The Double-Reed Aerophone in India

Author(s): B. C. Deva
Source: Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council, Vol. 7 (1975), pp. 77-84
Published by: International Council for Traditional Music
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/767590
Accessed: 27-01-2016 14:48 UTC

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 THE DOUBLE-REED AEROPHONE IN INDIA
byB. C. Deva

A recent article by Jairazbhoyin Ethnomusicology1is perhaps the

firstcogentaccountof theoboe in India. Here I wishto offera few
commentson his paper and give some supplementary materialand
ideas.
It is not correctthatthe oboe "was introduced intoIndia by the
Muslims,probably notmuchmorethansixhundred yearsago,"2 forthe
muvariis said to have been mentioned by Matanga,wholived,at the
latest,in the ninthcenturyA.D. Also, whatappearsto be such an
instrument canbe seeninancientGandhara(nowAfghanistan-Pakistan)
sculptures, dated300-400A.D.3 Otherreferences arediscussedbelow.
Jairazbhoy's statement that"relatively recently nagasvarahas been
acceptedas an instrument suitedto classicalmusicin SouthIndia"4is
also notcorrect.As a matter offact,nagasvaraplayersareconsidered
oneofthebestrepositories oftraditionalclassicalmusic.Eventoday,it
is oftenfeltthatifonewantsthemoreorthodox ragagrammar, hehasto
go to thesefamiliesofnagasvaraartists.WhatJairazbhoy meantwas
modernconcertmusic.5
I am not sure whetherJairazbhoy'srelatingnaga withnay is
etymologically correct.I am, on theotherhand,of theopinionthat
nagasvara 'oboe' and nagasvara 'snake charmer'spipe' are related
veryclosely.Structurally the instruments are different.But theyare
bothreedinstruments: thefirsthas tworeedsandthesecondhas one.
Whathashappenedis a generalization ofnomenclature. A specificname
has becomea genericname; alternately, a generictermhas become
specific.Thatis, thewordnagasvarareferred to reedinstruments in
general.Again,pungi(thesnakecharmer'spipe)is also knownas bin,
whichis alsoa Hindiwordforvina,a stringed instrument.Whatis more,
pungi is called mahuvar,bin,and morliinGujerat.Mahuvar is evidently
relatedtomuvari,butnottomorli,a wordreferring, commonly, tothe
flute.Thisgoes wellwithkuzhal,whichwillbe discussedbelow.
The processofgeneralization is common.We willhaveoccasionto
refertoolaga andkuzhallater.ButhereI giveotherexamples.Theword
maddalamin SouthIndiarefersto all two-faced drums,without much
distinction.
Vinameantvariousdifferentkindsofinstruments.6Further,
takethewordmela'a groupora band'. Byextension itindicatesa scale
(a group of notes) - hence to tune an instrument- thence to fix the
fretson a vina.Since italso refersto a groupofinstrument playersof
whichthenagasvaramis an important member, theoboe comesto be
called a mela(m). Of coursethisprocessis not restricted to India.
Considertheworddrum:thisis appliednotonlytoallhollowbodiesand
framescoveredwithhide,butalsotoidiophones liketheslit-drum.Such
is notconfined
generalization to music.Untilrecently,phirangimeant

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78 / 1975 YEARBOOK OF THE INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC COUNCIL

