How does Indian and Western Musical contain Seven Notes ? Is it a Coincidence?

Question

How does Indian (sa,re,ga,ma,pa,dha,ni) and Western(c,d,e,f,g,a,b) music have seven notes ? Is it a coincidence or someone copied from other ?

Answer 1

In general, scales tend to have about seven notes in them, or "seven, plus/minus two". This number is believed to have to do with cognitive limitations; it would be difficult to recall more notes. On the other hand, scales with fewer notes impose more melodic and harmonic limitations.

In order to answer whether or not it is a coincidence that Indian and Western scales happen to have seven tones, one would have to know if there were cultural exchanges in the antiquity.

I don't know much about Indian theory, but they do have a different system with shrutis and all the ornaments, which probably have no direct counterpart in early Western music.

Answer 2

There are many, many answers to your question, and all answers come from a slightly different standpoint.

If you want a relatively recent scholarly view on scales, check out the notion of maximal evenness. Basically, it suggests that Western and non-Western scales may be constructed (both in terms of number of pitches and intervals between them) in such a way as to be spread out evenly and almost-symmetrically. (But that is a pretty gross oversimplification, beware!)