Svara

This article is about a concept in Indian classical music. For other uses, seeSwara (disambiguation).

Svara(Sanskrit:स्वरsvara) is a word that connotes simultaneously a breath, a vowel, the sound of a musical note corresponding to its name, and the successive steps of theoctaveorsaptaka.More comprehensively, it is the ancient Indian concept about the complete dimension of musical pitch.Most of the time asvarais identified as both musical note and tone, but a tone is a precise substitute forsur,related to tunefulness. Traditionally, Indians have just sevensvaras/notes with short names, e.g. saa, re/ri, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni which Indian musicians collectively designate assaptakorsaptaka.It is one of the reasons whysvarais considered a symbolic expression for the number seven.

Origins and history

Etymology

The wordsvara(Sanskrit:स्वर) is derived from the rootsvrwhich means "to sound".To be precise, thesvarais defined in the Sanskritniruktasystem as:

• svaryate iti svarah(स्वर्यते इति स्वरः, does breathing, shines, makes sound),
• svayam raajate iti svarah(स्वयं राजते इति स्वरः, appears on its own) and
• sva ranjayati iti svarah(स्व रञ्जयति इति स्वरः, that which colours itself in terms of appealing sound).

TheKannadawordsvaraandTamilAlpha bet or lettersuramdo not represent a sound, but rather more generally theplace of articulation(PoA) (பிறப்பிடம்), where one generates a sound, and the sounds made there can vary in pitch.

In theVedas

See also:Vedic accentandShiksha

The word is found in the Vedic literature, particularly theSamaveda,where it means accent and tone, or a musical note, depending on the context. The discussion there focusses on three accent pitch or levels:svarita(sounded, circumflex normal),udatta(high, raised) andanudatta(low, not raised). However, scholars question whether the singing of hymns and chants were always limited to three tones during the Vedic era.

In the general sensesvarameans tone, and applies to chanting and singing. The basic svaras of Vedic chanting areudatta,anudattaandsvarita.Vedic music hasmadhyamaormaas principal note so that tonal movement is possible towards lower and higher pitches, thusmais taken for granted as fixed in any tonal music (madhyama avilopi,मध्यम अविलोपी).

One-svaraVedic singing is calledaarchikachanting, e.g. in chanting the following texts on one note:

• aum aum aum / om om om
• hari om tatsat
• shivoham shivoham
• raam raam raam raam
• raadhe raadhe
• siyaa-raam siyaa-raam

or the like. Two-svaraVedic singing is calledgaathikachanting, e.g. in chanting the following text on two notes:

	om	shaan-	tih,	om	shaan-	tih,	om	shaan-	tih,...
	M	M----	P-M,	M	M----	P-M,	M	M----	P-M,...	or
	P	P----	D-P,	P	P----	D-P,	P	P----	D-P,...	or
	S	S----	R-S,	S	S----	R-S,	S	S----	R-S,...

The musical octave is said to have evolved from the elaborate and elongated chants of theSamaveda,based on these basic svaras.Sikshais the subject that deals with phonetics and pronunciation.Naradiya Sikshaelaborates the nature of svaras, both Vedic chants and the octave.

In theUpaniṣads

The word also appears in theUpanishads.For example, it appears inJaiminiya Upanishad Brahmanasection 111.33, where the cyclic rise and setting of sun and world, is referred to as "the music of spheres", and the sun is stated to be "humming the wheel of the world".According toAnanda Coomaraswamy,the roots "svar",meaning" to shine "(whence"surya"or sun), and"svr",meaning" to sound or resound "(whence"svara",“musical note” ) and also in some contexts "to shine", are all related in the ancient Indian imagination.