anywhite-skinned in oldentimesYavanawas appliedto all

foreigner;
immigrants through thenorthwest. andspecifica-
Indeed,generalization
tionare processesoflearning, bothsocialand individual.7
It is thereforesuggestedherethatnagasvara,veryspecifically as-
sociatedwithnaga ('snakes'),hasbecomea generalized nameformany
typesofreedinstruments.
Jairazbhoy suggestsa possiblerelationbetweennaiyantimelamand
nai. Also,he associatestavil(a two-faced drumofthesouthern penin-
sula) withthePersianduwul,bothlinguistically and musically.These
are excellentsuggestions, worthfollowing up.
Incidentally,itis commontoderivenayyandi melamthus:nayyandi is
a kindofa clownandthemelam(ensemble)is saidtobe a parodyofthe
classicalmelam.Thoughtheplayingdoes soundlikeburlesque,some-
howI am notconvincedof sucha derivation.
I am not surewhetherthefamilyof thedoublereedsis Indianor
foreign. Like manyotherinstruments itis perhapsboth.Thatis, these
might have been indigenousinstruments as wellas Centraland West
Asianimports.Often,a local instrument nameand vice
getsa foreign
versa.
Here is an outlineoftheinformation availableto me:
Mukhavina(a vinaplayedwiththemouth, ormukha;noticetheuseof
the wordvina) is mentioned by Somanatha,the Telugupoet of the
century,in his PanditaradhyaCharitra,sand also
twelfthto thirteenth
byMummadi Chikkabhupala oftheseventeenth Italso occurs
century.9
in some Teluguballads said to be the workof a fourteenth-century
poet.10
Nagasvara (nagasara) occurs in Srinatha'sKridabhiramam(Telugu,
fourteenthcentury)."It is foundalso inSingiraja'sSingirajapuranam
(Kannada,ca. 1500).12
Ofgreaterinterest is themohori.Thisis a folkandtribaloboe. It is
also knownas mori;andonceagainI suggestthatthewordis relatedto
mahudiand magudi(the snake charmer'ssingle-reed pipe of South
India),whichare Sanskritized to madhukari and madhukali.
Perhapstheearliestmention ofthisinstrument is byMatanga(sixthto
ninth as
century), mavari and madvari. 3 References willbe foundinthe
Sanskritworksof Nanya (eleventhcentury),Sarngadeva(thirteenth
century),Vema(fourteenth century),andChikkabhupala (seventeenth
The
century).14 Kannada poetsRaghavanka (1250,inhisHarischandra
kavya), Singiraja (ca. 1500, in his Singiraja puranam), and Govin-
davaidya (ca. 1650, in his Kanthirava-narasaraja-vijaya)give it as
uses
The KannadasaintandcomposerPurandara(1484-1564)
mouri.15
the word mouriyain some of his suladis.16
HereI wouldliketooffer a fewetymological Madhukari
suggestions.
has been said to be "corrupted"intomavari;andmadhukariitselfis
derivedfrommadhu'sweet' and kari'thatwhichsounds'. Hence, a
"sweet-sounding" This maybe carrying
instrument. Sanskritization
too far!
I thinkitis possiblyderivablefroma variantofmorimeaning'gutter,
channel, tube'. This is the common usage in Kannada, Marathi, and

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DEVA DOUBLE-REED AEROPHONE IN INDIA / 79

