The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan c11.26

c11.26

Wind instruments, although perhaps of earlier invention than those with strings, are nevertheless looked upon as of secondary importance. Possibly this may have some reason in the fact that Brahmins are not allowed by their religious laws to use them, excepting only the flute blown by the nostrils, and one or two others of the horn and trumpet kind. And so men of low castes are employed as players of wind instruments. But all unite in ascribing to wind instruments a very high antiquity. The conch shell, still used in the daily temple ritual in almost every place in India, is said to have been first used by the god Krishna, and it is mentioned in the great epic of the Ramayana, where it is called Devadata. We also find it under the name of Goshringa, both in the Ramayana and the Mahabhârata.