Musicians and Instruments by Dr. Gaurav Garg
Natya Sastra by Bharat Muni (composed between 200 BC and 200 AD) clubbed music instruments into
four groups:
● Avanaddha vadya (membranophones or percussion instruments), Sound is produced by a stretched membrane. E.g.
Tabla.
● Ghana vadya (idiophones or solid instruments), These are solid instruments that do not require tuning and are said to
be the earliest instruments invented by man.
● Sushira vadya (aerophone or wind instruments) - They are hollow instruments where the wind is the producer of
sound, The Shehnai is a popular wind instrument in India.
● Tata vadya (chordophone or stringed instruments) - The tata vadya is a category of instruments in which sound is
produced by the vibration of a string or chord.
■ Indian classical music is based on two traditions - The Carnatic music prevalent in South India and the Hindustani
classical music in North India.
Carnatic
✓ 72 ragas
✓ Instruments - Veena, Mridangam and Mandolin.
✓ Indigenous
✓ Both Vocal and Instruments have equal importance.
✓ MS Subhalaxami is a well known personality in
Carnatic music.
Hindustani
✓ 6 major ragas
✓ Instruments - Tabla, Sarangi, Sitar and Santoor
(Kashmir origin).
✓ Afghan, Persian and Arab
✓ Hindustani Music gives more importance to Vocal
music than Instruments.
✓ Pandit Jasraj is a well known personality in Hindustani
music.
String instruments and Indian musicians who play them
Santoor: Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma & his son Rahul Sharma, Bhajan Sopori & his son Abhay Sopori, Ulhas Bapat, Tarun
Bhattacharya.
Sarod - Allauddin Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, Amjad Ali Khan, Buddhadev Dasgupta, Bahadur Khan, Sharan Rani, Zarin S
Sharma, Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash.
Sitar: Pt Ravi Shankar (Grammy award winner), Anushka Shankar (Grammy award winner, Ustad Vilayat Khan, Ustad Imrat
Khan, Shahid Parvez Khan, Budhaditya Mukherjee, Harashankar Bhattacharya, Nikhil Banerjee, Niladri Kumar, Debu
Chaudhary , Arvind Parikh, Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan.
Amir Khusro has been reputed to have invented musical instruments Sitar and Tabla .
Surbahar: Annapurna Devi, Imrat Khan, Irshad Khan.
Rudra Veena - Asad Ali Khan, Jyoti Hegde, Zia Mohiuddin Dagar.
Veena: Chitti Babu, Sundaram Balachandrer, Emani Sankara Sastry, Doraiswamy Iyengar. (Carnatic music)
Mohan Veena: Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhat (inventor
of Mohan Veena). He won a Grammy award for
his album “A Meeting by the River”.
Sarangi: Shakoor Khan, Pt Ram Narayan, Ramesh Mishra, Ustad Sultan Khan, Ustad Bundu Khan, Surinder Sandhu, Dhruba
Ghosh.
Violin (Carnatic music) : MS Gopalakrishnan, Lalgudi Jayaraman and T.N. Krishnan, Smt M Rajam, M Chandrasekharan,
Vishnu Govind Jog.
Guitar - Braj Bhushan Kabra.
Mandolin - U Srinivas.
Wind instruments and Indian musicians who play them
Shehnai - Bismillah Khan (Bharat ratna), Krishna Ram Chaudhary, Ustad Ali Ahmed Hussain Khan, Pt Anant Lal
Dayashankar.
Flute: Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Rakesh Chaurasia, Pannalal Ghosh, TR Mahalingam, N Ramani, Ronu Majumdar, Nityanand
Haldipur, Pandit Raghunath Seth.
Nadaswaram: Sheik Chinna Moulana, T. N. Rajarathnam Pillai. Tamil Nadu origin.
Percussion instruments (played by striking) and Indian musicians who play them
Tabla: Zakir Hussain, Allah Rakha, Subhankar Banerjee, Yogesh Samsi, Sabir Khan, Pandit Satyajit Talwalkar, Pt. Kishan
Maharaj, Ustad Fazal Qureshi, Ustad Akram Khan, Sandeep Das.
Kanjira - Dakshinamurthi Pillai (He is also associated with Mridangam).
Pakhawaj: Totaram Sharma, Pt Ayodhya Prasad, Pt Gopal Das, Ram Shanker Das (Pagal Das).
Pandit is used for people from Hindu religion and Ustad is used for people from Muslim religion.
Mridangam: Palani Subramaniam Pillai, KV Prasad, SV Rajarao, Umayalpuram Sivaraman, Palghat Mani Iyer, Karaikudi
Mani, Palghat Raghu, Dakshinamurthy Pillai, Ramanathapuram Murugabhoopathy.
Ghatam: TH Vinayakram (Vikku Vinayak), EM Subramaniam
Vikku Vinayak plays Carnatic music with the ghatam, an earthen pot, and is credited with popularizing the ghatam. He won a
Grammy in 1991 for the Best World Music Album for his participation in Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum.
Jal Tarang: Pandit Milind Tulankar.
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