Abstract Details
| Name: Indulekha Kavila Affiliation: Mahatma Gandhi University Conference ID: ASI2025_736 Title : 22 Srutis: Indian Scientific Music and Extended Chords for the Sonification of Astronomical Data Authors and Co-Authors : Indulekha Kavila Abstract Type : Poster Abstract Category : Education, Outreach and Heritage Abstract : The ancient Indian theory of ragas (melodic structures) are built on what are called srutis, with 2/3/4 sruti tones and twenty-two srutis to the octave. Knowledge was both written down as well as orally transmitted in the tradition, since, presumably, written material does not survive for long in the hot, tropical climate; for the convenience of memorization information encoding was extensively used, necessitating explanations for deciphering and getting an understanding of the information content, which was transmitted in an unbroken chain called the guru-ziSya-paramparA. However, under invasions and/or infusions extending over a millennium, the chain was broken and, first North India and, in the period 1300-1400 CE, South India lost the link between practice and theory. gItagovindam (12th c. CE) is the last composition sung in the same fashion all over India. Over the last few centuries, several scholars have attempted to decipher the 22 sruti theory of melody. The notion of consonance is one of the guiding principles that has been applied for the purpose. Consonance is also the principle behind considering harmony as an essential component for enriching melody, as developed over two-and-a-half centuries in Western Europe starting from the Renaissance. Here, we examine information on the 22 srutis, that is available in the texts and present a systematic method for generating extended chords suitable for the sonification of astronomical data. |