Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/103

HINDU MtrSIC. 87 yet only in manuscript. The most important are the Hamylladarpinia of Damodara, the fSariigita- narayana by Xarayana, the Hamgltarattmkara of SarngaUeva (edited by Tching, Po<jna, 18!)7), the Kayuclbodha of Somanatha (edited by Gharpure, Poona, 1895), the Ragamiita of Ksheniakara and riuiny others of less value. The oldest scale of the Hindus, the VelSvali, consists of only five tones, F, G, A, C, D, and 13 identical with that of the Chinese. In the course of time two tones were added, and A was taken as the starting-point. Thus a scale identical with our A major was obtained. A scale was known as Hiaragrama or iSaptaha, and the dif- ferent tones were designated by the .syllables Sa, Hi, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dhai, i. Each of these syllables denoted not only the fundamental tone, but was applied equally to all its chromatic alterations. Within any scale three tones were designated by special names. These were the first, third, and fifth, knowTi as Anxa, (Sraha, and Xt/asa re- spectively. Their function is stated in the Sam- gitaniirui/ana ■" "The note Graha stands at the Ije- ginning and Xyasa at the end of a song. Ansa is the leading note ; it gives to the melody its par- ticular character and is used the most frequently, and the other notes are subordinated to it as to a ruler." The seven tones of the scale were repeated three times in succession, and thus a compass of three Asian or octaves was obtained. The difTerent tones were classified as major tones, minor tones, and semitones. Each major tone consisted of four quarter tones, each minor of three quarters, and each semitone of two quar- ters. These subdivisions were called xrutis, of which each octave had 22. Major tones were the first, fourth, and fifth, minor tones the second and sixth, semitones the third and seventh. The RugavViodha admits the possibility of no less than 900 modes, but enumerates only 36. Even out of these only 23 are recognized as having practical value. These 36 modes were divided into 6 primary called Ragas, and 30 sec- ondarj' modes called Raginis. The number of Eagas was determined by the number of seasons, which in India is six. An attempt was made to have each Raga express, as closely as possible, the character of the season to which it corre- sponded. It also was improper to play a Raga at any other season than the one of which it was the expression. Musical notation by means of a staff was unknown to the Hindus. The differ- ent tones were represented by their initial con- sonants with lines drawn above or below to indi- cate to which Asian or octave the particular tone belonged. Embellishments and marks of expression were represented quite definitely by means of small circles, ellipses, chains, curves, horizontal and perpendicular lines. The end of a phrase was indicated by a lotus-flower. Of the musical instruments the Vina (q.v.) was the principal one, and is still used to-day in India. The Magotidi was also a .stringed instru- ment with four strings. Among the varied in- struments the principal ones were the Basarre. a flute with seven holes, and the sankha. a kind of trumpet made from a sea-shell. From the perfection of the Vina it can easily be inferred that India was far in advance in the art of music over all other Asiatic countries of antiquity. In spite of the complicated theoretical system, com- posers employed chiefly the iriraga, our modem A major. The minor mode occurs also, but very HINDUSTANI LANGUAGE. seldom. In the religious cult of the Hindus music was of primary importance. Music, both vocal and instrumental, was strictly regulated by laws. The former was called Oana, the latter Vadya. Pantomimes were known as Xrlya; and a combination of all was designated by the term Sanglta. Consult : .Jones, "On the Musical Modes of the Hindus," in Asiatick Researches, vol. iii. (Calcutta, 1792), reprinted in his Works, vol. iv. (London, 1807); Paterson. "On the GrSma.s or Musical Scales of the Hindus," ib., vol. ix. (ib,, 1807); Bird, The Original Miscellany, Being a Collection of the Most Favorite Airs of Bin- dostan (Calcutta, 1789) ; Tagore, Hindu Music from ^'arious Authors (ib., 1875) ; Schroder, Indiens Liiteratur und Culiur (Leipzig, 1887); Day, The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan (London. 1891). What strikes a student of the original Hindu melodies is the great discrepancy between musi- cal theory and actual practice. Evidently the composers disregarded theoretical speculations and wrote according to the dictates of their ear ; for all the melodies are found to be written ex- actly in our major or minor modes, and can be harmonized accordingly without the least dif- ficulty. HINDUSTAN, hin'doo-stan', or HINDOO- STAN. The land of the Hindus. A portion of India situated north of the Vindhya llountains in the valley of the Upper Ganges. The name has been used loosely as a designation of the Indian Peninsula. See IxDLi. HINDUSTANI ( lun'dno-sta'n* ) LAN- GUAGE AND LITERATUBE. The lingua franca of Xorthem India. This is in structure an Indian language, descended from a sister dialect of the ancient Sanskrit through mediaeval Prakrit vernaculars. Hindustani is divided into nearly sixty subdialects, which in the east- ern portion of its district are approximate Ben- gali, and in the south and west closely resemble Marathi and Gujarati. The territory of Hindu- stani, which is the vernacular of nearly 100,000.- 000 people, covers some 248,000 square miles. The standard dialect is the Br.ij Bhnsha, spoken in the districts of Delhi, Agra, and JIathura, Hin- dustani abounds in Turkish, Arabic, and Per- sian words, as well as in numerous borrowings from Dravidian and Kolarian dialects. In this form it is called Urdu, which in Turkish signi- fies 'camp.' This term is a relic of the Moham- medan invasions of the countri- around Delhi in the twelfth century, when conquerors and con- quered sought to find a speech which they might each understand. During the nineteenth century- the vocabulary of the language was purified to a great extent of the foreign element, and the usage of native words as far as possible has since been preferred. Hindustani without these non-Indian importations is called Hindi or High Hindi. In structure the language is analytic. In this it resembles the other modern Indian languages, as well as Persian, and in many respects Eng- lish. It forms cases, tenses, etc., by postpositions, periphrases, and the like. Tluis from ghar, 'house' (Sanskrit grha) , is formed the genitive ghar ki'i. ablative ghar se, instrumental ghar ne, while the plural of the same cases is gharOn ka. gharOn se, gharon lie. There are two genders, two numbers, two voices, and nine tenses in common use. e.g. main dekhta 'I see,' main dekhta hun 'I am see- ing,' main dekhunga 'I am going to see,' tnain ne