
To
R. Rama Varma Thampuran Sir, who made Sanskrit approachable to the
common man and to Dr. Shaji Shanmughom , my brother who is a guiding
spirit to me in Ancient Literature.
The term ‘Veda’ comprises Samhita, Aranyaka, Upanishad etc. hence Vedic age means the sum total of all the periods or phases of the vast Vedic literature. We shall make an attempt to give here an outline of the vocal and instrumental music, dance and drama that obtained in the age that covers long passage of time from 5000 B.C to 1000 B.C.
Indian music shares with Indian poetry the glory of being one of the finest of fine arts and stands unique among the musical achievements of the world. So far as the West is concerned, the only country which has achieved great things in the domain of music is Germany. Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Mendelssohn and Schubert are names to conjure with. Germany was great in music, as Greece was in architecture and sculpture and Italy in painting.
Music as an art has been cultivated in India for more than three thousand years. The chant is an essential element of the Vedic ritual; and the reference in later Vedic literature, the scriptures of Buddhism and the epics shows that it was already highly developed as a secular art in the centuries preceding the beginning of the Christian era.
It is easy to write about post-Vedic music, because we have such outstanding works on the subject as Sarangadeva’s Sangitaratnakara ,Bharata’s Natyasastra, Ramamatya’s Svaramelakalanidhi and the like. In English also, there are several books on post-Vedic music. But it is difficult to write about Vedic music, particularly vocal music, as there is no such outstanding work on the subject. In the following lines, an attempt is made to give an outline of the Vedic music as gleaned from the study of the Vedic literature.
Vocal Music
Music, both vocal and instrumental, was well known in the Vedic age. First, we shall take up the discussion about the vocal music. The Manduka-sukta or Frog- hymn of the Rig-Veda (VII.103.7,8) refers to the musical chanting of the priests engaged in the extraction of the soma juice. Different vocal sounds are carefully analysed in the said hymn, as also elsewhere. Singing is often mentioned as adapted to different ends, such as chanting reciting, hymning, etc.
The Sama-Veda is a standing monument to the wonderful skill and originality of the ancients in the science of vocal music. The terms ‘gana’,’giti’,’udgana’,’sangita’,etc, are
found in the Vedic literature, and all these terms signify vocal music of different types. It was referred to as village music, gramageya-gana and forest music, aranyageya-gana as distinct from sama-gana.
The vocal music of the Sama-Veda is a distinct trait of the Vedic music. The sama-gana or sama music was created by adding notation to the Rg-Veda chant. At its early or incipient stage, it had three notes only, which according to some authorities, were nisada, sadja ,pancama; some others, again hold them to be pancama ,gandhara, and sadja. Somanatha(A.D 1609), in his work on Indian music entitled Ragavibodha, holds these to be the three notes of the early Sama-Vedic era. Venkatamukhi, another authority on Indian music, also holds the same view. In the later period of the Sama-Vedic age, the scale of music came up to seven notes. Ramaswami Aiyer, in his learned introduction to Svaramelakalanidhi, a well known book on music by Ramamatya, observes: ‘The scale of the marga music ordinarily ranged from one to four notes, but during the later saman period ,rose to seven notes’, These seven notes of sama music or chant were styled as krusta, prathama, dvitiya, tritiya, caturtha,mandra,and atisvarya. Narada,the author of phonetics and Sayanacarya,the famous commentator of the Vedas, term these seven sama notes as prathama,dvitiya, trtiya, caturtha,pancama, sastha, and saptma .When these seven notes were applied to marga music, they assumed the present nomenclature of sadja, rsabha ,gandhara , madhyama, pancama ,dhaivata and nisada .Kallinatha, in his commentary on Sarngadeva’s monumental work on Indian music Sangitaratnakara, bears testimony to the truth of this statement. He remarks: Seven notes in sama chanting go by the names of krusta, prathama,etc. and these correspond to the notes ranging from sadja to nisada respectively.
