Essay name: Musical Instruments in Sanskrit Literature
Author:
S. Karthick Raj KMoundinya
Affiliation: University of Madras / Department of Sanskrit
The essay studies the Musical Instruments in Sanskrit Literature and its relationship with the South Indian musical tradition. The study emphasizes the universal appeal of music and documents how it pervades various aspects of life, art, literature, painting, and sculpture.
Chapter 2 - Origin and evolution of Music and Musical instruments
63 (of 99)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
18 78
Indeed, such mud-drums are in vogue among folks in some parts
of the country. Both Paṇava and Mṛdanga were mud-made: But a close
investigation of ancient Sanskrit texts would show the real meaning of
mṛd-angā, and give us the information what exactly this ingredient
'mrd' was and where it was. The name Mrdanga was originally applied
by Bharata to the drum called Puskara.
Śārangadeva says
पणवो मृद्पटहः मुरज� मर्दलः मृदङ्ग मृण्मय� � एव �
प्रोक्तम� मृदङ्ग शब्देन मुनिना पुष्करत्रयम् �
[paṇavo mṛdpaṭaha� murajo mardala� mṛdaṅga mṛṇmaya� sa eva |
proktam mṛdaṅga śabdena muninā puṣkaratrayam ||
] Sangita Ratnākara VI - 1025
The Puṣkara, which was quite in vogue in Kālidāsa's time but not
in Śārangadeva's, was more fully called, as found in the above quoted
←★
*
line, 'Puṣkara-traya' - a three-faced drum. Its three faces - the right side,
the left side and upward one in the middle were tuned to different
svaras in the three different 'märjanas': māyuri, ardhamāyuri and
kārmaravi (Nāṭyaśāstra, Kavyamāla edition XXXIV, pp. 416, 421).
This drum was also called the Bhanḍa-vādya and a small but very
good sculpture of this three-faced vessel-like drum, with two faces on
either side and one on top, with the divine player, is found straight in
front of the shrine of Naṭarāja at Chidambaram, at the centre of the
series on the high basement of the shrine having the Urdhva Tānḍava
figure of Naṭarāja.
The inquiry on hand is Bharata's description of the make-up of this
tri- Puskara. In Nāṭyaśāstra, Bharata goes on to describe the mrittika or
mud. We are now familiar with the dark material, called "soru", and
made of powder of kiṭṭā-stone and gum of cooked rice applied in a disc
form on the right side of the Mrdanga.
