Musical Instruments in India is phenomenal, indeed appreciable imagination, thought, and artistic genius have gone into devising genius have gone into devising prodigious variety of musical instruments. The Indian musical instruments, a perfect fusion of imagination and unity of purpose is the truest and indubitable proof of the adroitness of the art manufacturers of the day fitting well within textual framework. The present book is an outcome of an indefatigable research of the author of the different varieties of musical instruments impeccably delineated in the early Indian plastic art. The study of them conditioned at these are by the aesthetic conciousness of the people and the congenial economic stability of their opulent society with which they pursued the pleasures of life, cannot but be of great sociological importance.
The book, comprising various chapters exemplifies meticulously the enormous details of each item of the musical instruments. The musical instruments covered under the classification viz., stringed (tata), percussion (anaddha), wind (susira) and solid (ghana) form the subject matter of the study. The indigenous traits and the foreign impacts on the Indian musical instruments are brilliantly visualized. To achieve this end the sculptures of Sanchi, Bharhut, Amaravati, Gandhara, Nagarjunakonda, Mathura and the paintings of Ajanta supplemented by the literary data and other archaeological evidence have all been brought painstakingly within the compass of the study.
Written in vivid and pellucid style, the visualization of musical instruments is pulsating. The coverage from 2nd century B.C. to 6th-7th centuries A.D. registers all trends and tendencies in sounds and models of the musical instruments. The book is bound to be of great value to the students of archaeology, musicology and art-history; and for the common reader its fascinating lies in the intense human and cultural interest that the subject inevitably energises.
About the Author:
Dr. K. (Konakondla) Krishna Murthy, M.A., Ph.D., D. Litt., F.R.A.S. (London), was born at Anantapur, a placid town in Andhra Pradesh.
Dr. Krishna Murthy, after his early collegiate education in the Government Arts College, Anantapur, took his B.A. (Honours) and M.A. Degrees from the Andhra University. A double doctorate, he was awarded Ph.D. in 1970 by the Nagpur University for his outstanding thesis, Life under the Ikshvakus as depicted in the Nagarjunakonda Sculptures and in 1983 for his excellent scholarly treatise The Gandhara sculptures - A Cultural Survey again Nagpur University awarded him the highest and the prestigious degree Doctor of Literature (D. Litt.). in recognition of his scholarly eminence, he was elected in 1972 itself Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (F.R.A.S.), - an honour that a few Indians are bestowed upon.
He joined the Archaeological Survey of India in 1954 and has been associated with the Archaeological Survey with distinction, for almost three decades. He is presently working as Superintending Archaeologist, Temple Survey Project, (Southern Region), Archaeological Survey of India, Madras.
For some time (November 1982 to June 1984) he was on deputation to Sri Satya Sai Institute of Higher Learning at Prasantinilayam and served as Professor and Head of Department of History and Indian Culture. He was also the Dean of the Faculty of Arts of that Institute during his sojourn there.
Abbreviations
List of Figures
List of Illustrations
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
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