The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s5.737

c2.s5.737

The conch-shell was ‘fair and gilded and terrible’ (viii. 37. 28), and seems to have been used indifferently with the horn, whenever the latter is employed, perhaps only by the vulgar. Its great size is also alluded to.* The musical instruments in general are grouped as vāditrāṇi, usually implying drums, though vāditra may be a general name for any instrument. For example, in vii. 13. 17, the vāditrāṇi are beaten by the Kurus in scornful defiance of the Pāṇḍus’ horns; to encourage Karṇa, the Kurus ‘beat the vāditrāṇi and blew the shells;’ while, to encourage Arjuna, the Pāṇḍus ‘filled the horizon with the sound of music, drum and shell, amid shouts and clapping of hands.’† Comparing later literature, we shall be inclined to give the later preference to drums rather than to trumpets, judging by the names. A number of new instruments, ṭaṅku, ḍamaru (with kheṭaka), ḍamarukā, etc., meets us in the Puranic period.‡ The camp-music differs slightly from the battle-field music; for though the battle-melodies are heard, they are softened; and when at sundown the armies return to camp, they are greeted by the milder notes of the lyre mingling with the war-instruments. Of this lyre more anon.§