Natya Sastra by Bharat Muni (composed between 200

BC and 200 AD) clubbed music instruments into four

groups:

Avanddha vadya (membranophones or percussion

instruments)

Ghana vadya (idiophones or solid instruments)

Sushira vadya (aerophone or wind instruments)

Tata vadya (chordophone or stringed instruments)

 • Indian classical music is based on two traditions

• The Carnatic music prevalent in South India and the Hindustani classical
music in North India.
 Carnatic
72 ragas
Veena, Mridangam and Mandolin
Indigenous
Both Vocal and Instruments have equal importance

Hindustani
6 major ragas
Tabla, Sarangi, Sitar and Santoor
Afghan Persian and Arab
Hindustani Music gives more importance to Vocal music than Instruments
 String instruments and Indian
musicians who play them

Santoor: Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma &

his son Rahul Sharma, Bhajan
Sopori & his son Abhay Sopori,
Ulhas Bapat, Tarun Bhattacharya,
 String instruments and Indian musicians who play them

Sarod - Allauddin Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, Amjad Ali Khan, Buddhadev
Dasgupta, Bahadur Khan, Sharan Rani, Zarin S Sharma, Amaan Ali Bangash and
Ayaan Ali Bangash
 String instruments and Indian musicians who play them
Sitar: Pt Ravi Shankar, Anushka Shankar, Ustad Vilayat Khan, Ustad Imrat Khan,
Shahid Parvez Khan, Budhaditya Mukherjee, Harashankar Bhattacharya, Nikhil
Banerjee, Niladri Kumar, Debu Chaudhary , Arvind Parikh, Abdul Halim Jaffer
Khan
String instruments and Indian musicians who play them

Surbahar: Annapurna Devi, Imrat Khan, Irshad Khan

 String instruments and Indian musicians who play them
Rudra Veena - Asad Ali Khan, Jyoti Hegde, Zia Mohiuddin Dagar
Veena: Chitti Babu, Sundaram Balachandrer, Emani Sankara Sastry,
Doraiswamy Iyengar
Mohan Veena: Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhat (inventor of Mohan Veena)
Grammy award winner – for his album “A Meeting by the River”
 Sarangi: Shakoor Khan, Pt Ram Narayan, Ramesh Mishra, Ustad
Sultan Khan, Ustad Bundu Khan, Surinder Sandhu, Dhruba Ghosh
Violin: MS Gopalakrishnan, Lalgudi Jayaraman and T.N. Krishnan, Smt
M Rajam, M Chandrasekharan, Vishnu Govind Jog
Guitar - Braj Bhushan Kabra
Mandolin - U Srinivas
 Wind instruments and Indian musicians who play them

Shehnai - Bismillah Khan, Krishna Ram Chaudhary, Ustad Ali Ahmed

Hussain Khan, Pt Anant Lal Dayashankar
Flute: Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Rakesh Chaurasia, Pannalal Ghosh, TR
Mahalingam, N Ramani, Ronu Majumdar, Nityanand Haldipur, Pandit
Raghunath Seth
Nadaswaran: Sheik Chinna Moulana, T. N. Rajarathnam Pillai
 Percussion instruments (played by striking) and Indian musicians
who play them

Tabla: Zakir Hussain, Allah Rakha, Subhankar Banerjee, Yogesh Samsi,

Sabir Khan, Pandit Satyajit Talwalkar, Pt. Kishan Maharaj, Ustad Fazal
Qureshi, Ustad Akram Khan, Sandeep Das
Kanjira - Dakshinamurthi Pillai (Mridangam)
Pakhawaj: Totaram Sharma, Pt Ayodhya Prasad, Pt Gopal
Das, Ram Shanker Das (Pagaldas)
 Mridangam: Palani Subramaniam Pillai, KV Prasad, SV Rajarao,
Umayalpuram Sivaraman, Palghat Mani Iyer, Karaikudi Mani, Palghat
Raghu, Dakshinamurthy Pillai, Ramanathapuram Murugabhoopathy
Ghatam: TH Vinayakram (Vikku Vinayak), EM Subramaniam
• Vikku Vinayak plays Carnatic music with the ghatam, an earthen
pot, and is credited with popularizing the ghatam. He won a
Grammy in 1991 for the Best World Music Album for his
participation in Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum.
Jal Tarang: Pandit Milind Tulankar
Which musical instrument is shown in Nataraja
depiction of Lord Shiva?

Drum
Veena
Damru
Sitar
Which Indian ruler was an expert ‘ Veena’ player as shown
on his coins?

Akbar
Ashoka
Samudragupta
Skandagupta
Which Wind Instrument originated in Tamil Nadu & quite
similar to the north Indian Shehnai?

Bansuri
Nadaswaram
Surbahar
Mohan Veena
Who is credited for the invention of the sitar?

Bulle Shah
Amir Khusrau
Ustad Vilayat Khan
Nizamuddin Auliya
Which of these is NOT a recipient of Bharat Ratna?

M S Subbulakshmi
Pandit Ravi Shankar
Ustad Bismillah Khan
Ustad Zakir Hussain
Albert Einstein was skilled in playing which
instrument?

Sitar
Guitar
Flute
Violin
Which of these is NOT associated with Sarod?

Allauddin Khan
Ali Akbar Khan
Amjad Ali Khan
Vilayat Khan
Which of these is NOT a stringed instrument?

Veena
Sarod
Sarangi
None of these