Field of Research: The Ancient Rhythm Uniting Continents

A day begins. The sky gradually brightens. The stars disappear. Then, as if by ancient ritual, the first rays of sun break over the horizon and drench the clouds in golden light. Only a little poetic license is needed to compare these radiant clouds to fiery celestial horses.

The image of the cloud-horses is rooted in antiquity, appearing thousands of years ago in a hymn dedicated to the Vedic goddess of dawn, Ushas. The chorus calls her, ‘you, horse tamer, wellborn, rise!’ Today, this hymn dedicated to Ushas has become part of a unique cultural heritage, the Rigveda – a holy scripture to more than a billion Hindus. In English, her name has echoes in ‘Easter’, which likewise celebrates the beginning of a natural cycle.

Ancient commentaries explain how the Rigveda, dating back to 1500-1200 BCE, was once sung. Yes… it was sung! The chorus ‘you, horse tamer, wellborn, rise!’ is a translation of ‘sújāte áśvasūnrte’. The rhythm of these words is ‘DOO-DOO-DOO-do-DOO-do-DOO!’ Melodically, this would have been something like ‘DOO-DOO-DEE-do-DEE-do-DEE!’ The same melody fits the beautiful verse ‘lights illuminate the sky’ (‘rócante rocanā diví’).

I first learned about the Rigveda as a teenager attending linguistics classes at my hometown university in Zurich. I loved music and poetry, and the Rigveda was something I didn’t want to miss. Then, I made a discovery that I couldn’t quite believe; there seemed to be a connection between the Rigveda and something else.

In the 20th century, archaeologists working on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean unearthed something remarkable in the ancient city of Ugarit: the oldest known musical score, dating from around 1400 BCE. This score contains a hymn dedicated to Nikkal, a Near Eastern goddess of fertility. Perhaps Nikkal’s presence in the Near East doesn’t sound unexpected, at first. She is Near Eastern, after all. Yet, what if I say that her music connects her to India?

The cadence ‘DOO-DOO-DEE-do-DEE-do-DEE!’, repeatedly found in the Rigveda, also concludes Nikkal’s hymn. Furthermore, the hymn to Nikkal has a second cadence, midway in the composition. This melody would have been ‘DOO-dedo-DOO-do-DOO-DEE!’ It’s a much more unique melody, yet this too appears in the Rigveda. For example, Ushas is described as coming without fail, rising in the east, and holding aloft the flame of knowledge. In doing so, she has the power to shine brightly because ‘she follows natural laws’, that is, ‘rtásya pánthām ánu eti sādhú’, which has the very same cadence, ‘DOO-dedo-DOO-do-DOO-DEE!’ Other verses praise her for bringing light and holding aloft the flame of knowledge.

The question remains: Are the musical matches I observed between the hymn to Nikkal and the Rigveda a true cultural connection or a very rare chance encounter? To test this, I performed a comprehensive computer-aided analysis of all ~40,000 verses of the Rigveda.

I started by focusing on rhythmic patterns and quickly found that the two cadences of Nikkal’s hymn are also the two most frequent cadences of the Rigveda in its entirety. One in five verses of the Rigveda end with the two rhythms from the Mediterranean. When I added the melody on top of the rhythm, an even more tantalising picture emerged. The two cadences of Nikkal’s hymn are the two most common cadences utilised in the most ancient material (books 4–6) of the Rigveda. This makes sense. Music composed around 1400 BCE in India and in the Mediterranean shared rhythm and melody. By comparison, later Rigvedic compositions preferred different melodies, reflecting the changing prosodic style, leading to how the Rigveda is sung today.

My analysis also contained a randomised test, which provides an additional detail. The likelihood of finding such a close musical match by chance is lower than one in a million. It is as good as impossible. There must have been a musical connection between the Near East and the Rigveda.

Today, we know that music has wings. In a day’s time, music from India can reach the whole world. Many people believe that this is a uniquely modern phenomenon, facilitated by radio, television and social media. My discovery tells a different story. Music has united continents for thousands of years.

History helps further elucidate the case. The rhythmic cadence ‘DOO-dodo-DOO-do-DOO-DOO!’ resurfaces in later poetry, being prominently featured in the ‘sapphic verse’, utilised by Sappho on the Greek island of Lesbos, then by Horace in Rome and much later by Hölderlin in Germany. Thus, this cadence echoes through the finest Greek, Latin and German poetry. It even finds its way into the US national anthem. The lyrics ‘O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light, what so proudly we hailed’ culminates in six words that follow the same rhythm ‘DOO-dodo-DOO-do-DOO-DOO!’ Here, the rhythm is easily traced back to a society inspired by Greek poetry. Years later in New York, a female figure emerged, holding aloft the flame of knowledge. Could she be a daughter of Ushas?

The other rhythmic cadence, ‘DOO-DOO-DOO-do-DOO-do-DOO!’, is even more remarkable. It’s a simple rhythm, resembling a heartbeat. The lyrics once pulsed, ‘yes, she loves, with all her heart!’ Today, this heartbeat is heard across all continents.