Sur, swaras and animals

Katherine Schofield is a historian of music and listening in Mughal India and the paracolonial Indian Ocean. She trained as a viola player before embarking on her PhD at SOAS, University of London, and came to King’s after a research fellowship at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and a lectureship at Leeds. In this short essay she shows, beautifully, marrying her knowledge of Indian classical music and art, how each swara or note, seven in all, interrelate to cries of animals. Sur is a musical sound made up of swaras (derived from the Sanskrit ‘swar’ or note). Watch this story on our video channel here.

Akbar watching as Tansen receives a lesson from Swami Haridas. Imaginary situation depicted in Mughal miniature painting (Rajasthani style, c. 1750 AD).

This is thread about the animals whose cries give voice to the 7 swaras of the Indian scale, accompanied by paintings.

We begin with Sa, the system tonic, whose sound is the cry of the peacock in the monsoon. This lovely one’s from the 16 century (‘c’) Deccan:

Peacock: Peacock in a Rainstorm at Night, late 16th century. India, Northern Deccan. Private Collection, London. Photograph published in Navina Najat Haider & Marika Sardar, eds., Sultans of Deccan India 1500–1700: Opulence and Fantasy (NYC: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015), p. 61

Next we have Re, the second scale degree, whose sound is the lowing of the ox. This is one of my favourite paintings of Nandi, the bull. Chamba, c. 1780–90.

Nandi: Shiva and Parvati riding their vehicles Nandi the Bull and the Devi’s Lion, Chamba, c. 1780–90. Sold by Francesca Galloway, London.

Ga, the third scale degree, is the braying of the goat! This one is from James Skinner’s Tashrih al-Aqwam, Delhi 1825, and is an illustration on his entry on the maimun-wala, the monkey trainer.

Goat: James Skinner, Tashrih al-Aqwam (Delhi 1825). British Library, London, Add 27,255.

Ma, the fourth scale degree, is the sound of the sarus crane, the tallest of the wetland birds who heralds the coming of the rainy season. This is Shaikh Zainuddin’s sarus crane, from his album for Lady Impey.

Sarus Crane: Shaikh Zainuddin, for Lady Impey. Calcutta, c. 1780. Radcliffe Science Library, University of Oxford.

Pa, the fifth, is the koel, the Asian koel, burnt black with sorrow, whose cry is that of the lover separated from her beloved. This is an illustration from the Baburnama, The British Library…