118 



It has a deep, mellow sound, and is played and used much like our 

 own bass drum. With it are usually associated the smaller kettle 

 drums, 43 and 44 ; and a performance upon the drums alone forms part 

 of every period of playing throughout the day, though they accompany 

 the pipes and trumpets in all other music executed. 



♦ 



50. "5*1^ (ShunJc) — Coxch shell, 



Is not used as a musical instrument, but is sounded during re- 

 ligious ceremonials, in processions of Hindu worship, and before idols. 

 No tune, so to speak, can be played upon it ; but the tone is capable of 

 much modulation by the lips, and its clear, mellow, humming notes, 

 heard at early morning and eventime from Hindu temples, and the 

 groves about them, have a peculiar though melancholy effect, not with- 

 out charm. 



The above concludes the catalogue of these instruments ; and as the 

 foregoing details may be esteemed incomplete without some notice of 

 Hindu music as a science, the following remarks upon it, brief as they 

 must necessarily be, may serve in some respects to supply the deficiency. 

 I do not put them forward as original ; for it would be impossible for me, 

 without a greater acquaintance with Hindu music than I possess, to 

 write anything more complete than Sir "William Jones's Essay, which 

 gives details to a greater extent than those with which I can presume 

 now to occupy the time of the Academy. 



First, then, as to notation — we find the Hindu gamut to be in 

 essentials similar to our own. There are eight notes in their scale, 

 which form the foundation of the primary modes, or "Swaras," and 

 which are named as follows : — 



Sharja, Punchama, 

 Bishaba, Dhaivata, 

 Gandhana, Nishada. 

 Madhyama, 



of which the initial letters form the gamut : — Sa, Hi, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, 

 JVi, Sa, corresponding with our Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si, Ut, and 

 the Hindu scale may be thus written : — 



A B 



c 



D 



E 



F G 

 © Q 



A 

 -©- 







© 



<~> 







-ilk r> 



o 

























^ SA, RI, 



6 A, 



MA, 



PA, 



DHA, TSI, 



SA. 



But the Hindoos have adopted no especial symbols, like ours, to expres 

 sound or time ; and in writing music, according to the ancient system, 

 the air and time of the melody are expressed by lengthening or shorten- 

 ing the vowels attached to each initial consonant, and repeating' the 



