32 - Discourses on Tantra Volume One

Chapter 11

The Acoustic Roots of the Indo-Aryan Alphabet (2)

Á

The sound á is the acoustic root of rśabha, the second musical note. This acoustic root directly controls rśabha and indirectly controls gándhára (gá), madhyama (má), paiṋcama (pá), dhaevata (dhá) and niśáda (ni). In the Vedas other than the Rgveda, we usually come across komala [soft] ni and sádhárańa [ordinary] ni. In the older portions of the Rgveda, kad́ii [hard or high-pitched] ni was used. It could be uttered with both sides of the uvula. The seven Vedic and Tantric notes, the seven Vedic metres and the two bhávátmaka svara [spiritual sounds] constitute the sixteen prominent sounds which in Indo-Aryan phonetics are known as śod́asha dhvanikalá [the “sixteen sounds” of Brahmavidyá – intuitional science – and gandharvavidyá – the science of music]. These musical notes were used in music and incantation in different combinations according to the waxing and waning of the moon and according to the time of day or night. Accordingly, a specific period of the month and time of the day was fixed for the performance of each rága and ráginii.

I

Each of the letters of the Indo-Aryan alphabet, from a to kśa, is an acoustic root. That is, these fifty sounds are the vibrations corresponding to the colours of the fifty propensities. The third letter of the alphabet, i, is the acoustic root of gándhára (gá). It directly controls gándhára and indirectly controls madhyama (má), paiṋcama (pá), dhaevata (dhá) and niśáda (ni).

II

The sound ii is the acoustic root of the fourth note of the surasaptaka, madhyama (má). This sound directly controls madhyama, and indirectly controls paiṋcama (pá), dhaevata (dhá), and niśáda (ni). In ancient times, the very prolonged pluta ii was used in musical notation to denote kad́ii [hard or high-pitched] má, but in modern languages there is no separate letter for pluta ii.

U

The short u sound is the acoustic root of paiṋcama (pá), the fifth musical note. This sound directly controls paiṋcama (pá), and indirectly controls dhaevata (dhá) and niśáda (ni).

Ú

The long ú sound is the acoustic root of the sixth musical note, dhaevata (dhá). It directly controls dhaevata (dhá), and indirectly controls niśáda (ni).

R

The r sound is the seventh letter and seventh vowel of Southeast Asian alphabets, as well as of the Indo-Aryan alphabet. It is the acoustic root of the seventh musical note niśáda (ni). Niśáda is derived as follows: ni – sad + ghaiṋ. A sa sound occurring in any root-verb after the prefix ni may be changed into the letter śa, that is, nisáda and niśáda are both permissible. Similarly, upaniśad and upanisad are equally correct. But in Bengali there is a convention of using śa in such spellings. Now, if niśáda is written with śa, then both the Rgvedic and Yajurvedic pronunciations must be accepted.(6) Of course singers singing scales need not utter the complete word niśáda, but only ni.

The sound r directly controls the seventh musical note, niśáda. As it is a half-letter [has no vowel sound],(7) designated as such [in the Bengali alphabet] with a hasanta diacritical mark ( ্),(8) it does not directly control any other sound.