InŚāstraliterature

Thesvaraconcept is found in Chapter 28 of the ancientNatya Shastra,estimated to have been completed between 200 BCE to 200 CE.It names the unit of tonal measurement or audible unit theśruti,with verse 28.21 introducing the musical scale as follows:

तत्र स्वराः –
षड्‍जश्‍च ऋषभश्‍चैव गान्धारो मध्यमस्तथा ।
पञ्‍चमो धैवतश्‍चैव सप्तमोऽथ निषादवान् ॥२१॥
| नत्य शास्त्र | २८.२१ |

tatra svarāḥ –
ṣaḍ‍jaś‍ca ṛṣabhaś‍caiva gāndhāro madhyamastathā ।
pañ‍camo dhaivataś‍caiva saptamo'tha niṣādavān ॥21॥

Natya Shastra– 28.21

This text contains the modern names:

[Here are the]swaras -
Shadja, Rishabha, Gandhara, Madhyama,
Panchama, Dhaivata, [and seventh] Nishada.

These seven svaras are shared by both majorragasystems ofIndian classical music,that is the North Indian (Hindustani) and South Indian (Carnatic).

Sevensvaras and solfège (sargam)

Further information:Saptak,Sargam (music),andGlossary of Carnatic music § Swarams

Sapta svara,also calledsapta swaraorsapta sur,refers to the seven distinct notes of theoctaveor the seven successivesvaras of asaptak.Thesapta svaracan be collectively referred to as thesargam(which is an acronym of the consonants of the first foursvaras).Sargamis the Indian equivalent tosolfège,a technique for the teaching ofsight-singing.As in Western moveable-Do solfège, thesvaraSa is thetonicof a piece or scale.The sevensvaras of thesaptakare the fundamentals ofheptatonic scalesormelakartaragas andthaats in Carnatic and Hindustani classical music.

The sevensvaraareShadja(षड्ज),Rishabh(ऋषभ),Gandhar(गान्धार),Madhyam(मध्यम),Pancham(पंचम),Dhaivat(धैवत) andNishad(निषाद).Thesvaras of thesargamare often learnt in abbreviated form:sā, ri(Carnatic) orre(Hindustani),ga, ma, pa, dha, ni.Of these, the firstsvarathat is"sa",and the fifth svara that is"pa",are considered anchors (achal svaras) that are unalterable, while the remaining have flavours (komalandtivrasvaras) that differs between the two major systems.

Svara inNorth Indian systemofraga()

Svara (Long)	Shadja (षड्ज)	Rishabh (ऋषभ)	Gandhar (गान्धार)	Madhyam (मध्यम)	Pancham (पंचम)	Dhaivat (धैवत)	Nishad (निषाद)
Svara (Short)	Sa (सा)	Re (रे)	Ga (गा)	Ma (म)	Pa (प)	Dha (ध)	Ni (नि)
12 Varieties(names)	C (shadja)	D♭(komal re) D (shuddha re)	E♭(komal gā) E (shuddha gā)	F (shuddha ma) F♯(teevra ma)	G (pancham)	A♭(komal dha) A (shuddha dha)	B♭(komal ni) B (shuddha ni)

Svara inSouth Indian systemofraga()

Svara (Long)	Shadja	Rishabha	Gandhara	Madhyama	Panchama	Dhaivata	Nishada
Svara (Short)	Sa	Ri	Ga	Ma	Pa	Dha	Ni
16 Varieties (names)	C (shadja)	D♭(shuddha ri) D♮(chatushruti ri) D♯(shatshruti ri)	E(shuddha gā) E♭(sadharana gā) E♮(antara gā)	F♮(shuddha ma) F♯(prati ma)	G (pancham)	A♭(shuddha dha) A♮(chatushruti dha) A♯(shatshruti dha)	B(shuddha ni) B♭(kaishiki ni) B♮(kakali ni)

Interpretation

North Indian Hindustani music has fixed name of a relative pitch, but South Indian Carnatic music keeps on making interchanges of the names of pitches in case of ri-ga and dha-ni whenever required. Swaras appear in successive steps in anoctave.More comprehensively, svara-graam (scale) is the practical concept of Indian music comprising seven + five= twelve most useful musical pitches.Sage Matanga made a very important statement in his Brihaddeshi some 1500 years ago that:

षड्जादयः स्वराः न भवन्ति

आकारादयः एव स्वराः

Shadja aadayah svaraah na bhavanti

aakar aadayah eva svaraah

i.e. Shadja, Rishabh, Gandhar,... (and their utterance) are not the real svaras but their pronunciation in the form of aa-kar, i-kaar, u-kaar... are the real form of the svaras.

