Editing Musical notation (section)

===India===
{{Main|Swaralipi}}
[[File:Bhat notation1.jpg|thumb|Indian music, early 20th century.]]
The [[Samaveda]] text (1200 BCE – 1000 BCE) contains notated melodies, and these are probably the world's oldest surviving ones.<ref name="brunonettle">Bruno Nettl, Ruth M. Stone, James Porter and Timothy Rice (1999), The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0824049461}}, pages 242–245</ref> The musical notation is written usually immediately above, sometimes within, the line of Samaveda text, either in syllabic or a numerical form depending on the Samavedic ''Sakha'' (school).<ref>KR Norman (1979), Sāmavedic Chant by Wayne Howard (Book Review), Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 13, No. 3, page 524;

Wayne Howard (1977), Samavedic Chant, Yale University Press, {{ISBN|978-0300019568}}</ref> The Indian scholar and musical theorist [[Pingala]] (c. 200 BCE), in his ''Chanda Sutra'', used marks indicating long and short syllables to indicate meters in Sanskrit poetry.

A rock inscription from circa 7th–8th century CE at [[Kudumiyanmalai]], Tamil Nadu contains an early example of a musical notation. It was first identified and published by archaeologist/epigraphist [[D. R. Bhandarkar]].{{sfnp|Bhandarkar|1913–1914}} Written in the Pallava-grantha script of the 7th century, it contains 38 horizontal lines of notations inscribed on a rectangular rock face (dimension of around 13 by 14 feet). Each line of the notation contains 64 characters (characters representing musical notes), written in groups of four notes. The basic characters for the seven notes, 'sa ri ga ma pa dha ni', are seen to be suffixed with the vowels a, i, u, e. For example, in the place of 'sa', any one of 'sa', 'si', 'su' or 'se' is used. Similarly, in place of ri, any one of 'ra', 'ri', 'ru' or 're' is used. Horizontal lines divide the notation into 7 sections. Each section contains 4 to 7 lines of notation, with a title indicating its musical 'mode'. These modes may have been popular at least from the 6th century CE and were incorporated into the Indian 'raga' system that developed later. But some of the unusual features seen in this notation have been given several non-conclusive interpretations by scholars.{{sfnp|Widdess|1979}}

In the notation of Indian [[rāga]], a solfege-like system called [[swara|sargam]] is used. As in Western solfege, there are names for the seven basic pitches of a major scale (Shadja, Rishabha, Gandhara, Madhyama, Panchama, Dhaivata and Nishada, usually shortened to Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni). The tonic of any scale is named Sa, and the dominant Pa. Sa is fixed in any scale, and Pa is fixed at a fifth above it (a [[Pythagorean tuning|Pythagorean]] fifth rather than an [[Equal temperament|equal-tempered]] fifth). These two notes are known as achala swar ('fixed notes').

Each of the other five notes, Re, Ga, Ma, Dha and Ni, can take a 'regular' (shuddha) pitch, which is equivalent to its pitch in a standard major scale (thus, shuddha Re, the second degree of the scale, is a whole-step higher than Sa), or an altered pitch, either a half-step above or half-step below the shuddha pitch. Re, Ga, Dha and Ni all have altered partners that are a half-step lower (Komal-"flat") (thus, komal Re is a half-step higher than Sa).

Ma has an altered partner that is a half-step higher ({{lang|hi-Latn|teevra}}-"sharp") (thus, {{lang|hi-Latn|tivra}} Ma is an augmented fourth above Sa). Re, Ga, Ma, Dha and Ni are called {{lang|hi-Latn|vikrut swar}} ('movable notes'). In the written system of Indian notation devised by Ravi Shankar, the pitches are represented by Western letters. Capital letters are used for the achala swar, and for the higher variety of all the vikrut swar. Lowercase letters are used for the lower variety of the vikrut swar.

Other systems exist for non-twelve-tone [[equal temperament]] and non-Western music, such as the Indian ''[[Swaralipi]]''.