Vadya ( sa, वाद्य ), also called ''vadyaka'' or ''atodya'', is one of the three components of ''
sangita
Sangita (Devanagari: , IAST: ), also spelled Samgita or Sangeeta, refers to "music and associated performance arts" in the Indian traditions. According to Guy Beck, the root "saṃ-" implies "combining, coming together, convergent wholesome blend ...
'' (musical performance arts), and refers to "instrumental music" in the Indian traditions.
Indian musicology
The term ''vadya'' in the sense of "music, sounded, played, uttered" appears in the Vedic literature such as in the ''Aitareya Brahmana The Aitareya Brahmana ( sa, ऐतरेय ब्राह्मण) is the Brahmana of the Shakala Shakha of the Rigveda, an ancient Indian collection of sacred hymns. This work, according to the tradition, is ascribed to Mahidasa Aitareya.
Aut ...
'', and in early post-Vedic era Sanskrit texts such as the ''Natya Shastra
The ''Nāṭya Śāstra'' (, ''Nāṭyaśāstra'') is a Sanskrit treatise on the performing arts. The text is attributed to sage Bharata Muni, and its first complete compilation is dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE, but estimates vary ...
'', '' Panchatantra'', ''Malvikagnimitra'' and ''Kathasaritsagara''.[Monier Monier-Williams]
Sanskrit-English Dictionary with Etymology
Oxford University Press, page 940 These texts call the musician or the performer on the musical instrument as ''vadyadhara''.[ A stringed instrument is described with proportional lengths in '']Jaiminiya Brahmana
The Samaveda (, from ' "song" and ' "knowledge"), is the Veda of melodies and chants. It is an ancient Vedic Sanskrit text, and part of the scriptures of Hinduism. One of the four Vedas, it is a liturgical text which consists of 1,875 verses. A ...
'' and ''Aitareya Aranyaka
The Aranyakas (; sa, आरण्यक; IAST: ' ) are the part of the ancient Indian Vedas concerned with the meaning of ritual sacrifice. They typically represent the later sections of the Vedas, and are one of many layers of the Vedic texts. ...
'', and these are compared to poetical meters.
Classification of instruments
The Sanskrit literature such as ''Natya Shastra'' describes four types of ''vadya'':chordophone
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.
Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the st ...
)
*''Susira'': hollow musical instrument (aerophone
An aerophone () is a musical instrument that produces sound primarily by causing a body of air to vibrate, without the use of strings or membranes (which are respectively chordophones and membranophones), and without the vibration of the instru ...
)
*''Ghana'': solid musical instrument (idiophone
An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the vibration of the instrument itself, without the use of air flow (as with aerophones), strings (chordophones), membranes (membranophones) or electricity ( electrophones) ...
)
*''Avanaddha'': covered musical instrument (membranophone
A membranophone is any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by way of a vibrating stretched membrane. It is one of the four main divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification. ...
)
Ensembles and orchestras
The chapter 14 of the ''Saṅgītaśiromaṇi'' describes musical ensembles based on a collective performance of ''vadya'' instruments by musicians, and it calls such a band orchestra as a ''kutapa''.
Cultural exchange
The term ''vadya'' also appears in the Buddhist Sanskrit text '' Sukhavativyuha'', influential in the Chinese and Japanese traditions, which Luis Gomez translates as "instrumental music".
In Hindu-Javanese music tradition, ''vadya'' is called ''vaditra''.Roger Blench
Roger Marsh Blench (born August 1, 1953) is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is based in Cambridge, England. He researches, publishes, and works ...
, most scholars consider the African term ''valiha
The valiha is a tube zither from Madagascar made from a species of local bamboo; it is considered the " national instrument" of Madagascar. The term is also used to describe a number of related zithers of differing shapes and materials.
T ...
'' for tube zither
The tube zither is a stringed musical instrument in which a tube functions both as an instrument's neck and its soundbox. As the neck, it holds strings taut and allows them to vibrate. As a soundbox or it modifies the sound and transfers it to ...
to be rooted in the Sanskrit term ''vadya'', reflecting a period of cultural exchange over the Indian Ocean.[Roger Blench (2014), Using Diverse Sources of Evidence for Reconstructing the Past History of Musical Exchanges in the Indian Ocean, African Archaeological Review, Volume 31, Issue 4 (December), pp 675–703]
See also
*Indian classical music
Indian classical music is the classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as '' Hindustani'' and the South Indian expression known as '' Carnatic''. These traditions were not ...
*List of Indian musical instruments
Indian musical instruments can be broadly classified according to the Hornbostel–Sachs system into four categories: chordophones (string instruments), aerophones (wind instruments), membranophones (drums) and idiophones (non-drum percussion ins ...
*Natya shastra
The ''Nāṭya Śāstra'' (, ''Nāṭyaśāstra'') is a Sanskrit treatise on the performing arts. The text is attributed to sage Bharata Muni, and its first complete compilation is dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE, but estimates vary ...
* Tala
* Udaka vadya
References
{{Indian musical instruments
Hindu texts
Theatre in India
Musical theatre
Sanskrit texts
Cultural history of India