Hindu Musical Instruments

STOR
Ann Weissmann

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, Vol. 14, No. 3. (Nov.,
1955), pp. 68-75.

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HINDU MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

BY ANN WEISSMANN
Department of Music

Hindu musical instruments are remarkable for stringed instruments, as a functional element on
the beauty and variety of their forms as well as many vinas, and even as an entire instrument, for
their magnificent range of expression. The as in the case of the mayuri illustrated above,
sculptures and paintings of the Ajanta caves, the name itself meaning a peacock. The vina is
descriptions in the Ramayana and the Rig-Veda, associated with Sarasvati, the goddess of learn
and the writings of the famous theoretician ing, and the flute too has its Vedic connotations,
Bharata all show that these qualities have re- for Krishna with his fair Gopi companions on
mained basically unchanged for the last two the banks of the Yamna “played and sang those
thousand years.
witching strains that, like those of Orpheus, held
According to ancient sources the invention of all creation spellbound.” music—rakti, or
“the power of affecting the It is only natural that an art so sacredly con heart—was attributed
to Brahma and was pre- ceived should be perpetuated, unchanged, as an sided over by his wife,
Sarasvati. Many elements essential element of Hindustani religious life. of the Indian musical
system were also supposed- The desire to maintain through music the magic ly of divine
origin, and this mystical, religious of Vedic literature could not be stilled even by aspect
has been preserved to the present day. the Mohammedan invasions, which brought
to Various Indian deities have been associated with northern India the idea of music as a
profane art. specific instruments; they or their attributes can And, while previously the
higher branches of be seen in paintings decorating the instruments the musical profession
had been reserved for and sometimes are symbolized by the instru- Brahmans or others of
high caste, Mohammedan mental shapes themselves. For example, the pea-
prejudices succeeded in lowering the status of cock, the bird consecrated to the
goddess Parvati, the performer as well as of music in general. appears very often as a
decorative element on Still, the tenacity of the earlier tradition is
evident in the Indian musical style. The chief ABOVE: Mayuri, in the shape of a peacock. It is
played element is melody, and harmony is almost com with a bow, and the strings are stopped
on movable pletely neglected, limited primarily to a drone frets. The tone is soft and
mellow. Gift of Alice Getty, accompaniment. Melody is based on "authentic” 1946.
Some Hindu instruments shown here and others in melodic units, allegedly established fourteen
cen
the Museum's collection are in Gallery E 5 B. turies ago by professional musicians of original

68
genius. Any later melody is thus a recombination and indeed the voice is
the backbone of the of older, prescribed elements, and Indian music Indian
instrumentarium. is formed by the submission of "individual crea- Rhythm, in Indian
music, is characterized by tion” to the welcome limitations of a ready a balance of free
and formal elements compara pattern. These melodic patterns,
ble to the ragas and gamakas of or ragas, assign a place to each
melody. Time is organized into individual note of a modal scale.
short rhythmic patterns, called They have their own ethos, or
talas, which are defined quanti mood, and their own pictorial
tatively by long and short stresses associations. Among specific
rather than qualitatively by loud things the ragas denote hours of
and soft beats as in the Western the day, the six Hindu seasons,
system. However, to permit in and the planets, and aesthetic
dividual variation of patterns no form thus becomes an expression
exact time values are established of religious thought. For ex
for the beats, and, although each ample, a raga is associated with
pattern is repeated over and over a particular season because only
again throughout a piece, dif at that time is that raga’s god at
ferent talas can be employed leisure to attend the place where
simultaneously, resulting in a sys his favorite tune is sung and to
tem of cross rhythms. Such rhyth inspire the performer. Many leg
mic complexity is indigenous ends exist about the power music
to Indian music and accounts has over men, animals, and in
for the tremendous importance animate objects. One tells of a
of the drum. musician who sang the raga of
The flexibility of Indian music, night at midday. The powers of
both rhythmically and tonally, the music were so strong that it
requires instruments that allow instantly became night and dark
great freedom. An examination ness surrounded the palace as far
of the Hindu instruments cur as his voice could be heard.
rently on exhibition at the Mu To an especially large degree
seum reveals their wondrous Hindu music is a continuous in
variety and their relation to terplay of freedom and law, fan
Hindu musical style. It is ex tasy and stability, variation and
tremely difficult to date these tradition. The rigidity of melody
instruments with any degree of imposed by the prescribed ragas
certainty, as their forms, like is softened by ornamentations
the formal elements of the music known as gamakas, in the form of
itself, have persisted, virtually grace notes, slides, tremolos, and
unchanged, since antiquity.
Sitar, inlaid with ivory, found variegated shadings. It has often
Among the stringed instru been said that “without gamakas
mostly in central and northern
ments are several forms of the
India. Crosby Brown collection a melody cannot smile.”
vina, considered to be India's na Tonally the Indian octave is subdivided into tional
instrument. It has often been thought that twenty-two small intervals that are called
srutis. the vina is one of the oldest Hindu instruments, These correspond
roughly to quarter tones but this misconception arises from terminological
but are not based on exact distances between confusion, as the word, derived
from the Egyp notes, which allows much freedom in perform- tian name for harp,
originally referred to a type ing gamakas. The human voice is the ideal of Indian harp
 that became extinct about a instrument for producing the flexible gamakas,
thousand years ago. The invention of the vina
OA
TO