Hindi,perhapsalso inotherlanguages.Forinstance,a pieceofcoralora

pearlwitha hole(forthreading)is calledmorivalimungaormorivali
moti.Hence,aninstrument madeofa tube.Thisfitsneatlywitha similar
Sanskritword,sushira,meaning'hollow';therefore, windinstruments
are known as sushira vadya (see also kuzhal below).
Themohoriis knownnowinmanyareas.It is a commonfolkinstru-
mentin Orissaand is liketheshehnaiingeneralstructure (Fig. 2). But
themohorifoundamongtheDevdhanis(?) ofAssamis moreinteresting.
It is made entirely of bamboo,whichaboundsin thisarea, and is a
three-piece tube,withsixholesinthemiddleone (Fig. 3). As faras can
be judged,Musliminfluences did notgo so fareast.
Another instrument ofthisprovinceis theka tangmuri oftheKhasis.
Itis "a woodenpipe,whichis playedlikea flageolet." 17Themuriinthis
wordis significant, formurimeans'drain'in Khasi.18
Now, the kuzhal. The wordkolavimeans 'tube' in southIndian
languages.Kolalu (inKannada)andkuzhavi(inTamil)meanboth'tube'
and'flute'.Whatis ofinterest is thatthedouble-reed instrument usedby
theKotas (ofNilgiridistrict) is known,by them,as kuzhl(Fig. 4). (A
reference to thisinstrument is madebyJairazbhoy.) Another groupof
people,theIrulasofTamilnadu,also havean oboe,whichtheycallkol
orpiki(Fig. 5).19 Here, then,is anothergeneralizationofthewordkolalu
(oritsvariation) toreferat oncetoanytubeortoa tubularinstrument.
Olaga in generalmeans'court'(ofa king).Used as a verbit means
'singthepraiseof or 'eulogize'.It also referstothegroupofsingersor
playersin a court(or, moregenerally, an ensemble).The nagasvara
('oboe'), beingtheleaderofsuchan ensemble,is hencecalledolaga.
We metthepikiamongsttheIrulas.This wordseemsto be closely
relatedtopipi,whichin southern Indiamayreferto almostanywind
instrument: whistles,flutes,and so on. Similarto thisis pepreof the
Pradhans(also ofthepeninsula).Allprobablysharetherootpi, usedto
describethesoundofaerophones.Interestingly, pepreis similarto the
Pradhans'bonga,whichin Marathiis a trumpet!20
In thenorthern hillsthegnyalingis used,a double-reed windinstru-
mentverymuchlike theshehnai, about threefeetlong (Fig. 6).21 Once
againtheetymologyis interesting.
LinginTibetanreferstoa flute;gnya
means either'China' or 'India', more oftenthe former:gnya-nag
'Chinesetable',gnya-nam
'China',gnya-chok 'Chinesepeople',gnya-
po 'Chinese incense'. But gnya-gar = India, gnya-tam = Indian
rupee.22In essence,then,gnyamaymean'foreign', and itis possible
thatthisoboeis an immigrant fromChina(orIndia).Ling,hereusedas a
refers
suffix, to a flute(analogoustokolaluandnai) - again,a process
ofgeneralization.
Finally,theshehnai(Fig. 7). Thisinstrument,inall probability,
was
imported intoIndiafromCentraland WestAsia. The wordcertainly
was. Relatedinstruments are the sundriand the naferi.These are
small-sizedoboes, theformercommonlyfoundin Maharashtraand the
latterthroughoutthe northernareas.
One earlyreferenceis fromHasan Nizam's Taj-ul-Masir(twelfthto
thirteenthcentury),which mentionsnafirand surna. Nizami Ganjavi,

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80 / 1975 YEARBOOK OF THE INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC COUNCIL

abouta century
anda halfbeforeAmirKhusro'sdemise,givesshahnai,
nafir,and surana.23
Sannayi is foundinthe Teluguballad Palnati viraCharitra,attributed
to Srinatha(fourteenth century).Nafirialso occurs,in a Telugufolk
ballad,"Katamarajukatha."The exploitsofthehero,Katamaraju, are
dated 1170,buttheballadmayhavebeen written after1632.24
In anycase, theaboveshowsthattheshehnaimostprobably reached
SouthIndiabeforethefourteenth century;we are, ofcourse,dealing
withfolktraditions, whichare difficultto date.
The shehnaiwas knownat thetimeof the Hindipoet Krishnadas
(sixteenthcentury). Sunadi,said to be mentionedby Ahobala(seven-
teenthcentury),25 is perhapsrelatedetymologically
andorganologically
to sundri.
Surnaiis, I wouldguess,theoldername.Theinstrument is knownin
CentralAsia(andapparently also inSlavicregions)as zurna.Shehnaiis,
perhaps,a modification ofthewordsurnaiwhichcan be derivedas sur
'tone,sound,note' + nai 'tube'.Nai meansboth'tube' and 'flute'in
Persian(cf. kuzhalabove). Shehnaimaybe derivedfromshah+nai,
meaning either'kingof(wind)instruments' (ora largepipe,as suggested
byJairazbhoy) or '(wind)instrument in thecourtsofkings'(cf.olaga
and mela above).
Sur+nai seems to have a parallelin sarode (short-necked lute in
India),sur+ud. Ud is a lutein CentralAsia.
Surprisingly, in spiteof so muchwritten historical
materialthereis
very littleparallelpictorialrepresentation. The NorthIndianminiature
paintings arethemostextensivesources;earlierevidenceis apparently
extremely scarce.A Gandharanreliefhas alreadybeenreferred to. A
nagasvarais saidto be depictedintheVirabhadra temple(ca. 1205)in
Asandi,KarnatakaState.26Thereis onewoodcarvingina templecarof
theeighteenth century.27
The evidencegivenabove suggeststhedirections ofmigration ofthe
doublereedin Indiaas in themapin Figure8.
This questionof generalization of nomenclature is inextricablyre-
latedto thehistory and migration ofobjectsand ideas, in thepresent
case, of organology. It is notmerelya problemofderiving one word
fromanother ortracing itsantiquity, this
though certainly helpsindating
anobjectora conceptandinfixing itsgeographical limits.Butthesearch
processtakesus to linguistic unitswhichin theirveryearlyuses lack
whatI haveherecalledgeneralization. Perhapsthisis a wrongterm,for
theideas or namesare notappliedto manyobjects.Theyare, on the
otherhand,generalor undifferentiated linguisticsymbolsthatbecome
specific.
In thepresent context, itis theprimary senseofbeinghollowwhichis
atthesource.Thus,a tube,a flute,oran oboe all haveonename.They
acquirea multiple entendre later.Thisis theverycruxofthenatureof
symbolism.28 At theprimevalstate,languageis "presided over [by]the
association, by the nervous mindof primitiveman, of certaingeneral
significances...."29

