The Music of Hindostan c8.s2.3

c8.s2.3

Akbar, late sixteenth century, is reported to have loved music as much as Aurungzeb, late seventeenth, hated it. He is said to have been a good player on the *Naqqārah* (a drum, used in pairs) and to have composed more than two hundred melodies. He invited Miyān Tānsen the pupil of Haridās Swāmī from the court of Rājah Rām of Baghelkhand, and loaded him with honours and gold. The Mohammedan *Ain-i-Akbari* says of Tānsen, ‘a singer like him has not been in India for the last thousand years.’ The Hindus, however, hold him principally responsible for the deterioration of Hindu music. He is said to have falsified the *rāgs*, and two, Hindol and Megh, of the original six have disappeared since his time.