All of you must have watched and heard animals and birds singing away. If you have been watching some programs in Animal Planet channel you will find some of them crooning consciously in front of the camera at some time or another. Some of them seem to have the gift for music even as they yodel away. Some others do not sound very musical though they appear very cute!

Have you ever wondered how they will all sound if they plan to sing together? Actually there are some organizations in the world that do conduct programs that involve animals exhibiting their talent for music. If you log on to www.cdbaby .com/singinganimals you can find a whole lot of nursery rhymes and familiar popular songs recorded in the voices of mostly farm animals with a little support from human beings who play on musical instruments.

If you are under the impression that the bond between animals and music is a recent discovery of mankind, you should stand corrected because as Indians you should know that classical Indian music derived its basic notes from the sounds of animals.

If you want to find out more about the origin of Indian music and its link to animals you must take a right about turn and dive deep back into the Vedic times. The Sama Veda one of the four major Vedas is dedicated to arts of both performing and non-performing varieties. A study of this Veda will reveal that all forms of arts found their inspiration from nature including music.  

Just like you have to master the alphabet when you try to learn a new language and numbers when you try to improve your numerical skills it is important to learn the seven basic notes to grapple the rudiments of Indian classical music whether it belongs to the genre of Hindustani or Karnatic music. Most of you may be aware that Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha and Ni are the basic notes known as Swaras which have to be mastered by a learner.

It will be interesting to know the story behind these Swaras. Hindu mythology has recognised the cries of
animals and birds and has placed them in a pattern to form the octave. It has been observed that the first note called Shadja (Sa) matches with the cry of peacock; Rishaba (Ri) represents the sound made by a bull; Gandhara (Ga) resemble the bleat of a goat; while  Madhyama (Ma), reminds one of the cry of the heron, Panchama (Pa), is the celebrated note of the celebrated Cuckoo which caught the fancy of William Wordsworth; the note Dhaivata (Dha)  does not differ from the neighing of the horse; even as Nishada (Ni), sounds like the
trumpeting of an elephant. Initially the Swaras were referred to as Shadja, Rishaba, Gandhara, Madhyama, Panchama, Dhaivata, and Nishada in their full forms. As time passed people found it difficult to enunciate the names in their original form so they  abbreviated them as Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha and Ni  respectively.  The spacing of the Swaras results in a very pleasant sounding octave which has been used extensively in the field of music with umpteen numbers of variations which perhaps have been inspired from the cries of other animals and birds.

The learners of Western classical music will also realise that the primary notes of this system of music, do, re, me, fa, sol, la, ti also ascend on more or less a similar scale. It is quite possible that they could have derived these sounds from their local animals in the very beginning of time.

Today music has gone the electronic way and there are infinite variations across the globe but everyone of them have their roots in some basic sounds ---made by animals and birds. It is high time we stop pretending that we are more elevated and cultured than mere animals and give them their due! What say you?