and Tanjore; and many of the makers are noted for their skill, and the resonant qualities of instruments are being looked to very much more. The public is also taking up with zest the question of musical education, and it is becoming frequent in the better-class families to arrange for their daughters to learn some Indian instrument. All this, with the revived interest in music, will mean, as time goes on, a development of skill in the proper construction of instruments such as Captain Day desires. The Chitpur Road, Calcutta, is the centre of instrument-making in Bengal.
Captain Day in his book mentions the bells which are a common feature of festival dances in India, though hardly to be classed as musical instruments. They are usually tied round the ankles of the dancers. They are also used on festival occasions for the bulls. Every post-runner in India has a few attached to his little spear, and these may be heard for a very long distance as the runner comes along to the village.
I. Stringed Instruments
Apart from the drum the largest variety of musical instruments in India is found among the strings. The best and the most honourable instruments are also found here. The Vina occupies the first place among them all, and has done so from time immemorial. It is also the instrument par excellence for rendering Indian music; and no one who has not heard the masters of the vina has any right to give a final judgment on Indian music. In northern India the vina is often called Bin, the name vIna beings given to the tambur. In this book, however, the name vIna is consistently used for the classical instrument of that name. Three places in India are noted for its manufacture. They are Tanjore and Mysore in South India, and Miraj in Western India. The Tanjore and Mysore makes differ in the wood used for the bowl. Tanjore uses jack wood and Mysore black wood. Nearly all Tanjore-vTnas are elaborately ornamented by ivory carvings.
The instrument consists of a large pea-shaped bowl
