Scan 27
Researches into the early history of the violin family, 1883
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 17. See the scan on archive.org.
1from the Asiatic nations. As this question is of some importance to the musical historian, I shall briefly notice a few facts in support of the opinion which deserve further investigation.
3We have seen that the Hindus are not entirely unacquainted with the European violin. They call it bahulin (perhaps a corruption of violin), and there is now in Calcutta a Musical Academy, founded in the year 1871 by the Rajah Sourindro Mohun Tagore, in which this instrument is actually taught; so that ere long we may perhaps expect in our public concerts a Hindu virtuoso astonishing his auditory with the performance of some of our brilliant violin compositions. However this may be, it can hardly be said that this European introduction has affected in the slightest degree the spirit of the Hindu national music, or the characteristics of the genuine Hindu stringed instruments played with a bow. I shall notice only one of the latter, which, whatever its age may be, is evidently a very old contrivance, though it may have been somewhat altered in the course of time. I am alluding to the sarinda, of which the annexed engraving shows at a glance a certain resemblance with the violin more clearly than a long description would probably accomplish. Suffice it to remark that the sarinda is made of a single block of a brown wood, hollowed, and ornamented with carving; that the belly is partially open, the lower part only being covered with skin resembling bladder, generally from a species of gazelle; and that the top of its
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