Swara

In the context of Indian classical music, Swara is a Sanskrit word that means a note in the octave. The seven basic swaras of the scale are named shadja, rishabh, gandhar, madhyam, pancham, dhaivat and nishad, and are shortened to Sa, Ri (Carnatic) or Re (Hindustani), Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, and Ni and written S, R, G, M, P, D, N. Collectively these notes are known as the sargam (the word is an acronym of the consonants of the first four swaras). Sargam is the Indian equivalent to solfege, a technique for the teaching of sight-singing. The tone Sa is not associated with any particular pitch. As in Western moveable-Do solfège, Sa refers to the tonic of a piece or scale rather than to any particular pitch.

Origin

In the general sense svara means tone, and applies to chanting and singing. The basic swaras of Vedic chanting are udatta, anudatta and svarita. The musical octave is said to have evolved from the elaborate and elongated chants of Sama Veda, based on these basic swaras. Siksha is the subject that deals with phonetics and pronunciation. Naradiya Siksha elaborately discusses the nature of swaras, both Vedic chants and the octave.

Swara (custom)

Swara is a child marriage custom in tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is tied to blood feuds among the different tribes and clans where young girls are forcibly married to members of different clans in order to resolve the feuds. It is most common among Pashtuns.

Swara is also known as Sak, Vani and Sangchatti in different regional languages of Pakistan.

Rationale

Hashmi and Koukab claim this custom started almost 400 years ago when two northwestern Pakistani Pashtun tribes fought a bloody war against each other. During the war, hundreds were murdered. The Nawab, regional ruler, settled the war by calling a Jirga of elders from both sides. The elders decided that the dispute and crime of men be settled by giving their girls as a retaliatory punishment. Ever since then, tribal and rural jirgas have been using young virgin girls from 4 to 14 years old, through child marriages, to settle crimes such as murder by men. This blood for blood tradition is practiced in different states of Pakistan such as Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan and Sarhad and tribal areas.

Swara (Indonesia)

Swara Channel is an independently operated 24-hour channel for the Indonesian Parliament. This channel has been established to promote transparency in the process of democracy and is the local equivalent of the US based CSPAN channel. SWARA regularly develops several live and recorded programs for creating political awareness among the people of Indonesia. This channel was established in 1999 with the financial assistance of IFES & USAID.

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