farthings of English money, some betel-nut, and rice, and presented them to the schoolmaster with his son. In India wooden tablets painted black are employed in teaching children the letters of their language. The schoolmaster writes the letters with a kind of liquid chalk on the tablet; and the children repeat their names aloud with much noise and energy. The schoolmaster wrote the alphabet for Nanak, and the latter copied it from memory after one day.
It is said that on that occasion the young Guru made an acrostic on his alphabet. As in similar compositions in other languages, the letters were taken consecutively, and words whose initials they formed were employed to give metrical expression to the Guru's divine aspirations, his tenets, and his admiration of the attributes of the Creator.
The acrostic called the patti or tablet in the Rag[1] Asa is as follows :—
S.The one Lord who created the world is the Lord of all.
Fortunate is their advent into the world, whose hearts remain attached to God's service.
O foolish man, why hast thou forgotten Him?
When thou adjustest thine account, my friend, thou shalt be deemed educated.
I.The Primal Being is the Giver; He alone is true.
No account shall be due by the pious man who understandeth by means of these letters.
- ↑ Indian writers enumerate six principal Rāgs or musical measures, namely, Sri Rāg, Bhairav, Mālkhaus, Hindol, Dīpak, and Megh. To these are allotted 'wives' and 'sons', which are modifications of the principal airs, and are often sung differently in different provinces of India. The hymns of the Granth Sāhib were composed to as many as thirty-one musical measures, the names of which are as follows :— Sri Rāg, Mājh, Gauri, Āsa, Gūjari, Devagandhāri, Bihāgra, Wadhans, Sorath, Dhanāsari, Jaitsari, Todi, Bairāri, Tilang, Sūhi, Bilāwal, Gaund, Rāmkali, Nat, Mālīgaura, Māru, Tukhāri, Kedāra, Bhairo, Basant, Sārang, Malār, Kānra, Kaliān, Prabhāti, Jaijāwanti. For further information see Rāja Sir Surindra Mohan Tagore's learned works on Indian music. The Rāgs in European musical notation will be found at the end of the fifth volume of this work.
