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Scan 10
Catalogue of the musical instruments exhibited in the Government Museum, Madras, 1931
51 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1In addition to this outdoor music, many temples have in their establishments regular paid musicians—vocalists and instrumentalists (vīna, violin, tambura and mridangam players) and bhajana parties. These musicians perform on all festive occasions and are entitled to the temple honours and privileges. Some of them are given inams of land in lieu of their services. In Saivite temples there are the oduvārs who sing Tēvāra hymns in the daily services and enjoy the same status as the musicians mentioned above.
3Musical instruments of the primitive type are seen in the hands of wandering mendicants, dāsaris, āndis, jugglers, ballad-singers, pandārams and gipsies.
5V.—ARRANGEMENT IN THE GALLERY.
7In the musical instruments gallery of the Ethnological Section of the Madras Museum there are about 70 specimens representing the prominent South Indian varieties. This includes a good collection of tribal instruments, particularly those belonging to the West Coast. With the exception of a few unimportant ones all the specimens have been photographed and shown in the plates. A detailed description of the instruments in the plates is given in Section VI. For the sake of the casual visitor however a list of the instruments exhibited in each case at the time of the preparation of this catalogue (1930) is given below. The roman figure against each instrument shows the number of the plate in which it is seen and the arabic numeral denotes the number of the specimen in the plate. Where there are no figures, it is to be presumed that such instruments have not been photographed and reproduced in the plates.
9Case I—
101. Tambura with a gourd shell.
112. Tambura with a wooden shell and rest II, 3.
123. Tambura (Tanjore model) II, 1.
134. Ektār II, 4.
15Case II—
161. Vīna (Tanjore model) I, 1.
172. Big Sitār I, 4.
183. Small Sitār I, 5.
20Case III—
211. Gōtuvādyam I, 2.
222. Violin.
233. Sārangi II, 6.
244. Tuntina II, 2.
26Case IV—
271. Kinnari IV, 6.
282. Swarabat I, 3.
293. Bālasaraswati II, 5.
31Case V—
321. Nāgaswaram IV, 1.
332. Do. (another variety) IV, 2.
343. Ottu IV, 3.
354. Mukhaviṇa IV, 4.
365. Sanāi IV, 5.
376. Do. (rosewood).
387. Maguḍi III, 5.
398. Shepherd's flute III, 2.
409. Concert flute III, 1.
4110. Nedunguzhal III, 4.
4211. Reed Dulcimer III, 3.
4312. Conch VI, 7.
45Case VI—
461. Kombu III, 9.
472. S-shaped horns III, 10, 11, 12.
483. Tiruchinnam III, 8.
494. Bhūri III, 6.
505. Ekkālam III, 7.
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