Part 1 - English

I intend to run this blog as a dual one in Marathi and English alternately instead of running two different blogs. Following is a rather free translation of the first post. I hope my non-Marathi friends will appreciate it. Comments are invited from readers of both versions.
For many years I had an interest in the subject of 22 shrutis in Indian Music. Music and Ayurved are two subjects of everyday interest in which India has always been self –dependent. The concept of 22 shrutis or swaras in one Octave is a purely Indian concept which has NO foreign origins. Right from Bharatamuni’s Natyashastra the concept is referred and explained and elaborated in many treatises. The mathematical concepts behind it are however not clearly defined. The principle that the Measure of a Swara is its frequency of vibration has not been stated unequivocally as far as I know. That the note produced by a wire stretched between two fixed ends will depend on the size or weight of the wire, the length of the wire and the ‘pull’ on it, was also clearly known to our ancestors. Increase the length and the note becomes lower, increase the pull and the note rises, was also obviously known to them. The exact mathematical formula linking the three factors was probably not known to them. No doubt, the science behind the Art form of Music has developed together with Music itself. It is not possible to trace all the steps in the dual progress. The concept of Octave comprising lower and upper Shadja and six notes between them must have formulated first. The knowledge that there are many notes between the seven notes of an Octave and that many of them make good music must be the next step on the road of development of the art and science of Music.