mārdava technical_term

75 TRANSLATION - șadja which is higher than nișāda (is subjected to) mārdava or loosening i.e. it is made to attain (the position of) niṣāda; thus is the twofold pravesa i.e. the act of the lower or higher svara being made to 'enter' or merge into the higher or lower svara respectively.42 [ Anu. 49 ] Nigraha is, on the other hand, the omission or 'non-touching' of the immediate svara. The performance or usage is thus - sā sā gari, pā pā mari Similarly has said Bharata - "There is twofold kriyā (lit. performance) of tana on the string (in the viņā); viz. praveša (lit. entering) and 'nigraha' (lit. restraint). Out of these (two), pravesa (takes place) on account of the prakarşa (augmentation) of the lower svara or by the mārdava (lowering) of the higher svara. And nigraha is 'non-touching'." Dattila has also said - There is twofold kniyā (action or performance) of tāna on the string; viz. on account of pravesa and nigraha. Pravesa is the similarity (rather identity) of sound; nigraha on the other hand, is 'non-touching'." [ Dattilam 36] (Anu. 50) But it is said in the prescription of kāku45 that svaras are (to be) performed in the three sthanas (registers). Out of them which heptad of svaras should be resorted to for making murchana? Those who harbour a doubt like this, he (the author) has said unto them - for the sake of the demonstration of mandra (low) and tara (high) the murchanas are indicated in (lit. with) the middle heptad. How? On account of the indestructibility of the middle heptad, this is the purport. Bharata has also said, "on account of the indestructibility of madhyama in nigraha 44 (acceptance in totality) or paryagraha 45 (non-acceptance in totality i.e. partial acceptance), the murchanas are indicated in the madhyama svara of the vina.

¹⁶¹ VIMARŚA commenting on NS XXVIII, 1. He says there that even if an untrained person 'hits' a mūrchita (tuned) vīṇā, the sound produced will be musical (in tune) i.e. svara will be attained. Since the tuning has to take effect only in one of the mūrchanās, the name mūrchanā for tuning is justified. Kālidāsa (Megha. 84) has used the word murchana in the same sense when he says for the Yakşi that again and again she forgets the mūrchanā made by herself. 30. This prescription of establishing the two viņās in sadjagrāma immediately after the mention of murchana appears to be rather queer, but the apparent repetition could be justified if the mention of 'mūrchanā' is taken to refer to equality in tuning, pure and simple and the later mention of sadjagrāma is accepted as the specification of tuning. The construction of the sentence implying that equal tuning is to be done first and then the viņās have to be established in sadjagrāma which itself is a tuning, will have to be ignored as the initial reference to tuning is a part of the general prescription about perfect equality between the two viņās and the second reference relates to special tuning. 31,32. The qualification of śruti as şadjagrāmiki and madhyamagrāmiki could be interpreted in two ways, viz.- (a) 'Sruti' could be taken here as standing for sound in general; accordingly, the total tuning of each grāma could be referred to as śruti in singular number. (b) The interval of sruti perceived through apakarşa (lowering) of pañcama is madhyamagrāmikī śruti and the same interval being perceived through the utkarșa (augmentation) of pañcama is called șadjagrāmiki. It is to be noted that the utkarşa of pañcama is not actual but only 'resultant' because it comes into . being when all the other svaras are lowered in accordance with the lowering of pañcama so that the samvada of şadja-pañcama that was disturbed on account of the lowering of pañcama is restored. 33. In the mention of the restoration of sadjagrāma, the process i.e. the 'utkarşa' (augmentation) of pancama is implicit. In NS (XXVIII, p. 20) it is made explicit by the expression pañcamasyotkarşa-vasat i.e. by reason of the augmentation of pañcama. 34. The idea is that all the svaras on the mobile (cala) viņā are lowered by one śruti, but this process does not prove the interval of any svaras in terms of śruti since there is no svara in this system, that manifests on consecutive śrutis; the gap or interval of one śruti is indispensable. 35. The word 'tadvat' has raised a big controversy among modern scholars. It has been generally interpreted to mean "in the same manner" literally, giving the sense that the second step of this process of demonstration of śrutis has to begin again with the lowering of pañcama. Three opinions are notable in this context. (i) V.N. Bhatkhande (cf. Hindustani Sangita Paddhati, Hindi translation, Vol. IV, p. 37). He has inferred that since all the four steps start with the lowering of pañcama, the value (in pitch) of all the four lowerings is identical and hence all śrutis are identical according to Bharata. (ii) Omkarnath Thakur (cf. Praņava-Bhāratī, p. 61-86) has accepted that all