Wind instruments, although perhaps of earlier invention than those with strings, are nevertheless looked upon as of secondary importance. Possibly this may have some reason in the fact that Brahmans are not allowed by their religious laws to use them, excepting the flute blown by the nostrils, and one or two others of the horn and trumpet kind. And so men of low castes are employed as players of wind instruments. But all unite in ascribing to wind instruments a very high antiquity. The conch shell, still used in the daily temple ritual in almost every place in India, is said to have been first used by the god Krishna, and it is mentioned in the great epic of the Ramayana, where it is called Devadatta.1[1] We also find it under the name of Gosringa, both in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
The horn (sringa) is also said to be of divine origin, and it is mentioned in the earliest writings. But the flute {murali) is still held to be peculiarly sacred, for this flute was the companion of the god Krishna in all his wanderings ; and in Indian mythology, this flute is looked upon with much the same veneration that the lyre was by the Greeks, and even by Brahmans it is still occasionally played and blown by the nostrils. In all sculptures and pictures, the god Krishna is represented as standing cross-legged playing the flute.
Reed instruments, although doubtless of very remote origin, appear to have been invented at a later period than instruments of the flute species, and their use is usually confined to either low caste Hindus or Mohammadans. For the Indian reed instruments are mostly harsh and wild, far too powerful and shrill to be used in concert with the delicate vina or sweet tambur, and so their use is chiefly confined to out-of-door performances, where their sound is better heard and v.-here they become fit adjuncts to the band. Instruments with double reeds appear to have been originally brought from India, and the double reed is found in the primitive oboes used there as well as in Persia, Arabia and Egypt. There seems to be no trace of the single beating reed ever having been known in India, but the single free reed is found in the bagpipe of the country. Indeed the bagpipe would itself seem to have an Eastern origin ; and, although its use in Southern India and the Deccan is chiefly confined to a drone-bass, yet in the Punjab and Afghanistan pipes are sometimes found containing both drone and chanter. I have heard them played with a dexterity that would do credit to a Highland piper. The Punji, now used almost entirely by snake-charmers, is said to have once been blown bv the nostrils and called Nasajantra. — (Captain Day. 99-104.)
Captain Day's remarks on instrument-making are not so applicable to-day as they were when he wrote fifty years ago. There is a constantly increasing demand for musical instruments, and a class of instrument-makers is arising. The centres of this industry are found in Calcutta, Miraj
- ↑ 1 i.e., god-given.
