Books › Catalogue of the musical instruments exhibited in the Government Museum, Madras, 1931 › scan 7
Scan 7
Catalogue of the musical instruments exhibited in the Government Museum, Madras, 1931
26 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1The skin in the avanaddha vādyas may be stretched over an open circular frame of wood or metal as in kanjira, tambattam, chakra vādya, sūryapirai and chandrapirai; or, over a hollow body enclosing air inside as in damārum, tabla, bāya, nagāra, kinikittu, karaṇai and vira malahāri; or, the skin may be stretched over the two faces of a hollow shell open at both ends as in Uḍal, Tavil, Uḍukkai and Mridangam.
3There is a huge drum called Pānchamukham in the Tiruvārur Temple in Tanjore District which has five faces.
5Ghana vadyas are either of metal or wood. Cymbals, jhanj, brahmatalam, sēmak-kalam and tālam are instances of the former class; and chipla, kartāl and other wooden castanets are examples of the latter class.
7From the point of utility, musical instruments might be classified into those used in—
8(1) Concert music, which again fall under three classes—
9 (a) Śruti vādyas, i.e., used for sounding the drone or the key-note, e.g., tambura, ottu and sruti upanga.
10 (b) Laya vādyas, i.e., used for keeping time, e.g., mridangam, ghaṭam, kanjira and gettu vādyam.
11 (c) Sangita vādyas, proper, i.e., used for playing music, e.g., vīṇa, violin, sitar flute, nāgaswaram and jalatarangam.
12(2) Temple music, e.g., horns and trumpets, mukhaviṇa, conch, bhūri, uḍal, uḍukkai and pambai.
13(3) Martial music, e.g., dundubhi, bhēri, parai and tārai.
14(4) Folk music, e.g., ēktar, tuntina, nedunkuzhal, tutari, kombu, pot-drum, tamuku and crude cymbals of iron.
16III.—EVOLUTION.
18Of the stringed, wind and percussion groups, the last named has the longest pedigree. We come across wind and stringed instruments at slightly later stages of human history. Wind instruments came into existence soon after the earlier types of percussion instruments; likewise stringed instruments came into existence soon after the earlier types of wind instruments. The principle underlying each instrument was suggested to man by nature itself in most cases.
20Percussion group.—The following instruments roughly illustrate the main stages of evolution in this group:—
21 (1) Stone-gongs and rude wooden castanets.
22 (2) Metallic cymbals and gongs.
23 (3) Skin stretched over a simple circular frame: Tambattam and Kanjira.
24 (4) Skin stretched over a hollow body enclosing air inside: Pot-drums and wooden conical drums.
25 (5) Skin stretched over the two faces of a hollow cylindrical body: uḍal, dōlak, tavil and uḍukkai.
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