There was a difference of opinion amongst scholars regarding the prevalence of marga sangita in the Vedic era ,but now it is agreed on all hands that it did exist in the Vedic age. Some authors on music have identified marga music with the classical music of India, but, notwithstanding various points of similarity, the two differ from each other. The classical Indian music was partially influenced by Persian music in the Moghul court, whereas marga sangita shakes itself free from any such Muslim or foreign influences ;rather, a slight Dravidian influence is felt in marga music. Authorities on Indian music like Swami Prajnanananda, Ramaswami Aiyer, and others categorically assert that marga sangita existed in the Vedic age. In unmistakable terms, Aiyar observes:’I venture to call “marga” Vedic music’. Sarngadeva’s Sagitaratnakaram also lends support to this view, and the Vedic origin of marga music. The raw material of marga sangita was mainly drawn from the Sama-Veda.
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
Various types of instrumental music are mentioned in the Vedic literature. The Rg-Veda mentions ’vina, vana, karkari, dundubhi’etc. The first two fall within the category of stringed instruments, whereas the forth one is a kind of a drum..The ‘vana’was a hundred stringed or ’satatantri’ instrument, and none save and except an expert musician with deft fingers could play on it .A musician who could rightly handle a ’vana’ was called exceptionally gifted or expert (atikusali).The vedic seers were admirers of Nature, which fired their imagination and captivated their minds with its eternal message of beauty and charm. They had a keen ear of natural music, and heard it in the rustling of leaves, pattering of rains, raging of storms, warbling of birds, rippling of streams etc. Thus the ‘Satapatha Brahmana’ says:’ When it rains hard, one can hear the sound of sama chant as it were’(XI.2.7.32).Likewise, the raging of storm through forests has been described in the Rg-Veda as the collective deity Maruts (Gods of wind) playing on the musical instrument ‘vana’. The trees of the forest stand for strings or chords of the lyre ‘vana’ in this poetic imagery. In Greek mythology, too, wind blowing through the trees is conceived as Aeolus, the God of wind, playing on his harp.
Sama-Veda mentions flute players, conch-blowers, drummers etc. Lute players are enjoined to play on the lute in the ceremony known as ‘simantonnayana’. The Rg-Veda and the Atharva-Veda mention ‘aghati ‘ or cymbal, which accompanied dancing.
The lute or ‘vina’ was looked upon as a symbol of grace or fortune and was held in esteem as such. Says the ‘Satapatha Brahmana’ : ‘The lute is, indeed ,a symbol of grace’(XIII.I.5.I).When a man attained prosperity, the lute was played in his honour. Those who sang in accompaniment to the lute were called ‘vina-gathi’. The ‘Satapatha Brahmana observes:’A lute player sings three strophes composed by himself striking up uttara-mandra tune’(XII.4.2.8). On this point, Eggeling says that it is ‘literally, the upper deep one ,ie; perhaps one of the upper chords of which are pitched in the upper notes of the lower key’. The term ’uttara-mandra may be constructed either with the lute or with the tune. Besides solo lute-playing, mention is also made of master lute-players playing in chorus called vina-gana-gina (Satapatha Brahmana,XIII.4.3.3). Two kinds of vina are mentioned in the Vedic literature: picola and audumbari .A third type is also referred to in some texts, called ksoni . The Brahmana texts also refer to flute(venu) and to clapping of hands(karatali) to keep time with music and song. Both vina and vana contained all the seven notes found in the sama chant.
The Rg-Veda mentions another musical instrument, called karkari. We read in the Rg-Veda:’ O Sakuni(vulture), you make a sound like that of the instrument karkari, when your wings flutter during flight’ (II.4.3).
Two kinds of drums, dundubhi and dhumi-dundubhi are mentioned. The sound of the pestle striking the mortar, while threshing corn, has been compared to the sound of drums proclaiming victory in the Rg-Veda. In the Satapatha Brahmana, we find drums keeping time with chariot-race or horse-race called ajidhavana(V.1.5.8). The same book records the fact that seventeen drums were used simultaneously in the vajapeya sacrifice
( V.1.5.6); sometimes drums accompanied chantings of sama .
Flutes made of reed, called nadi, are mentioned in the Rg-Veda (X.135.7) Flute playing was a common pastime, and originated from the pastoral life of that age.
Instrumental music went by the name of vaditra whereas vocal music was called gita. The Chandogya Upanishad mentions gita and vaditra. When we have dancing in addition to vocal and instrumental music, it is called sangita.
The particular bath or ablution ceremony known as avabhrtha, which formed the final part of the sacrifice, included dance and music, both vocal and instrumental, that is to say the ceremony was attended with sangita. Both men and women took part in the music and dance in this ceremony, while going to take bath.
DANCING
As the origin of music and dance, a story is narrated in the ancient texts. Once the ‘gandharvas’ stole ‘soma’ from the gods, and the latter failed to persuade them to give back the same. The gods knew that the ‘Gandharvas’ had a weakness for women, and hence they approached Vak or the goddess of speech to help them in the matter. They invented the arts of singing and dancing, and trained Vak in those arts to dupe the ‘gandharvas’.Vak dressed herself gorgeously showing off her beauty and vanity, cajoled ‘soma’ out of the ‘gandharvas’ hands deluding them with her song and dance.
Dancing was called ‘nrtta’ or ‘nartana’. The word ‘nrtta’ is also spelt as ‘nrtya’. Panini tells that ‘nrtya’ refers to the dance of human beings ,whereas ’nrtaa’ stands for the dance of non-human beings, which included gods, demi-gods, and animals. But this distinction was not in vogue in the Vedic age.
The dancing of the maidens is mentioned in Vedic hymns. Men also participated in dancing. The Rg-Veda (X.76.6) refers to the dance of men by way of simile. While dancing sometimes held aloft bamboo-poles poised on their fingers or their palms. A Rg-Vedic hymn(I.10.1) reads: ’O Satakratu, singers sing for you; worshippers propitiate Indra; admires hold you aloft a bamboo-pole’.The Yajur-Veda also refers to ‘vamsa-nartin,i.e. pole-dancer or acrobat. The ‘sailusa’ included in the list of victims at the sacrifice called ‘purushamedha’ in the ‘Vajasaneyi Samhita’ means an actor primarily, and a dancer secondarily. The Rg-Veda and Atharva-Veda enjoin that the musical instrument called ‘aghati ‘ should accompany dancing. Four or eight women perform a dance in the marriage ceremony. The restriction in the case of a graduate or ‘snataka’ that he is not to practice or enjoy instrumental or vocal music and dance shows the popularity and wide celebrity of music and dance in the Vedic age. The “Atareya Brahmana’ observes: ’Days and night rotate and follow each other in a regular rhythmic manner like dancing’(V.22.10) This passage lends support to the view that there were prescribed rules for dancing with respect to the Universe.
DRAMA
Though full-fledged dramas are not met with in the Vedic literature, there is no denying the fact that the origin and inception of drama may safely be traced in the Vedas. Max Muller, Winternitz, Sylvain Levi, Macdonell and other famous Indologists of the West hold the view in common that the ‘samvada’hymns of the Rg-Veda are the germs of the future full-fledged drama. ‘Samvada’ means dialogue, which is an essential element of drama. The dialogues between King Pururavas and Urvasi,Yama and Yami,Sarama and Pani Surya and Surya, recorded in the Rg-Veda, are dramatic in character .The ‘Satapatha Brahmana’(XI.5.1) narrates the story of Pururavas and Urvasi through dialogues, questions, counter-questions, and repartees in such a graphic manner that the total effect is highly dramatic in tone.
There is a theory that long before Bharatha’s ‘Natyasastra’, which is dated eighth century B.C. there existed a book containing the rules of dramaturgy in the Vedic age, and it is to this book that Panini refers as ‘Natasutra’ of Sage Silali in one of his ‘sutras ‘. This work has not been discovered till today. We have already mentioned that ‘salusa’, included in the list of victims meant for ‘purushamedha’, primarily means an actor.
In the Satapatha Brahmana(XI.6.1) we meet with a concrete presentation of abstract attributes by way of allegory. There, reverence or sraddha is represented as a beautiful lady, whereas wrath or krodha is represented as a terrific figure- an ugly man of dark complexion with yellow eyes and repulsive features. The beginnings of the allegorical play may be traced here, which culminated in such allegorical dramas (rupakanataka) as Probodhacandrodaya and the like in the classical age. The fact that the human soul transmigrates, ie; leaves one body and again assumes another in its next birth, has been compared, in some of the Upanishads to an actor changing his dress and playing different roles on the stage. Moreover , the Maitrayani Upanishad, mentions a nata or actor changing his dress and painting himself in the green room. This fact proves the prevalence, development, and popularity of dramatic shows in the Upanishadic age.
