''Bharatiya Sangeet Vadya'' (Indian Musical Instruments) is a book () written by

Lalmani Misra Lalmani Misra (11 August 1924 – 17 July 1979) was an Indian classical musician. Initiation into music Lalmani learnt ''Dhruvapada (Dhrupad) Dhamar'' in the tradition of Shankar Bhatt and Munshi Bhrigunath Lal. He learnt ''Khayal'' singing w ...

. It was published under the Lokodya Granthmala series (Granthak / Volume No.: 346) of Bharatiya Jnanpith,

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Hous ...

. The first edition was published in 1973, the second in 2002. The book was written in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

. It was described in a 1974 review in ''Ethnomusicology'', the journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology, as "the most complete, authoritative work ever published on the history of Indian musical instruments." The book carries an exhaustive documentation of

musical instruments A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...

, right from the ancient to modern times, with an emphasis on establishing that modern Indian instruments have their origins in ancient Indian, rather than in Muslim and Western, culture. The book has always been in great demand by scholars and musicians for it also gives insight into fundamentals of playing instruments and traces the development in content along with that of the instrument.

Chapters

The book has fourteen chapters: #The first deals with discussion of music; its elemental essence; its relation to life and theories of its evolution. #The second chapter examines the primary elements of singing, instrument and

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire ...

and categorizes the musical instruments. #Third chapter describes in detail the ''Tat-Vadya'' or

string instruments 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 ...

from Analambi, Alapini, Ektantri Veena to Kand, Kinnari, Ghoshvati,

Rudra Rudra (; sa, रुद्र) is a Rigvedic deity associated with Shiva, the wind or storms, Vayu, medicine, and the hunt. One translation of the name is 'the roarer'. In the Rigveda, Rudra is praised as the 'mightiest of the mighty'. ...

Saraswati Saraswati ( sa, सरस्वती, ) is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, art, speech, wisdom, and learning. She is one of the Tridevi, along with the goddesses Lakshmi and Parvati. The earliest known mention of Saraswati as a g ...

and

Vichitra Veena The ''vichitra veena'' ( sa, विचित्र वीणा) is a stick zither, a plucked string instrument used in Hindustani music. Similar to the Carnatic ''gottuvadhyam'' (chitra vina) it has no frets and is played with a slide. The str ...

. Almost fifty different

veena The ''veena'', also spelled ''vina'' ( sa, वीणा IAST: vīṇā), comprises various chordophone instruments from the Indian subcontinent. Ancient musical instruments evolved into many variations, such as lutes, zithers and arched harps ...

s have been individually taken up apart from some minor instruments. #''Avanaddh Vadya'' (literally Sound on striking) or

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

instruments of all types belonging to ancient and middle period are described and their playing style discussed in fifth chapter. #Fifth chapter deals with ''Sushir Vadya'' (

wind instruments A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pit ...

) of ancient and medieval period. #''Ghan Vadya''(Idiophonic or stroke-based instruments) in India have taken various forms—wood on wood, metal on metal and possible combinations. These are discussed in sixth chapter. #Musical instruments that are not mentioned in classical texts like Jal tarang, Ghunghru Tarang, Kans Tarang etc. having evolved in medieval to modern period, are documented in the seventh chapter. #A comparative study is made of ancient, medieval and modern instruments in eighth chapter. #The structure of instruments in their modern evolution is discussed in the ninth chapter, with ample details for building them from scratch despite there being meager details available in ancient texts. This chapter discusses several modern instruments like

Rudra Veena The ''Rudra veena'' ( sa, रुद्र वीणा) (also spelled ''Rudraveena'' or ''Rudra vina'')—also called ''Bīn'' in North India—is a large plucked string instrument used in Hindustani Music, especially dhrupad. It is one of the m ...

Sarod The sarod is a stringed instrument, used in Hindustani music on the Indian subcontinent. Along with the sitar, it is among the most popular and prominent instruments. It is known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound, in contrast with the swe ...

Dilruba The dilruba (also spelt dilrupa) is a bowed musical instrument originating in India. It is slightly larger than an esraj and has a larger, square resonance box. The dilruba holds particular importance in Sikh history. It became more widely k ...

Santoor The Indian santoor instrument is a trapezoid-shaped hammered dulcimer, and a variation of the Iranian santur. The instrument is generally made of walnut and has 25 bridges. Each bridge has 4 strings, making for a total of 100 strings. It is ...

Sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form ...

etc. #The Tenth chapter contains a discussion on availability and evolution of the content for instruments. #The Eleventh chapter examines the genre of folk-music and evaluates the role of folk-instruments. #A modern scientific classification of instruments based on intensity, pitch, range etc. has been envisaged in the twelfth chapter. #Iconic and aesthetic elements of instruments have been discussed in the thirteenth chapter. Instruments are a vehicle conveying essential nature of others to the artiste while transporting his emotions to listeners. #The concluding chapter rearranges the whole gamut 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 in ...

highlighting the interdependence of evolution of instruments with texts mentioning them. The curve of development being successive, often provided a method to arrange two texts. Finally it established the ancient principles of Indian music in the light of reason rather than tradition or mere convention.

References

External links

Links to musical pieces
*''Raga-Rupanjali''. Ratna Publications: Varanasi. 2007

* ttp://www.omenad.net Excerpts from ''Bharatiya Sangeet Vadya''br>Madhukali -- Organization in memory of Sangeetendu Lalmani Misra
Dr. Ragini Trivedi. Hindi Madhyam Karyanvaya Nideshalaya: Delhi. 2010.

Ragini Trivedi. 2010. {{Indian musical instruments Hindustani music literature Indian musical instruments Music books 1973 non-fiction books 2002 non-fiction books