The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan c5.6

c5.6

Of Hindu music in Southern India, since the fall of the Hindu Empire of Vijayanagur, Tanjore has been the only school, and from it those of Travancore and other places have doubtless been founded. Unfortunately, there is no record remaining of what had been done in former times in Tanjore; but within the last few centuries the people there, as in Europe, have been aroused to a great state of musical activity, and there had sprung up a school of musicians, ending with Tiâgyarâj, destined to effect great changes and improvements in the art. There are still papers in the library of the Tanjore Palace which show that various attempts have been made to improve the existing notation, such as it is, of Indian music. With the cession of the Tanjore territory to the British, at the close of the last century, there came a time when arts and sciences were cultivated in peace; under encouragement of the noble and wealthy, music, so long neglected, once more sprang up with vigour to strike out for itself a new path and to enjoy a fresh existence. History in parallel instances shows that such has always been the case when arts long neglected are revived and become rapidly popular. The earlier music of the Sanskrit period bears a close resemblance, as far as we can judge, to that of the ancient Greeks, going far to prove that music has been derived from the same Aryan source, which seems probable, and has been discussed freely by different writers.