Page:The Music of India.djvu/53

Rh Sa-grāma. It is very probable that the Ga-grāma was anterior to the Sa-grāma, though treatises make out the Sa-grāma to have been the original one. One is led to this idea because there is seen to be far closer correspondence between the Ga-grāma and the Sāman scale than between that and the Sa-grāma; and also because, if the Ga-grāma was really developed from the other two, it is difficult to understand why it should have perished and the other two remained. Then, further, southern music sticks closer to the ancient model than northern music, which has been largely modified by contact with that of Persia and Arabia. In view of this suggestion it may be of interest to place down the śruti values of these two śuddha scales, so that they may be compared with the two grāmas.

It is easy to see how the latter could be developed from the Ga-grāma. The fourth of the Ga-grāma as given above has ten śrutis, which would naturally be reduced to nine so as to bring it into tune. Then the Pa must be kept in tune so as to be played on the open string of the vīṇā, and so it must be a fifth of thirteen śrutis from Sa. The other changes are very slight and do not alter the character of the scale. So it is possible that we see to-day the ancient grāmas in the two śuddha scales of India. Thus the scale in India is the result of a regular and scientific development of both vocal and instrumental music.

The scale as it exists to-day is one with great possibilities in regard to musical formations, and it has a very wide range in the microtonal variations included in it. The Indian musician is always trying to ornament his notes, because grace plays in the Indian system the part of harmony in the European. These ornaments are made by slight and indefinite variations, which may be quite different from what wowe [sic] have called the śrutis, which are