Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c17.88

c17.88

The sister art of music obtained also a great encouragement from the Emperor and reached a high excellence in his reign. There were numerous musicians at his Court, Hindus, Irānīs, Turānīs, Kāshmīrīs, both men and women. These were divided into seven classes, one for each day in the week.² The world-renowned singer, Miyān Tānsen, a Hindu convert to Islām, whose tomb at Gwalior has become a place of pilgrimage to the Indian musicians, was a Court singer of Akbar. There flourished at the time, the great singer Hari Dās the master of Tānsen, and Rām Dās the second Tānsen, who hailed from Lucknow and received, it is said, on one occasion, a present of a lac of rupees from Khān Khānān.³ Besides Tānsen and Rām Dās there were at Akbar’s Court the following other singers⁴ :—