Representations of Music and Musicians in the Sanskrit Epics
The Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20179764 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kaustubh Gaurh (Jawaharlal Nehru University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 247-262 |
| Publication date | 2020-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Indian Historical Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0376-9836 • E-ISSN: 0975-5977 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0376983620968004 |
| OpenAlex | W3115252867 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
The aim of this study is to understand the ‘idea’ of music that existed in early India in the first millennium bce. Observing the historiographical trends that have emerged in the historical studies of music, it can be seen that there is scarcity of sources to study the kind of music that was practised in this time period. But the approach presented here deals with the traces of music in the literary sources (the Sanskrit epics: the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata) which cover the representations of music and musicians. This would help us infer the nature of musical thought that evolved in early India. 1 The objective is to study the relationship between an art form and the society, by looking at ‘art in society’, not ‘society in art’ to see how music was conditioned by early Indian social factors. 2 After discussing the sources used for the study, a range of philosophical, material and societal aspects are addressed by looking at how the societies in early India engaged themselves with music
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Historiography · Literature · Music of India · Musical · Sanskrit · Sanskrit literature · Diverse Musicological Studies · History · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Neuroscience and Music Perception
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |