Music forms an important part of Indian culture. It is believed that Indian music originated from the Samaveda. It is now available in two forms, the Hindustani and the Carnatic. There is a lot of information concerning the technicalaspects of musical renditions, but hardly any information on the sound aspect.
In this paper, attempts made to study thespectral aspects of Indian musical notes, particularly the Carnatic music has been discussed. Recordings were made of theseven notes of the classical music using three male and three female voices.The analysis of the waveforms using the appropriate software yielded theenergy, frequency and time spectra, helping in identifying the formants of thesignals which in turn define the signatures of the sound pattern.

The characteristics of the sound spectrum of the Omkara Mantra along with its constituent sounds of A, U and M haverecently been reported1. The Omkarais one of the holiest sounds of the Vedic heritage and is an integral part ofall Vedic rituals2. It has now become widely known around the worldand is regularly being used as a part of meditation process.
Another importantcontribution of Indian heritage is its classical music. During the lasthalf-century, it has also become quite well known around the globe. Asystematic study of the technicalities of the musical form from the point ofview of musical renditions has been taken up. However, a study of the soundpatterns themselves from the point of view of their spectral characteristicshas not attracted the attention of the scientific community. This report, apreliminary attempt in this direction is expected to lead to detailedinvestigations.
Indianclassical music has a hoary tradition. Its origins are shrouded in mystery.Traditionally, it is believed to have originated from the Samaveda. Vedas are four in number – the Rigveda, the Yajurveda,the Samaveda and the Atharvaveda. Of these, the Rigveda is the oldest consisting ofhymns addressed to various godheads, composed by sages, called Rishis about whom very little is knownhistorically. These hymns form the Mantraor Samhita portion of the Rigveda.
The SamavedaSamhita consists essentially of the same hymns as the Rigveda Samhita but makes use of elaborate and ornate singingtechniques based upon a scale of seven notes. The other Vedic Samhitas generally make use of three or five notes but the Samaveda Samhita makes use of the fullscale of seven notes which later got reorganized into the standard notes of theclassical tradition, viz. sa (shadja),ri (rshabha), ga (gandhara), ma (madhyama), pa (panchama)dha (dhaivata) and ni (nishada)3-4.

With the passage of time, Indian classicalmusic got split into two branches – the Hindustaniand the Carnatic. This appears tohave occurred around seven hundred years ago5. Even though the twosystems appear today to be almost independent of each other both of them owetheir origin to the seven notes or Saptaswaraof the Samaveda.

There are a large number of text booksavailable on both systems. There are also scholarly tomes written bymusicologists about the technical intricacies involved. But, there has been nosystematic investigation into the nature of the basic notes themselves andtheir sound patterns as is available for western classical music. Since thetime of Lord Rayleigh, there has been a lot of investigation into the sound patternsof the English alphabets and the western classical musical notes6.Corresponding studies on Indian musical notes have not been undertakensystematically. An attempt has been made using more or less the same techniquesas adopted earlier1 to study on the spectral characteristics of theseven musical notes.