It is said thatShadjais the basicsvarafrom which all the other 6svaras are produced. When we break the wordShadjathen we get, Shad- And -Ja.Shadis 6 andjais 'giving birth' in Indian languages. So basically the translation is:

षड् - 6, ज -जन्म. Therefore, it collectively means giving birth to the other 6 notes of the music.

The absolute frequencies for allsvaras are variable, and are determined relative to thesaptakor octave. E.g. given Sa 240 Hz, Re 270 Hz, Ga 288 Hz, Ma 320 Hz, Pa 360 Hz, Dha 405 Hz, and Ni 432 Hz, then the Sa after the Ni of 432 Hz has a frequency of 480 Hz i.e. double that of the lower octave Sa, and similarly all the other 6 svaras. Considering the Sa of the Madhya Saptak then frequencies of the other svaras will be,

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni
Mandra Saptak: 120 Hz, 135 Hz, 144 Hz, 160 Hz, 180 Hz, 202.5 Hz, 216 Hz.}
Madhya Saptak: 240 Hz, 270 Hz, 288 Hz, 320 Hz, 360 Hz, 405 Hz, 432 Hz.}
Taara Saptak: 480 Hz, 540 Hz, 576 Hz, 640 Hz, 720 Hz, 810 Hz, 864 Hz.}

All the othersvaras exceptShadja(Sa) andPancham(Pa) can bekomalortivrasvaras but Sa and Pa are alwaysshuddha svaras. And hencesvaras Sa and Pa are calledachal svaras,since thesesvaras don't move from their original position.Svaras Ra, Ga, Ma, Dha, Ni are calledchal svaras,since thesesvaras move from their original position.

Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni - Shuddha Svaras
Re, Ga, Dha, Ni - Komal Svaras
Ma -TivraSvaras

Talking aboutShrutisof these Sapta Svaras,

Sa, Ma and Pa have four Shrutis, respectively
Re and Dha have three Shrutis, respectively
Ga and Ni have two Shrutis, respectively

And these all Shrutis add up to 22 Shrutis in total.

Relationship tośruti

Main article:Shruti (music)

Thesvaradiffers slightly from theśruticoncept inIndian music.Both thesvaraand theśrutiare but the sounds of music. According to the music scholars of the distant past, theśrutiis generally understood as a microtone besidesvedaand an ear. In the context of advanced music, aśrutiis the smallest gradation of pitch that ahuman earcan detect and a singer or instrument can produce.There are 22śrutiormicrotonesin asaptakaof Hindustani music but Carnatic music assumes 24śruti.Asvarais a selectedpitchfrom 22śrutis, using several of suchsvaras a musician constructs scales,melodiesandragas. In the presence of a drone-sound of perfectly tunedTanpuras,an idealsvarasounds sweet and appealing to human ear but particularly some 10śrutis of thesaptakasound out of pitch (besuraa) when compared to the very drone. A tuneful and pleasing tone of thesvarais located at a fixed interval but there is no fixed interval defined for two consecutiveśrutis anywhere that can safely and scientifically be used throughout with respect to a perfect drone sound.