69
voor
de

Vinas, or stick-zithers, with gourd resonators. ABOVE: North Indian vina, or

bin, played only by professional musicians. Crosby
Brown collection. BELOW: South Indian vina, with the belly of a lute replacing the
lower gourd. Gift of Alice Getty, 1946
 Sarod and sur-sanga, two examples of Indian lutes, decorated in gold and green. The
sarod, found chiefly in upper India and the Punjab, has a banjo-like tone. The front of
its belly is parchment. Crosby Brown collection

is attributed to Narada, the mythological son of at each end, which give volume to the
silvery Brahma and Sarasvati, and this lineage explains tone of the plucked
strings. It is supposed to the high esteem in which it is held.
 represent Sarasvati, with its curved neck, two The north Indian vina, or bin, is a zither
con- gourds or breasts, and frets or bracelets. The sisting of a round stick with a
calabash or gourd player holds the stick obliquely across his chest,

71
resting one gourd on his left shoulder and the tamboura illustrated on the opposite page
is other under his right arm. Owing to the com- ornately inlaid with ivory and
has, on its belly, plicated finger technique, solo performance is polychromatic
paintings of Sarasvati, sitting on usually limited to professional
her peacock and holding
a musicians, who grow their fin
tamboura, and Ganesa, the
gernails to exaggerated lengths
elephant-headed god. The
in order to pluck the strings.
European offshoot of the
tam The bin illustrated on page 70
boura-sitar family of the Near has
twenty-three large mova
East was the sixteenth- and
ble frets projecting from the
seventeenth-century Italian
stick; the most minute differ
colascione.
ence in finger pressure on the
Closely related to the tam
frets causes a variation of pitch,
boura in general
appearance making the instrument espe
is the sitar, also called Sundari,
cially suitable for the perform
“the beautiful.” The
invention ance of intricate embellish
of this instrument is
ascribed ments and microtones. It is
to Amir Khusrau, a poet and
interesting to note that a sim
singer at the court of Sultan
ilar instrument was described
‘Ala’u'd Din of Dehli in the and
accurately illustrated in
twelfth century. The sitar is
Mersenne's Harmonie univer
one of the most popular
selle of 1636.
stringed instruments of
India, The south Indian vina,
particularly in the north. It
older than the bin, is relatively
has many features of the
vina, rare and differs from the nor
among them being the
mova thern form in that the lower
ble frets that permit great
gourd is replaced by the body
tonal freedom, but as it
does of a lute with a wooden sound
not require the arduous
finger board. The vina shown on page
technique of the vina it is 70
has four melody strings;
much easier to learn. The
sitar the three drone strings at the
is plucked with a plectrum;
side of the fingerboard are em
only one string is used for
mel ployed as accompaniment or
ody, while the others are
used to mark time.
LO

as open strings for drone ac

An important variety of
companiment.
stringed instrument is the tam
Another type of stringed
in boura, which supplies a drone
 strument is the sarangi, con
accompaniment and is there
sidered to be the Indian
fiddle. fore indispensable in any per
Hewn from a single block of
formance of Indian music.
wood, it has sympathetic Persian sitara, decorated in gold and Since it is used
exclusively as
strings and produces a tone red. This instrument is
very rare in In a drone instrument there is no
like that of the viola d’am dia but is found occasionally in the necessity for frets. The
strings
ore. The sarangi is played larger cities. Gift of Alice Getty, 1946 are never stopped but
are al
mainly in the north of India,
ways struck open by the fingers, without the occasionally for theatrical
performances of the use of a plectrum. Changes in pitch for differ- famous Nautch
companies. Relatives of this ent ragas are obtained by the movable bridge.
instrument are the sarinda of southern India, The instrument when played is held
vertically the esrar, a combination of the sitar and sarangi, with the bowl resting
on the right thigh. The and the rabob and sarod, India's modern lutes. A