The term ‘Veda’ comprises Samhita, Aranyaka, Upanishad etc. hence Vedic age means the sum total of all the periods or phases of the vast Vedic literature. We shall make an attempt to give here an outline of the vocal and instrumental music, dance and drama that obtained in the age that covers long passage of time from 5000 B.C to 1000 B.C.
Indian music shares with Indian poetry the glory of being one of the finest of fine arts and stands unique among the musical achievements of the world. So far as the West is concerned, the only country which has achieved great things in the domain of music is Germany. Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Mendelssohn and Schubert are names to conjure with. Germany was great in music, as Greece was in architecture and sculpture and Italy in painting.
Music as an art has been cultivated in India for more than three thousand years. The chant is an essential element of the Vedic ritual; and the reference in later Vedic literature, the scriptures of Buddhism and the epics shows that it was already highly developed as a secular art in the centuries preceding the beginning of the Christian era.
It is easy to write about post-Vedic music, because we have such outstanding works on the subject as Sarangadeva’s Sangitaratnakara ,Bharata’s Natyasastra, Ramamatya’s Svaramelakalanidhi and the like. In English also, there are several books on post-Vedic music. But it is difficult to write about Vedic music, particularly vocal music, as there is no such outstanding work on the subject. In the following lines, an attempt is made to give an outline of the Vedic music as gleaned from the study of the Vedic literature.
Vocal Music
Music, both vocal and instrumental, was well known in the Vedic age. First, we shall take up the discussion about the vocal music. The Manduka-sukta or Frog- hymn of the Rig-Veda (VII.103.7,8) refers to the musical chanting of the priests engaged in the extraction of the soma juice. Different vocal sounds are carefully analysed in the said hymn, as also elsewhere. Singing is often mentioned as adapted to different ends, such as chanting reciting, hymning, etc.
The Sama-Veda is a standing monument to the wonderful skill and originality of the ancients in the science of vocal music. The terms ‘gana’,’giti’,’udgana’,’sangita’,etc, are
found in the Vedic literature, and all these terms signify vocal music of different types. It was referred to as village music, gramageya-gana and forest music, aranyageya-gana as distinct from sama-gana.
The vocal music of the Sama-Veda is a distinct trait of the Vedic music. The sama-gana or sama music was created by adding notation to the Rg-Veda chant. At its early or incipient stage, it had three notes only, which according to some authorities, were nisada, sadja ,pancama; some others, again hold them to be pancama ,gandhara, and sadja. Somanatha(A.D 1609), in his work on Indian music entitled Ragavibodha, holds these to be the three notes of the early Sama-Vedic era. Venkatamukhi, another authority on Indian music, also holds the same view. In the later period of the Sama-Vedic age, the scale of music came up to seven notes. Ramaswami Aiyer, in his learned introduction to Svaramelakalanidhi, a well known book on music by Ramamatya, observes: ‘The scale of the marga music ordinarily ranged from one to four notes, but during the later saman period ,rose to seven notes’, These seven notes of sama music or chant were styled as krusta, prathama, dvitiya, tritiya, caturtha,mandra,and atisvarya. Narada,the author of phonetics and Sayanacarya,the famous commentator of the Vedas, term these seven sama notes as prathama,dvitiya, trtiya, caturtha,pancama, sastha, and saptma .When these seven notes were applied to marga music, they assumed the present nomenclature of sadja, rsabha ,gandhara , madhyama, pancama ,dhaivata and nisada .Kallinatha, in his commentary on Sarngadeva’s monumental work on Indian music Sangitaratnakara, bears testimony to the truth of this statement. He remarks: Seven notes in sama chanting go by the names of krusta, prathama,etc. and these correspond to the notes ranging from sadja to nisada respectively.