Theancient SanskrittextNatya Shastraby Bharata identifies and discusses twenty twoshrutiand seven shuddha and two vikritasvara.The Natya Shastra mentions that in Shadja graama, the svara pairs saa-ma and saa-pa are samvaadi svaras (consonant pair) and are located at the interval of 9 and 13 shruti respectively. Similarly, svara pairs re-dha and ga-ni are samvaadi svara too. Without giving any example of 'a standard measure' or 'equal interval' between two successive shrutis, Bharata declared that saa, ma or pa shall have an interval of 4 shrutis measured from the pitch of the preceding svara, re or dha shall have an interval of 3 shrutis measured from the pitch of the preceding svara and ga or ni shall have an interval of 2 shrutis measured from the pitch of the preceding svara respectively. The following quote explains it all:

चतुश्चतुश्चतुश्चैव षड्जमध्यमपञ्चमाः

द्वे द्वे निषादगान्धारौ त्रिस्त्री ऋषभधैवतौ

Chatush chatush chatushchaiva shadja madhyama panchamaah.

Dve dve nishaada gaandhaarau tristrii rishabha dhaivatau.

Bharata also makes some unscientific and unacceptable observations ignoring practically proven truths likesamvaad(samvaada/ संवाद) or consonance of ma-ni, re-dha, re-pa and ga-ni as each of these svara pairs do not have equal number of shrutis to establish samvaad. In reality, the above-mentioned pairs DO create samvaad or consonances which Bharata did not recognize for unknown reasons. None of the musicologists give in writing the 'practical basis' or technique of ascertaining the ideal tonal gap between the note pairs like saa-re, re-ga, ga-ma, ma-pa, pa-dha, dha-ni, ni-saa* (taar saa) until Sangeet Paarijat of Ahobal (c. 1650). Thesvarastudies in ancient Sanskrit texts include themusical gamutand itstuning,categories ofmelodic modelsand theragacompositions.

Perhaps the greats like Bharata, Sage Matanga and Shaarnga-deva did not know the secret of tuneful tones (up to acceptable level of normal human ear, on the basis of taanpuraa drone) for they do not mention use of drone sound for any of the musical purposes. Most of the practicing musicians knew very well that all the tuneful tones of seven notes could be discovered with the help of the theory of samvaad, in which saa-saa* (*means upper octave), saa-ma and saa-pa play the most crucial role.

Notation and practice

As per the widely usedBhatkhandeSvara Lipi (Bhakthande's Swar Notation script), a dot above a letter (svara symbol) indicates that the note is sung onesaptak(octave) higher, and a dot below indicates one saptak lower.Komalnotes are indicated by an underscore, and thetívraMa has a line on top which can be vertical or horizontal. (Or, if a note with the same name - Sa, for example - is an octave higher than the note represented by S, an apostrophe is placed to the right: S'. If it is an octave lower, the apostrophe is placed to the left: 'S. Apostrophes can be added as necessary to indicate the octave: for example, ``g would be the note komal Ga in the octave two octaves below that which begins on the note S (that is, two octaves below g).) In other words, the basic rule is that the number of dots or apostrophes above or below the svara symbol means the number of times dots or apostrophes, respectively, above or below the corresponding svara in madhya saptak (middle octave).

The basic mode of reference is that which is equivalent to the WesternIonian modeor major scale (calledBilavalthaatin Hindustani music,SankarabharanaminCarnatic). All relationships between pitches follow from this. In any seven-tone mode (starting with S), R, G, D, and N can benatural(shuddha,lit. 'pure') orflat(komal,'soft') but never sharp, and the M can be natural orsharp(teevra) but never flat, making twelve notes as in the Westernchromatic scale.If a svara is not natural (shuddha), a line below a letter indicates that it is flat (komal) and an acute accent above indicates that it is sharp (tīvra,'intense'). Sa and Pa are immovable (once Sa is selected), forming a justperfect fifth.

In some notation systems, the distinction is made with capital and lowercase letters. When abbreviating these tones, the form of the note which is relativelylowerin pitch always uses alowercaseletter, while the form which ishigherin pitch uses anuppercaseletter. SokomalRe/Ri uses the letter r andshuddhaRe/Ri, the letter R, butshuddhaMa uses m because it has a raised form -teevraMa - which uses the letter M. Sa and Pa are always abbreviated as S and P, respectively, since they cannot be altered.

