OF THE HINDUS. 46f 



t^F the notes and S'ruiis I have spoken above. I 

 shall now endeavour to explain what these Miirchhanas 

 are ; or rather what I conceive them to be. Each 

 QfcDna is said to contain seven Miirchhanas : hence they 

 reckon twenty-one in all. 



Sir W. Jones says they appear to be no more than 

 -seven pieces of diapason multiplied by three, accord- 

 ing to the ditfcrcnce of pitch in the compass of three 

 o6taves *. But the JMih-chhanas are described to be the 

 seven notes, each arranged in its proper station in the 

 scale, which renders them fit to be applied in the com- 

 position of the Kagas, &c. Ii appears to me therefore, 

 ■^hat they are the intervals of each Grama, which I 

 would arrange as follows. 



The Sliadjd Grama is composed of two disjunct but: 

 perfectly similar Tetrachuras, separated by a major 

 tone, and hoxh. Tetr a chord s have a major third; the 

 Murchhanas of this Grama I suppose to be 



1st. from Sa to Ki 1 1st. 2d. 



2d. Sa to Ga > 1st. 3d. 



3d. Sa to Ma j 1st. 4th. 



4th. from Pa to Dhal 2d. 2d. 



5th. Pa to Ni >2d. 3d. 



(3th. Pu to Sa J 2d. 4th. 



7th. Pa to Sa 8 octave. 



* In citing a passage from the E./ick Poem on the death ofSisu* 

 I'ALA, whicli is entided AL'^ha, Sir W. Jonts translated Mursh- 

 hana, " musical interval." (See As. Res. vol. 1st, p. 265.) He 

 atterwa.ds gave a different interpretation of it, (vol. 3d. p. 71,) as 

 slated in the text. In his version (-f that passage, Sir W. Jones 

 mistook the ii.eaning of the term Sruti^ (which is there translated 

 ear, instead of quarcer tone,) hut ht- has riglitly explained it in his 

 treatise on '.he musical mcdes oi the Hindus. H. T. C. 