There was a difference of opinion amongst scholars regarding the prevalence of marga sangita in the Vedic era ,but now it is agreed on all hands that it did exist in the Vedic age. Some authors on music have identified marga music with the classical music of India, but, notwithstanding various points of similarity, the two differ from each other. The classical Indian music was partially influenced by Persian music in the Moghul court, whereas marga sangita shakes itself free from any such Muslim or foreign influences ;rather, a slight Dravidian influence is felt in marga music. Authorities on Indian music like Swami Prajnanananda, Ramaswami Aiyer, and others categorically assert that marga sangita existed in the Vedic age. In unmistakable terms, Aiyar observes:’I venture to call “marga” Vedic music’. Sarngadeva’s Sagitaratnakaram also lends support to this view, and the Vedic origin of marga music. The raw material of marga sangita was mainly drawn from the Sama-Veda.
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
Various types of instrumental music are mentioned in the Vedic literature. The Rg-Veda mentions ’vina, vana, karkari, dundubhi’etc. The first two fall within the category of stringed instruments, whereas the forth one is a kind of a drum..The ‘vana’was a hundred stringed or ’satatantri’ instrument, and none save and except an expert musician with deft fingers could play on it .A musician who could rightly handle a ’vana’ was called exceptionally gifted or expert (atikusali).The vedic seers were admirers of Nature, which fired their imagination and captivated their minds with its eternal message of beauty and charm. They had a keen ear of natural music, and heard it in the rustling of leaves, pattering of rains, raging of storms, warbling of birds, rippling of streams etc. Thus the ‘Satapatha Brahmana’ says:’ When it rains hard, one can hear the sound of sama chant as it were’(XI.2.7.32).Likewise, the raging of storm through forests has been described in the Rg-Veda as the collective deity Maruts (Gods of wind) playing on the musical instrument ‘vana’. The trees of the forest stand for strings or chords of the lyre ‘vana’ in this poetic imagery. In Greek mythology, too, wind blowing through the trees is conceived as Aeolus, the God of wind, playing on his harp.
Sama-Veda mentions flute players, conch-blowers, drummers etc. Lute players are enjoined to play on the lute in the ceremony known as ‘simantonnayana’. The Rg-Veda and the Atharva-Veda mention ‘aghati ‘ or cymbal, which accompanied dancing.
The lute or ‘vina’ was looked upon as a symbol of grace or fortune and was held in esteem as such. Says the ‘Satapatha Brahmana’ : ‘The lute is, indeed ,a symbol of grace’(XIII.I.5.I).When a man attained prosperity, the lute was played in his honour. Those who sang in accompaniment to the lute were called ‘vina-gathi’. The ‘Satapatha Brahmana observes:’A lute player sings three strophes composed by himself striking up uttara-mandra tune’(XII.4.2.8). On this point, Eggeling says that it is ‘literally, the upper deep one ,ie; perhaps one of the upper chords of which are pitched in the upper notes of the lower key’. The term ’uttara-mandra may be constructed either with the lute or with the tune. Besides solo lute-playing, mention is also made of master lute-players playing in chorus called vina-gana-gina (Satapatha Brahmana,XIII.4.3.3). Two kinds of vina are mentioned in the Vedic literature: picola and audumbari .A third type is also referred to in some texts, called ksoni . The Brahmana texts also refer to flute(venu) and to clapping of hands(karatali) to keep time with music and song. Both vina and vana contained all the seven notes found in the sama chant.
The Rg-Veda mentions another musical instrument, called karkari. We read in the Rg-Veda:’ O Sakuni(vulture), you make a sound like that of the instrument karkari, when your wings flutter during flight’ (II.4.3).
Two kinds of drums, dundubhi and dhumi-dundubhi are mentioned. The sound of the pestle striking the mortar, while threshing corn, has been compared to the sound of drums proclaiming victory in the Rg-Veda. In the Satapatha Brahmana, we find drums keeping time with chariot-race or horse-race called ajidhavana(V.1.5.8). The same book records the fact that seventeen drums were used simultaneously in the vajapeya sacrifice
( V.1.5.6); sometimes drums accompanied chantings of sama .
Flutes made of reed, called nadi, are mentioned in the Rg-Veda (X.135.7) Flute playing was a common pastime, and originated from the pastoral life of that age.
Instrumental music went by the name of vaditra whereas vocal music was called gita. The Chandogya Upanishad mentions gita and vaditra. When we have dancing in addition to vocal and instrumental music, it is called sangita.
The particular bath or ablution ceremony known as avabhrtha, which formed the final part of the sacrifice, included dance and music, both vocal and instrumental, that is to say the ceremony was attended with sangita. Both men and women took part in the music and dance in this ceremony, while going to take bath.