Comparison between Carnatic, Hindustani, and Western Notations

Semitones from Tonic	Carnatic name		Hindustani name		Western note (when thetonic,Sa, isC)
	Full form	Abbreviation	Full form	Abbreviation
0	Ṣaḍjam	Sa	Ṣaḍj	Sa	C
1	Śuddha R̥ṣabham	Ri₁	Kōmal R̥ṣabh	Re	D♭
2	Catuśruti R̥ṣabham	Ri₂	Śuddh R̥ṣabh	Re	D
	Śuddha Gāndhāram	Ga₁			E𝄫
3	Ṣaṭśruti R̥ṣabham	Ri₃	Kōmal Gāndhār	Ga	D♯
	Sādhāraṇa Gāndhāram	Ga₂			E♭
4	Antara Gāndhāram	Ga₃	Śuddh Gāndhār	Ga	E
5	Śuddha Madhyamam	Ma₁	Śuddh Madhyam	Ma	F
6	Prati Madhyamam	Ma₂	Tīvra Madhyam	Ḿa	F♯
7	Pañcamam	Pa	Pañcam	Pa	G
8	Śuddha Dhaivatam	Dha₁	Kōmal Dhaivat	Dha	A♭
9	Catuśruti Dhaivatam	Dha₂	Śuddh Dhaivat	Dha	A
	Śuddha Niṣādam	Ni₁			B𝄫
10	Ṣaṭśruti Dhaivatam	Dha₃	Kōmal Niṣād	Ni	A♯
	Kaiśikī Niṣādam	Ni₂			B♭
11	Kākalī Niṣādam	Ni₃	Śuddh Niṣād	Ni	B

Svaras in Carnatic music

Thesvaras in Carnatic music are slightly different in the twelve-note system. Eachsvarais eitherprakr̥ti(invariant) orvikr̥ti(variable).ṢaḍjamandPañcamamareprakr̥ti svaras, whilstR̥ṣabham,Gāndhāram,Mādhyamam,DhaivatamandNiṣādamarevikr̥ti svaras. Ma has two variants, and each of Ri, Ga, Dha and Ni has three variants. The mnemonic syllables for eachvikṛti svarause the vowels "a", "i" and "u" successively from lowest to highest. For example,r̥ṣabhamhas the three ascending variants "ra", "ri" and "ru", being respectively 1, 2 and 3 semitones above the tonic note,ṣaḍjam.

Position	Svara (स्वर)	Short name	Notation	Mnemonic	Semitones from Sa
1	Ṣaḍjam(षड्जम्)	Sa	S	sa	0
2	Śuddha R̥ṣabham (शुद्ध ऋषभम्)	Ri	R₁	ra	1
3	Catuśruti R̥ṣabham (चतुश्रुति ऋषभम्)	Ri	R₂	ri	2
	Śuddha Gāndhāram (शुद्ध गान्धारम्)	Ga	G₁	ga
4	Ṣaṭśruti R̥ṣabham (षट्श्रुति ऋषभम्)	Ri	R₃	ru	3
	Sādhāraṇa Gāndhāram (साधारण गान्धारम्)	Ga	G₂	gi
5	Antara Gāndhāram (अन्तर गान्धारम्)	Ga	G₃	gu	4
6	Śuddha Madhyamam (शुद्ध मध्यमम्)	Ma	M₁	ma	5
7	Prati Madhyamam (प्रति मध्यमम्)	Ma	M₂	mi	6
8	Pañcamam (पञ्चमम्)	Pa	P	pa	7
9	Śuddha Dhaivatam (शुद्ध धैवतम्)	Dha	D₁	dha	8
10	Catuśruti Dhaivatam (चतुश्रुति धैवतम्)	Dha	D₂	dhi	9
	Śuddha Niṣādam (शुद्ध निषादम्)	Ni	N₁	na
11	Ṣaṭśruti Dhaivatam (षट्श्रुति धैवतम्)	Dha	D₃	dhu	10
	Kaiśikī Niṣādam (कैशिकी निषादम्)	Ni	N₂	ni
12	Kākalī Niṣādam (काकली निषादम्)	Ni	N₃	nu	11

As you can see above,Catuśruti ṚṣabhamandŚuddha Gāndhāramshare the same pitch (3rd key/position). Hence if C is chosen asṢaḍjam,D would be bothCatuśruti R̥ṣabhamandŚuddha Gāndhāram.Hence they will not occur in same rāgam together. Similarly for the two svaras each at pitch positions 4, 10 and 11.

