arrows.' Lakshmaṇa, entering the inner apartments of Sugrīva's harem, hears the ravishing strains of the music of the vīṇā and other stringed instruments accompanied by the faultless singing of accomplished vocalists. Rāvaṇa was a great master of music and was said to have even appeased Śiva by his sublime chanting of Vedic hymns.
The Rāmāyaṇa also mentions the jātis, which seem to have done duty for the rāgas in ancient times. They seem to have been seven in number and may perhaps have begun on each of the seven notes of the gamut. Among the musical instruments mentioned the following are the most important: bherī, dundtubhi, mṛidaṅga, paṭaha, ghaṭa, paṇava', and ḍiṇḍima among the drums; mudduka (brass trumpet) and āḍamhara (clarionet) among wind instruments; a vīṇā played either with the bow or with a plectrum, the vīṇā being the name for all stringed instruments.[1]
The Mahābhārata (500 B.C.—A.D. 200) speaks of the seven Svaras and also of the Gāndhāra Grāma, the ancient third mode which is discussed in the next chapter. The theory of consonance is also alluded to.
The Mahājanaka Jātaka (c. 200 B.C.) mentions the four great sounds (parama mahā śabda) which were conferred as an honour by the Hindu kings on great personages. In these the drum is associated with various kinds of horn, gong and cymbals. These were sounded in front of a chariot which was occupied, but behind one which was empty. The car used to go slowly round the palace and up what was called 'the kettle-drum road.' At such a time they sounded hundreds of instruments so that 'it was like the noise of the sea.' The Jātaka also records how Brahmadatta presented a mountain hermit with a drum, telling him that if he beat on one side his enemies would run away and if upon the other they would become his firm friends.
In the Tamil books Puṙanānūṙu and Pattupāṭṭu (c. A.D. 100-200) the drum is referred to as occupying a position of very great honour. It had a special seat called
- ↑ See Music in Ancient India, by C. Tirumalaiya Naidu.
