The Nyaya school believed that sound waves originated in akasa (ether) and not in air. Vacaspati Misra and others held that sound was not to be understood as a kind of motion since akasa was niskriya (incapable of motion). Prastapada hypothesized that sound was borne by air in increasing circles, similar to the movement of ripples in water. Gangesa (AD fourteenth century) in his Tattva-cintamani, believed that airwaves carried sound. The Mimamsaka school held that sound itself and its travel was the result of the condensation and rarefaction of air molecules.

The intensity and timbre of sound was seen as varied and a consequence of the varying kampasantana-samskara (vibrations) of air molecules.

Sound had its own reflection - pratidhvani (echo).

Musical pitches (sruti) were seen as caused by momentum and frequency of vibrations. A svara (tone) was believed to consist of a sruti (fundamental tone) and some anuranana (partial tones or harmonics). The relationship between sruti and svara can be understood as - parinama (nodal change), vyanjana (manifestation), jativyaktyoriva tadatmyam (genus and species), vivartana (reflection), and karyakaranabhava (cause and effect).

 

SOURCES :

The Cultural Heritage of India
Editors - Priyadaranjan Ray & S.N. Sen
Publishers - The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture

History of Science & Technology in India
Editors - G. Kuppuram & K. Kumudamami
Publishers - Sundeep Prakashan

Concise Encyclopedia of Science and Technology
Publishers - McGraw-Hill.

Masters of the Millennium - 100 Indians who shaped the century
Publishers - The Sunday Observer (special edition).

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