Cultural, spiritual, and religious symbolism

See also:Raga § Rāgas and their symbolism

Throughsvara,Īśvara[God] is realized.

—A proverb among Indian musicians
Translator: Guy Beck

• Eachsvarais associated with the sound produced by a particular animal or a bird, like,
  • Sais said to be sourced from the cry of apeacock,
  • Riis said to be sourced from the lowing of abull,
  • Gais said to be sourced from the bleating of agoat,
  • Mais said to be sourced from call of theheron,
  • Pais said to be sourced from call of thecuckoo,
  • Dhais said to be sourced from the neighing of thehorse,
  • Niis said to be sourced from the trumpeting of theelephant.

So eachsvarais said to be sourced from the sound produced by an animal or a bird.

• Eachsvarais also associated with aclassical planet:
  • Sa –Mercury,
  • Re –Mars,
  • Ga –Sun,
  • Ma –Moon,
  • Pa -Saturn,
  • Dha –Jupiter,
  • Ni -Venus.
• Eachsvarais also associated with a colour:
  • Sa –Green,
  • Re –Red,
  • Ga –Golden,
  • Ma –White,
  • Pa -BlueorBlack,
  • Dha –Yellow,
  • Ni - Multi coloured.
• Eachsvarais also associated with the 7Chakrasin the body:
  • Sa -Muladhara
  • Re -Svadisthana
  • Ga -Manipura
  • Ma -Anahata
  • Pa -Vishuddhi
  • Dha -Ajna
  • Ni -Sahasrara

See also

• Hindustani classical music
• Indian classical dance
• Carnatic music
• Ancient Tamil music
• Gamak
• Raga

Bibliography

• Daniélou, Alain(1949).Northern Indian Music, Volume 1. Theory & technique; Volume 2. The main rāgǎs.London: C. Johnson.OCLC851080.
• Randel, Don Michael (2003).The Harvard Dictionary of Music(fourth ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.ISBN978-0-674-01163-2.
• Kaufmann, Walter(1968).The Ragas of North India.Oxford & Indiana University Press.ISBN978-0253347800.OCLC11369.
• Lidova, Natalia (2014).Natyashastra.Oxford Bibliographies Online.doi:10.1093/obo/9780195399318-0071.
• Martinez, José Luiz (2001).Semiosis in Hindustani Music.Motilal Banarsidass.ISBN978-81-208-1801-9.
• Mehta, Tarla (1995).Sanskrit Play Production in Ancient India.Motilal Banarsidass.ISBN978-81-208-1057-0.
• Rowell, Lewis (2015).Music and Musical Thought in Early India.University of Chicago Press.ISBN978-0-226-73034-9.
• Te Nijenhuis, Emmie(1974).Indian Music: History and Structure.BRILL Academic.ISBN90-04-03978-3.
• Titon, Jeff Todd; Cooley; Locke; McAllester; Rasmussen (2008).Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples.Cengage.ISBN978-0-534-59539-5.

Further reading

• Mathieu, W. A.(1997).Harmonic Experience: Tonal Harmony from Its Natural Origins to Its Modern Expression.Inner Traditions Intl Ltd.ISBN0-89281-560-4.An auto didactic ear-training and sight-singing book that uses singing sargam syllables over a drone in a just intonation system based on perfect fifths and major thirds.

External links

• North India Sargam Notation System
• soundofindia Article on vivadi svaras, by Haresh Bakshi
• The twelve notes in an octave in Indian classical music