The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan c5.15

c5.15

Happily, in Southern India, ideas of this kind cannot be said to prevail generally; proofs to the contrary may be found in the many living musicians who are men of education and poets in their way. Music has almost without interruption flourished there from very remote ages.⁵ This can be accounted for by the country having been more under Hindu rule than other parts of India, and having suffered perhaps less from internal commotions. From the study of Sanskrit, which has been maintained amongst the musicians of the courts of Mysore, Tanjore, and Travancore, music has not been left, as in other parts, almost entirely in the hands of ignorant dancing girls and their attendants.