DANCING
As the origin of music and dance, a story is narrated in the ancient texts. Once the ‘gandharvas’ stole ‘soma’ from the gods, and the latter failed to persuade them to give back the same. The gods knew that the ‘Gandharvas’ had a weakness for women, and hence they approached Vak or the goddess of speech to help them in the matter. They invented the arts of singing and dancing, and trained Vak in those arts to dupe the ‘gandharvas’.Vak dressed herself gorgeously showing off her beauty and vanity, cajoled ‘soma’ out of the ‘gandharvas’ hands deluding them with her song and dance.
Dancing was called ‘nrtta’ or ‘nartana’. The word ‘nrtta’ is also spelt as ‘nrtya’. Panini tells that ‘nrtya’ refers to the dance of human beings ,whereas ’nrtaa’ stands for the dance of non-human beings, which included gods, demi-gods, and animals. But this distinction was not in vogue in the Vedic age.
The dancing of the maidens is mentioned in Vedic hymns. Men also participated in dancing. The Rg-Veda (X.76.6) refers to the dance of men by way of simile. While dancing sometimes held aloft bamboo-poles poised on their fingers or their palms. A Rg-Vedic hymn(I.10.1) reads: ’O Satakratu, singers sing for you; worshippers propitiate Indra; admires hold you aloft a bamboo-pole’.The Yajur-Veda also refers to ‘vamsa-nartin,i.e. pole-dancer or acrobat. The ‘sailusa’ included in the list of victims at the sacrifice called ‘purushamedha’ in the ‘Vajasaneyi Samhita’ means an actor primarily, and a dancer secondarily. The Rg-Veda and Atharva-Veda enjoin that the musical instrument called ‘aghati ‘ should accompany dancing. Four or eight women perform a dance in the marriage ceremony. The restriction in the case of a graduate or ‘snataka’ that he is not to practice or enjoy instrumental or vocal music and dance shows the popularity and wide celebrity of music and dance in the Vedic age. The “Atareya Brahmana’ observes: ’Days and night rotate and follow each other in a regular rhythmic manner like dancing’(V.22.10) This passage lends support to the view that there were prescribed rules for dancing with respect to the Universe.
DRAMA
Though full-fledged dramas are not met with in the Vedic literature, there is no denying the fact that the origin and inception of drama may safely be traced in the Vedas. Max Muller, Winternitz, Sylvain Levi, Macdonell and other famous Indologists of the West hold the view in common that the ‘samvada’hymns of the Rg-Veda are the germs of the future full-fledged drama. ‘Samvada’ means dialogue, which is an essential element of drama. The dialogues between King Pururavas and Urvasi,Yama and Yami,Sarama and Pani Surya and Surya, recorded in the Rg-Veda, are dramatic in character .The ‘Satapatha Brahmana’(XI.5.1) narrates the story of Pururavas and Urvasi through dialogues, questions, counter-questions, and repartees in such a graphic manner that the total effect is highly dramatic in tone.
There is a theory that long before Bharatha’s ‘Natyasastra’, which is dated eighth century B.C. there existed a book containing the rules of dramaturgy in the Vedic age, and it is to this book that Panini refers as ‘Natasutra’ of Sage Silali in one of his ‘sutras ‘. This work has not been discovered till today. We have already mentioned that ‘salusa’, included in the list of victims meant for ‘purushamedha’, primarily means an actor.
In the Satapatha Brahmana(XI.6.1) we meet with a concrete presentation of abstract attributes by way of allegory. There, reverence or sraddha is represented as a beautiful lady, whereas wrath or krodha is represented as a terrific figure- an ugly man of dark complexion with yellow eyes and repulsive features. The beginnings of the allegorical play may be traced here, which culminated in such allegorical dramas (rupakanataka) as Probodhacandrodaya and the like in the classical age. The fact that the human soul transmigrates, ie; leaves one body and again assumes another in its next birth, has been compared, in some of the Upanishads to an actor changing his dress and playing different roles on the stage. Moreover , the Maitrayani Upanishad, mentions a nata or actor changing his dress and painting himself in the green room. This fact proves the prevalence, development, and popularity of dramatic shows in the Upanishadic age.
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