WHEN GODS SING :
How mythology marks Indian music
The links between music and divinity are well documented and commonly experienced . Dionysus ’ maenads fell into devotional trances of ritual madness to the beat of wine and sounds crafted to simulate ecstasy . Rumi created the Whirling Dervishes , the Roman Catholic Church has the sacred song of the Gregorian chants while Milan offers benediction in the form of the Ambrosian chant .
Unsurprisingly , India ’ s mythological framework is heavily entwined with musical association and symbology . Innumerable figures of legend have themselves defined by their musical prowess , and have wielded it to orchestrate events of cosmic importance .
Sangeet or sangita is spoken of not as a consequence of human imagination , but a gift from the gods . Outlined most poetically in Bharata Muni ’ s Natya-Shashtra , an ancient , comprehensive treatise on art , the tale recalls a time when humans took to evil , uncivilised ways and the earth was plagued by the cavortings of demons , yakshas and other devilry . The gods requested Brahma to offer humans a distraction ( Kridaniyaka ) to arrest their attention and turn them from their fallen ways . In response , mankind was given the secrets of sangeet .
Since music had always been the prerogative of the gandharvas , it required a man of great skill and spiritual ability to receive such knowledge and disseminate it . It fell to the sage Narada , and to him is existence indebted to for Indian classical music .
Alain Daneliou , possibly the first European to proclaim himself a Hindu and instrumental in introducing Indian classical music to the West wrote “ The hymns of the Rig Veda contain the earliest examples of words set to music , and by the time of the Sama Veda a complicated system of chanting had been developed . By the time of the Yajur Veda , a variety of professional musicians had appeared , such as lute players , drummers , flute players , and conch blowers ”. Worship is often accompanied by the sounds of auspicious bells ( ghanta ) and conch shells ( sankha ).
At the heart of the universe vibrates the sacred syllable “ Om ” - conveying the hum of the spheres and the rhythm of the primal energy that binds existence . Nataraja , the avatar of Shiva that performs the ecstatic dance of Tandavam is said to have created sangita as he danced to maintain the cycle of creation , preservation and destruction . Supposedly , it was Tandu , attendant to Bhairava who , on his Lord ’ s command , instructed Bharat in his composition of the Natya-Shashtra .
From each of Shiva ’ s five mouths , it is said , emerged the first five ragas with the sixth having created his consort ( and one of many manifestations of the divine feminine ), Parvati . Ragas and raginis are often imbued with divine purpose and origin . For instance , the raag Malkaush emerged from the skills of Parvati in an attempt to calm her husband ’ s unending Tandava .
Many instruments also claim godly merit . Brahma is credited with inventing the first drum ( mrydanga ) from the bloody earth marking his triumph over the demon Tripura . Vishnu , the Preserver , wields a sankha or conch-shell ; from its coils can radiate the fundamental key-note ‘ Om ’. The sankha also carries within it the murmur of the ocean – the womb of all life . Saraswati , deity of knowledge is depicted with the veena . To her is ascribed the creation of the seven-toned scale ( Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni ).
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