What are ‘MURCHANAS’ ?
(Please read this ‘Blog’ in conjunction with ‘Presentation Slides’given at the following link, wherein the details are illustrated with the help of diagrams, to enable better comprehension): https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6Qw6H3PDIHNdEp1Q1cwOHA3dzg
A brief preamble pertaining to the ancient
doctrines of Indian musicology is called for at this stage, in order to orientate
the viewers while appreciating the concept of ‘Murchanas’.
Among
the oldest sacred Scriptures of the Hindus, Holy Sama Veda occupies a pre-eminent
place because its verses are chanted in seven different tones (covering the
entire range of an octave). These seven sacred tones of Sama Veda were
archetypal for ancient music of India
‘Madhyama-grama’ was another similar grouping of seven Notes,
derived from Sadja-grama.
Our ancestors must have realized that by merely
grouping the tones, one can not deliver adequate music power that is needed to suffuse
the human souls with Lord’s Grace! Therefore, a technique was found wherein
these tones were cyclically rearranged to form certain basic melodic sequences,
known as ‘Murchanas’.
‘Murchanas’ differed from one another in terms
of interval-sizes between successive Notes. It was felt that melodic sequences
having different interval-sizes were capable of stirring the ‘moods’ (such
as joy, pathos, love etc) of the audience, for some inexplicable reasons. This
thematic approach towards murchanas was somewhat similar to the ancient Greek
approach towards early ‘modal music’. The technique developed for the
innovation of melodic sequences by the ancient musicologists of India
In my earlier blogs,
I have endeavoured to convey that the intervals between successive Notes as
quantified by ‘ancient Indian traditions’ pertaining to ‘Sadja grama’ and
‘Madhyama grama’, were “rounded off values”
of the corresponding Sumerian ‘god-fractions’. Please see the following ‘Blogs’
and ‘Presentation Slides’ for details:
As a minor deviation from ‘established
traditions’, I attempted to formulate a new ‘Construct’ for the two gramas, by substituting
the actual mathematical values for the intervals between ‘Notes’ (instead
of the traditional manner of using only the “rounded off values”). With these two modified gramas as the basis, I
attempted to reconstruct all the 14 murchanas, after duly complying with every other
condition as stipulated by ‘established traditions’. This led me towards a total paradigm shift! I observed that these
14 new murchanas actually contained the entire family of 22 Sumerian
‘god-fractions’, subtly embedded within; very
amazing indeed!
As I started
mulling over the outcome of my experiments, I could gradually figure out a sort
of a grand design exercise innovated by some ‘master
hand’ during a pre-historic past! This master designer had
meticulously ‘encoded’ and ‘seeded’ these 22 ‘god-fractions’ of Sumeria, in a
very distributed manner in the two ‘gramas’ and 14 ‘murchanas’ of the ancient
Indian traditions. They had also given out the ‘keys’ (i.e. formulae) as to how
these ‘god-fractions’ could be retrieved from their ‘quiescent profiles’! I
became suddenly aware that I was getting confronted with some kind of ‘super-knowledge’, not encountered till now!
I could now
rationalize somewhat better: -
·
The ‘master hand’ that
conceived the design of our ancient music ‘intended’
that the ‘22 god-fractions’ of Sumeria (also derivable from the Numbers between
‘1’ and ‘12’) should form the true tones
of our music culture.
·
The ‘rounded-off’ values of Notes, as contained
in ancient musicological literature of India
What do we do with these newly
discovered ‘Family of 22 tones’? I have deliberated
on this issue in my blog given at link: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6Qw6H3PDIHNeE1vZGg5UlUxTEk
For more details,
contact me on Teles: 91 20 26729256, 9890266845, 98501 21834. E-mail: snnambirajan@rediffmail.com.
Please visit my Web-site: http://www.22sruti.com/ I would also recommend that for better
comprehension of the concept of ‘Ancient Music of 22 Srutis, the viewers should
peruse my Book: “The Mystic Citadel of 22 Srutis Music” (available at my
postal address: Srinivasan Nambirajan, A-7/ 103, Florida