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DEVA DOUBLE-REED AEROPHONE IN INDIA /81

NOTES

1. Nazir A. Jairazbhoy,"A PreliminarySurvey of the Oboe in India," Ethnomusicol-

ogy, 14 (1970), 375-88.

2. Ibid., p. 375.

3. I. Lyons and H. Ingholt,GandharanArtinPakistan (New York: Pantheon,1957),pp.

30, 60, fig.41. Ingholt,however,refersto the "oboe" playeras a flutist,whichhe is
not.(I am gratefulto Dr. JairazbhoyforsuggestingGandharanartas source material.)

4. Jairazbhoy,"PreliminarySurvey," p. 380.

5. This was discussed withDr. Jairazbhoyrecently.

6. B. C. Deva, Psychoacoustics ofMusic and Speech (Madras: Music Academy, 1967),

p. 81.

7. Ibid., pp. 185 ff.See also B. C. Deva, "Cultural Bases of Indian Music," Basis of
Indian Culture (Calcutta: RamakrshnaVedanta Math, 1971), p. 501.

8. PalkurikiSomanatha, Panditaradhya Charitra (Telugu) (Madras: Andhra Patrika

Press, 1939), p. 444.

9. MummadiChikkabhpala,Abhinava Bharata Sarasamgraha (Sanskrit),ed. withEn-

glishcommentaryby R. Satyanarayana(Mysore: VaralakshmiAcademyofFine Arts,
1960), pp. xxxvi, 3.

10. B. Ramaraju, Telugu Janapada Geya Sahityamu (Telugu) (Hyderabad: Andhra

Rachayitala Sangham, 1958), p. 741.

11. V. Raghavan, "Nagasvara," Journal of Madras Music Academy, 20 (1949). The

chapteron musical instruments in Ahobala's Sangeeta Parijata is notincludedin the
usually available printedversionsof the work. But a referenceis given by Chunilal
'Sesh' (see note 25 below.)

12. Satyanarayana,Abhinava, p. xxxIx. See also B. C. Deva, Introductionto Indian

Music (New Delhi: Pul. Divn. Govt. of India, 1973),pp. 57ff.,and B. C. Deva, Indian
Music (New Delhi: Ind. Counc. forCult. Relations, 1974), p. 125.

13. There is no evidence of these words in the extantversionsof Matanga's Brhaddesi;

theyare given by Chikkabhpalaas "after Matanga."
14. RamakrishnaKavi, Bharata Kosha (Sanskrit)(Tirupati: T. T. Devasthanam, 1951),
p. 461; see also notes 9 and 12 above.

15. Satyanarayana,Abhinava, p. 2.

16. PurandaraDasa, MahatmyaJnana, song 129(1964); KrishnaLeela (Kannada), songs

18,55, 107,and 108(1965). In the second work,thecommentatorsgivethemeaningas
bajantriand sunadi, bothoboes (p. 138); song 18gives mouriand theothersmourya.
Both edited by B. Krishna Sarma and B. Huchharaya (Sri Purandaradasa's 400th
AnniversaryCommittee,Dharwar). The saint himselfdid not writeany titledan-
thologies; the editors have collected his songs and published them under various
heads.
Suladi was a compositionor song in whicheach sectionhad a different
tala. It is not
now in vogue, but was widelypopular fromthe twelfthto the seventeenthcentury,
particularlywiththe dasa composers of the Karnataka area.
17. P. R. T. Gordon, The Khasis (London: Macmillan, 1914), p. 38.