72

38

VO

VIS
.00.

tanan NRAKAN

tododot od@cos UULUUTTUU

Front and back views of a tamboura inlaid with ivory. This

south Indian instrument can produce a buzzing tone when
pieces of silk or quill, placed between the bridge and
strings, are manipulated. The paintings show the
goddess Sarasvati on a peacock, Ganesa, the
elephant-headed god, and other deities. Gift of Alice Getty,
1946

73

Sarangi, or Indian fiddle, made of teak wood, with ivory inlay and a painted
border around the parchment at the base. Beneath the upper strings are a set of
sympathetic strings. This instrument is common in northern India; in the south it
is often replaced by the English fiddle tuned as a vina or sarangi. Gift of Alice
Getty, 1946 remarkable member of the lute family is the an independent
tone. It is played by being held mayuri, a sitar in the shape of Sarasvati's
sacred next to the throat so that the vibrations of the bird, the peacock. The mayuri
is not highly es- larynx set into action a tough spiderweb hidden teemed by any but
Nautch musicians and is in the mouthpiece. In this manner the timbre of rarely found outside
of northern India.
the human voice is altered and takes on an oboe Equally diverse are the members of
the wind like tone. family, which, being unkeyed, are especially R eed
instruments are also found in numerous appropriate for producing flexible melodic
lines shapes throughout India. In view of the central and pitches. Flutes, however, are
 of secondary role of the drone in Indian musical culture, it is importance as
Brahmans are forbidden by law not surprising that the bagpipe has a long and to play
them and the instruments are thus rele- important history. According to Dravidian tra
gated to the lower castes. The one exception is dition, India was the home of the
bagpipe, the murali, which was played by Krishna and which appears either as a
primitive oboe or with was looked upon in Indian mythology with much both a
chanter and a drone. The north Indian the same veneration as the lyre by the
Greeks. oboe is very popular, being played in pairs, Brahmans consider the
trumpet a most sacred one for the melody, the other for the drone, at instrument
and have given it a prominent place weddings, ceremonies, and festivals. Expert
in their rituals. One of the many types of conch- oboists are paid fabulous sums
and frequently shell trumpets, the sankha, is supposedly to be grants of land for
their performances, and, hav blown by Siva on the Day of Judgment. It is ing a
continuous tradition behind them, they purportedly the most ancient wind instrument often
hold hereditary appointments. known to man and has a long and involved Bells, as in
the Christian ritual, are used daily religious history. Perhaps one of the most in- in the
religious ceremonies of India, in company teresting and original of the trumpet family is
with gongs. The use of bells is as old as Hinduism the nyastaranga, which cannot really
be defined itself, and there are many directions for their as a musical instrument since it
cannot produce use in early Vedic literature. The ghanta, or

74
hand bell, is often decorated with figures of gods so that Ganesa could accompany
Mohadeva's and their symbols, such as Vishnu's eagle. But victory dance in celebration
of his defeat of the bells are not exclusively religious in function. invincible demon
Tripurasura. The reverence Gunguru, or ankle bells, have great significance with which
drums were held is shown by the fact, for a dancer and actually symbolize the pro- related
in many epics, that capture of the drum fession itself. Before entering this career, a
dancer meant defeat of the enemy. The dundubhi and ties on the bells in a solemn
ceremony, and the other large drums were particularly regarded professional life so
adopted cannot be aban- with great veneration. doned. “The dancer who has tied on the
bells" This is only a brief glimpse into the com has become a proverbial expression
for devotion plicated and rich world of Indian instruments. to a purpose from
which one cannot depart. The Museum's extensive collection of musical
Drums, too, have sacred importance through instruments contains about
two hundred that out India. The mridanga, signifying “made of are Hindu, and of these
only a fraction is at clay,” is supposedly the father of Indian instru- present on view.
In their workmanship, beauty, ments. According to mythological accounts in and
delicate balance of form and function they the Puranas, Brahma invented this instrument
give delight to Western eyes.

Gong and bell of burnished brass. The gong is attached to a cobra,

perhaps symbolizing a Naga, or serpent god; the lotus rising from the back
of the hood is an incense burner. The bell has an engraved
decoration all over its surface; its handle represents a Hindu god.
Crosby Brown collection