DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5834#0087
66
SCENES IN INDIA.
to be excited by different modes of acoustic combina-
tions. Let us not, therefore, affect to despise the
music of Hindostan, because we happen to think it
inferior to our own; remembering too, that even
Europeans living in India, seldom hear it in its per-
fection.
Captain Luard exhibits among his groups of Indian
figures a band of itinerant musicians, such as are
commonly engaged by wealthy natives at their en-
tertainments, for the niggard remuneration of a few
pice—a small copper coin, in value about the third of
our penny. In these bands there is occasionally a
mixture of Hindoo and Mohammedan performers,
which is a symptom that the inveterate prejudices
of caste are fast subsiding throughout India. This
union of interest, indeed, among the votaries of Mo-
hammed and of Brahma, can only take place where
those prejudices are despised, which is now by no
means unfrequently the case among the lowest of the
four civil divisions of the Hindoo population.
These bands of native performers are commonly
seated upon a coarse rug in the veranda of the house
where they exercise their skill for the amusement of
the lord of the mansion and his guests. Usually
there is a vocal performer, who beats time with the
fingers of his right hand on the palm of his left, while
he is accompanied by his companions on their re-
spective instruments.
In Captain Luard's group one is represented playing
upon a sort of trilateral guitar, an instrument certainly
not common among Hindoo musicians, as it is neither
enumerated by Ward nor by the author to whose
SCENES IN INDIA.
to be excited by different modes of acoustic combina-
tions. Let us not, therefore, affect to despise the
music of Hindostan, because we happen to think it
inferior to our own; remembering too, that even
Europeans living in India, seldom hear it in its per-
fection.
Captain Luard exhibits among his groups of Indian
figures a band of itinerant musicians, such as are
commonly engaged by wealthy natives at their en-
tertainments, for the niggard remuneration of a few
pice—a small copper coin, in value about the third of
our penny. In these bands there is occasionally a
mixture of Hindoo and Mohammedan performers,
which is a symptom that the inveterate prejudices
of caste are fast subsiding throughout India. This
union of interest, indeed, among the votaries of Mo-
hammed and of Brahma, can only take place where
those prejudices are despised, which is now by no
means unfrequently the case among the lowest of the
four civil divisions of the Hindoo population.
These bands of native performers are commonly
seated upon a coarse rug in the veranda of the house
where they exercise their skill for the amusement of
the lord of the mansion and his guests. Usually
there is a vocal performer, who beats time with the
fingers of his right hand on the palm of his left, while
he is accompanied by his companions on their re-
spective instruments.
In Captain Luard's group one is represented playing
upon a sort of trilateral guitar, an instrument certainly
not common among Hindoo musicians, as it is neither
enumerated by Ward nor by the author to whose