of the Hindu s. 83 



•nation of a Scotch gentleman (killed in mufick, that the wild, but charming,, 

 'melodies of the ancient Highlanders were formed by a fimilar mutilation of 

 the natural fcale. By fuch mutilations, and by various alterations of the 

 -notes in tuning the Vinci, the number of modes might be augmented inde* 

 finitely; and Callina't'ha,. admits ninety into his fyflem, allowing/* 

 nymphs, inflead of five, to each of his mufical deities : for Dipaca, which 

 is generally considered as a loft mode, (though Mi'rza'kka n exhibits the 

 :notes of it) he fubftitutes Panchama ; for Hindola, he gives us Vafanta, or 

 ?thc Spring; and for Mdlava, Natandrdyan or Crishna the Dancer; all 

 with fcales rather different from thofe of Pa'van. The fyftem of Iswara, 

 which may have had fome affinity with the old Egyptian mufick invented or 

 improved by Osiris, nearly rcfembles that of Hanumat ; but the names 

 .and fcales are a little varied: in all the fyftem s, the names of the modes 

 are fignfficant, and fome of them as fanciful as thofe of the fairies in the 

 'Midfummer Night's Dream. Forty-eight new modes were added by Bhe- 

 rat, who marrie s a nymph, thence called Bharya, to each Putm, or Son, 

 of a Rdga ; thus admitting, in his mufical fchool, an hundred and thirty-two 

 warmers of. arranging the feries of notes. 



Had the Indian empire continued in full energy for the laft. two thoufand 

 years, religion would, no doubt, have given permanence to fyftems of 

 mufick invented, as the Hindus believe, by their Gods, and adapted to 

 ■rnyfriau poetry : but fuch have been the revolutions of their government 

 "fincc the time of Alexander, that, although the Sanfcrfc. books have pre- 

 served the theory of their mufical x:ompofttion, the practice of it feems al- 

 y lofl (as all the Pandits and Rcjas confefs) in Gaur and Maga« 

 ivince.s of Bengal and Lcbar. When I fi rft read the fongs 

 or J..YAULVA, who has prefixed ' to each of them the name of the mode, 



L % 



