Gāndharva: The Science of Divine Music

Gāndharva is the divine science of music, named after the gandharvas, the celestial musicians. Chapters 61–62 of the Madhyama Bhāga (middle part) of the Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa explain it step by step. The teaching covers the seven svaras (musical notes) and their divine origins, the three grāmas (parent scales), the twenty-one mūrchanās (melodic frameworks drawn from the grāmas), the forty-five tānas (melodic sequences), the adhishṭhāna devatās (presiding deities) of each mūrchanā, and the alaṅkāras (ornaments).

This account lays the sacred and spiritual foundation of Indian classical music. The Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa gives a very similar teaching, which is described further below.

The Seven Svaras

The basic building blocks of gāndharva are the sapta svaras, the seven main notes:

  1. Shaḍja (Sa): born from six parts (shaṭ means six); this note has the widest resonance
  2. Ṛshabha (Ri): the note of the bull (ṛshabha), resonant and grounded
  3. Gāndhāra (Ga): named after the Gāndhāra region; a deeply thoughtful note
  4. Madhyama (Ma): the middle note, the pivot of the scale
  5. Pañcama (Pa): the fifth, in tune with natural harmonics
  6. Dhaivata (Dha): the sixth step of the scale
  7. Nishāda (Ni): the seventh, the note that completes the scale and reaches toward the octave

The Purāṇa says each svara has a divine origin and links each with particular sounds of creation, beings and lokas (worlds). The calls of certain birds and animals are tied to certain svaras: the peacock cries in Shaḍja, the bull in Ṛshabha, the goat in Gāndhāra, the crane in Madhyama, the kokila (Indian cuckoo) in Pañcama, the frog in Dhaivata and the elephant in Nishāda.

The Three Grāmas

The svaras are arranged into three grāmas, parent scales from which all mūrchanās and tānas come:

  1. Shaḍja-grāma: the scale built on Shaḍja as its base note
  2. Madhyama-grāma: the scale built on Madhyama
  3. Gāndhāra-grāma: the scale built on Gāndhāra; it is divine in nature and is used mainly by the gandharvas in the divine worlds rather than by human musicians

The Gāndhāra-grāma is mainly used in the music of the divine worlds, while the Shaḍja and Madhyama grāmas are the base of human music.

The Twenty-One Mūrchanās

Each grāma gives rise to seven mūrchanās, melodic frameworks made by starting the scale from each note in turn. Three grāmas times seven gives twenty-one mūrchanās in all.

  • From the Shaḍja-grāma: Uttaramandrā, Revatī, Uttarāyatā, Śuddhashaḍjā, Matsarīkṛtā, Aśvakrāntā, Abhirudgatā
  • From the Madhyama-grāma: Sauvīrī, Hariṇāśvā, Kalopanatā, Śuddhamadhyā, Mārgavī, Pauravī, Hṛshyakā
  • From the Gāndhāra-grāma: seven more mūrchanās with divine names, used in the gandharva-loka (world of the gandharvas)

Each mūrchanā has its own adhishṭhāna devatā, a presiding deity who governs its particular quality, feeling and use in ritual.

The Forty-Five Tānas

From the twenty-one mūrchanās come forty-five tānas, particular melodic sequences or patterns used in performance. The tānas are the practical use of the mūrchanā frameworks. They are the ways music is actually expressed in different moods and ritual settings.

Alaṅkāras

The Purāṇa also describes the alaṅkāras, the ornaments added to melodic phrases. These include gamaka (oscillation), āndola (swing), mīṇḍa (glide) and various kinds of grace notes and very fine shifts of pitch. The alaṅkāras are the expressive touches that turn a row of notes into a living, devotional musical phrase.

Music as a Principle of Creation

The Purāṇa sets this whole science within the frame of creation itself. Gāndharva is not only a performing art. It is a sacred science rooted in the vibration from which creation is made. The svaras match energies of the universe, and the grāmas match its frameworks. Perfect musical expression is a kind of yajña (sacred offering): an offering of sound that brings the performer into harmony with the order of the universe. The gandharvas, the divine musicians of the divine worlds, were the first to practise this science and are its keepers. By placing this teaching among the great family lines and accounts of creation in its Madhyama Bhāga, the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa shows how sacred music is in the Purāṇic view.

The Story of Kakudmī and Revatī

The music teaching of Chapters 61–62 is set within the story of Kakudmī (also called Raivata), the king who took his daughter Revatī to Brahmaloka, the world of Brahmā, to find her a worthy husband. While they waited in Brahmā’s court listening to a musical performance, many yugas (ages) passed on earth. Kakudmī put forward his daughter’s hoped-for suitors, but found that all of them had died over the generations. Brahmā told him to give Revatī to Balarāma, the great hero of the present Dvāpara Yuga. Kakudmī returned to earth and gave Revatī in marriage to Balarāma. This story shows that how we feel time depends on the awareness of the one who experiences it, and that divine music can so absorb the mind that vast spans of time pass without notice.

