114 



centre is not always struck, but only occasionally for effect. This in- 

 strument, which is difficult of execution, is not often met with. 22 has 

 only sixteen frets, but eight strings, six from the top and two at the 

 sides, which lie under those played upon, and are used in combination 

 with them for peculiar resonant effects. This variation of No. 21 is, 

 however, uncommon, and confined perhaps to the Guzerat country. 



24, 24a, 25. WTreftl {Taoosee). 



This is another variation of the sitar, No. 21. No. 24 has seventeen 

 frets, with six playing strings ; but below them are eleven strings of 

 very fine steel wire, which are tuned to eleven separate notes in the 

 direct scale, and are not played upon. Their use is to effect modula- 

 tions by vibration of sound, which imparts softness to the melodies ex- 

 ecuted by the hand. No 25 is an instrument of the same character, 

 but with twelve lower strings, which are tuned as in the preceding, 

 and with the same object. 



The Vina. — The best instrument, however, and the most powerful 

 and melodious of this character, is the vina, which is wanting to this 

 collection. In form it does not differ much from the preceding, but 

 it has much more power and sweetness, though the peculiar effect of notes 

 sounded upon brass and steel strings is never absent. The finger board 

 of the vina with nineteen frets is 2j octaves, and the frets themselves 

 represent the following notes in English music : — 



D,D#, E,E,F#, G,G#, A, B#, C, C#, D, D#, C,F,Fjf, G#, A, D. 



To hear, so as to understand, any really classical Hindu music, it should 

 be played upon this instrument ; and I have occasionally met with some 

 very learned and accomplished performers, principally from Mysore and 

 the south of India. One of these men, after playing many Hindu airs 

 and variations upon them, changed the key of the instrument, and began 

 a piece which was familiar to me, though from him unaccountable ; it 

 was, in fact, a great portion of Beethoven's Sonata in A ; and he ex- 

 plained that, having once taught an English lady a good deal of his own 

 music, which she played upon the piano, she had in turn taught him this 

 Sonata, which he preferred, he said, above all other " English Music ;" 

 and his version of it, considering the defects of his instrument, was really 

 very beautiful. The fact of nineteen frets expressing the notes I have 

 enumerated, and their extension according to the Hindu system o 

 fingering, affords satisfactory proof of the capabilities of the vina, which 

 is honourably mentioned by Sir William Jones in his Essay on Hind- 

 Music, as the standard instrument of India. 



26. ^irPr {Sarungi). 27. ^R^J (Sarrooda). 28. f^fJJ 



(Chikara). 



These are the ordinary violins or fiddles of India, and are played i 

 the same manner, though differing from them in some respects, as th 



