Apakarşa is the counterpart to utkarşa, denoting lowering or diminution of pitch on one vīṇā
"either of the two actions could result in both the changes of pitch. All the same, these constituents are used as inter-changeables in both BrD and NS"
<sup>161</sup>
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