The Account in the Vāyu Purāṇa

The Uttarārdha (later part) of the Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa has a chapter called Vaivasvata-Manvantara-Vaṃśa-Gāndharva-Mūrchanā-Lakshaṇa-Kathana. It covers the science of divine music in a way very close to the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa. It uses the same setting of Kakudmī and Revatī: Kakudmī took Revatī to Brahmaloka to find her a worthy husband, and while he listened to a gandharva performance in Brahmā’s court, many yugas passed on earth. Brahmā told him to give Revatī to Balarāma. The music teaching sits inside this story as the tradition’s explanation of why time passed so strangely in Brahmaloka: gāndharva, divine music, is itself a reality of the universe that works outside ordinary time.

The Musical Framework

The Vāyu Purāṇa gives the same basic structure: seven svaras (Shaḍja, Ṛshabha, Gāndhāra, Madhyama, Pañcama, Dhaivata and Nishāda), three grāmas, twenty-one mūrchanās and forty-nine tālas. It names the three grāmas as the Madhyama-grāma, Shaḍja-grāma and Gāndhāra-grāma, and gives the number of mūrchanā varieties in each: twenty in the Madhyama-grāma, fourteen in the Shaḍja-grāma and fifteen in the Gāndhāra-grāma. Together these make up the classical twenty-one main mūrchanās along with their regional variants.

The Devatās of the Mūrchanās

Each mūrchanā has its own presiding deity. Among those the Vāyu Purāṇa names are:

  • Indra: the Hariṇāśvā mūrchanā
  • Vāyu: the Kala (fourth) mūrchanā
  • Gandharva: Śuddha-Madhyamā
  • Mṛgendra: the Mārgī mūrchanā
  • Dhruva: Uttara-Mandrā
  • The Pitṛs (ancestors): a mūrchanā linked with śrāddha (rites for the ancestors)
  • Agni: Śuddha-Shaḍjā and another Gāndhāra mūrchanā
  • Varuṇa: the Nāga mūrchanā
  • Garuḍa and the birds: the Kinnara mūrchanā
  • The Vasus: Uttara-Gāndhārī
  • Brahmā: Sauvīrī or Gāndhārī

This full matching of devatās to mūrchanās shows that gāndharva is a sacred science in which each mode calls upon a particular divine power.

The Mūrchanās of the Gāndhāra-Grāma

The Vāyu Purāṇa names the fifteen Gāndhāra-grāma mūrchanās after yajñas (fire offerings) and themes of the universe. The names it gives are: Agnishṭomikā, Vājapeyikā, Pauṇḍrakā, Āśvamedhikā, Rājasūyakā, Cakra-suvarṇakā, Gosavā, Mahāvṛshṭikā, Brahmadānā, Prājāpatyā, Nāgapakshāśrayā, Gotarā, Hayakrāntā, Mṛgakrāntā, Vishṇukrāntā, Sūryakrāntā, Sāvitrā, Ardhasāvitrā, Sarvatobhadrā, Suvarṇā, Sutandrā, Vishṇu and Vaishṇavara (two), Sāgarā and Vijayā. The Haṃsa mūrchanā is named as the foremost of the Gāndhāra-grāma. It is dear to Tumburu, Nārada and Bhārgava (Śukrācārya).

The Thirty Ornaments of Song

The Gīta-alaṅkāra section of the Vāyu Purāṇa describes thirty ornaments (alaṅkāras) of music, listed according to the teachings of the Pūrvācāryas (the earlier teachers). The four basic kinds of ornament are Sthāpanī, Kramarejana, Pramāda and Apramāda. The ornaments are produced at three places of resonance in the body: the chest (uras), the throat (kaṇṭha) and the head (śiras). These are the three main places where the notes are formed. The Purāṇa adds that ornaments placed wrongly, against the body’s natural places of resonance, are like jewellery worn on the wrong limbs: they spoil rather than beautify. It lists thirty alaṅkāras in order, among them Sthāpana, Śyena, Bindu, Pushkala, Prakshipta, Vrāsita, Ākshepa, Preṅkholita (svara-samanvita) and Makshiprachedana (catushkala).

Sources

  • Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapters 61–62
  • Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Vaivasvata-Manvantara-Vaṃśa section (Gāndharva-Mūrchanā-Lakshaṇa-Kathana)
  • Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Gīta-alaṅkāra-nirdeśa section