The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c16.s2.88

v2.c16.s2.88

Dancing in the same style is shown in a clearer manner in an episode of the Mahājanaka Jātaka, painted on the left wall of cave I, which is some seven centuries later than cave X. In this subject the dancer is wearing a skirt of striped silk and a full-sleeved jacket of brocade or some other embroidered stuff (Plate LX a). Her ornaments include rich jewels and her crown and hair decoration further suggest that dancing-girls received handsome fees for their performances. The pose of the artiste in this subject is almost the same as that of the two dancers in cave X, but the curves of her arms, wrists, and hands suggest an emotional intensity, evidently in accord with the movement of the other parts of the body, which shows a distinct advance upon the previous ideals and psychology of the art. The dancer has a band of musicians to help her in the performance; they are again all women. Two of them are playing cymbals, one a pair of tablas (tympanum drums), another the mirdang (a double drum with a narrow ring between the two parts), and a third a guitar or some other stringed instrument with a bowl at the end, and two flutes. The variety of musical instruments also shows development in the art of music. The two drums pictured in this painting have the usual leather strips round their bowls, such as are to be noticed tied on the tablas even at the present time. Sir C. V. Raman, the eminent physicist, is of the opinion that the Indian tabla was the first instrument of its kind from which all the seven notes of music could be produced, and that this effect was secured by dividing the top leather covering into three circular bands, brown, white, and black, each of varying thickness. Further, for the purpose of stretching the top leather, sixteen strings were tied round the bowl of the tabla. This drum travelled to the West from the East, and although the seven notes of music can be produced by the kettle-drum, or tympanum-drum, and although Beethoven has also used a tympanum-drum as an independent instrument of music, yet in India the tabla was used much earlier, as is shown in this painting of the fifth century A.D.