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82 / 1975YEARBOOK OF THE INTERNATIONALFOLK MUSIC COUNCIL

18. E. Bars, Khasi-EnglishDictionary(Shillong: Don Bosco, 1973), p. 625.

19. The information on the Kota and the Irula was collected by Dr. J. Kuckertz(Musik-
wissenschaftlichesInstitutder UniversititBonn) and myselfin 1970-71.I am thankful
to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Bonn, forfinancingthisstudy.The draw-
ings,by Sri A. Devsy, New Delhi, are based on the photographstaken thenby Dr.
Kuckertz. I am gratefulto himforpermitting theirreproductionhere.

20. C. von Fiirer-Haimendorf,

The Rajgonds ofAdilabad, Book I (London: Macmillan,
1948), p. 50.

21. I. E. N. Chauhan, "Ethnomusicologyin Kinnaur," Sangeet Natak (New Delhi), 27

(1973), 37. See also L. G. Jerstad,Mani-Rimdu, Sherpa dance-drama (Calcutta:
Oxford& IBH, 1969), p. 89; Jerstad,however, calls it a trumpet.

22. Sarat ChandraDas, Tibetan-EnglishDictionary(Calcutta: West Bengal Government

Press, 1960), pp. 304-5.

23. S. H. Askari, "Music in Early Indo-PersianLiterature," Malik Ram Felicitation

Volume, ed. S. A. J. Zaidi (Delhi, 1972), pp. 102, 115.

24. Ramaraju, Telugu Janapada Geya Sahityamu,pp. 205, 744.

25. Chunilal'Sesh', Asthacchap ke Vadyayantra(Hindi) (Mathura:A. B. B. Braj Sahitya

Mandal, 1956), p. 26.

26. Mysore Archeological SurveyReport (Governmentof Mysore, 1942), p. 68.

27. P. Rawlinson,Tantra (Delhi: Vikas, 1973),fig.31. Reis Flora, of the United States,
who was workingwithme on this subject, showed me photographsof two central
IndiansculpturesdatingfromtheMiddleAges. The instruments weredefinitely ofthe
oboe class.

28. B. C. Deva, Psychoacoustics, p. 185.

29. Sri Aurobindo,The Secret of the Vedas (Pondicherry:Sri AurobindoAshram,1971),

p. 48.

Postscript
Afterthe above was written,I came across a printedcopy of the Sangita Parijata (of
Ahobala) withthe section on instruments.Since the firstfew pages were missing,there
was no way ofascertainingthenameofthepublisherand thedate ofpublication.Fromthe
texts, it is clear thatthe sunadi was an oboe; even the mukhavinamighthave been a
primitiveoboe. The verses (52-53) describe it as a (marsh) reed tube of a span length,
wound withbhurja leaves and blown. This, of course, is no indicationthat it was an
"oboe." Nagasara (verses 48-49) was a snake-charmer'spipe.

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DEVA DOUBLE-REED AEROPHONE IN INDIA /83

4AIM p 7

Figure 1
Nayyandimelamof Tamilnadu.Leftto right:Kuntalam(pairof conicaldrums),Kun-
talam, tavil(bulgingdrum),talam (cymbals),twonagasvaram-s,pambai (pairofcylindri-
cal drums).

Figure 2
Mohori(also sometimes
knownas mukhavina)
ofOrissa.

Figure 3 Figure 4
MohoriofAssam.
Kuzhl of the-
Kota people.

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84 / 1975YEARBOOK OF THE INTERNATIONALFOLK MUSIC COUNCIL

Figure 5 Figure 6
Piki(Kol) oftheIrulapeople. Gnyaling hills.
ofthenorthern

Figure 7
Nagara and shehnai ofthenorthernhills.Note thatthebearerand theplayerofthenagara
are two different
persons.

Figure 8
familyinthesubcontinent.
ofthemukhavina
Possiblemovement

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