British Forum for Ethnomusicology

Reading Indian Music: The Interpretation of Seventeenth-Century European Travel-Writing in

the (Re)construction of Indian Music History
Author(s): Katherine Brown
Source: British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 9, No. 2 (2000), pp. 1-34
Published by: British Forum for Ethnomusicology
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KATHERINE BROWN
Reading
Indian music: the
interpretation
of
seventeenth-century European
travel-writing
in the
(re)construction
of
Indian music
history
Reconstructing
the
history of
an art as elusive as Indian classicall music,
improvised
and
largely unnotated, and
complete only
in the moment
of
performance,
has
proven
to be a somewhat
problematic undertaking. Recently,
however,
there has been a
growing
interest in
trying
to
place
Indian music in its
historical context as a means
of understanding
better some
of
its
present
manifestations (Wade 1998.lvi).
It has
increasingly
been
recognized
that
European
travel literature, with its
easy accessibility
and its
copious
documentation
of
cultural detail, constitutes a valuable source
of
musical
information. However, travel-writing
is also a
notoriously complex
and
contradictory
genre, generally denying
a straightforward reading.2
This has
rarely
been taken into consideration
by musicologists using
these sources.
When
interpreted critically, however,
this
genre
does
offer
a
unique perspective
on music, which is able to make a
significant
contribution to the reconstruction
of
Indian music
history.
This
paper
discusses how the travel literature
published
during
the seventeenth
century
can be used as a source
for
the
study of
music
under the
Mughal Emperors Jahangir (r 1605-27),
Shah Jahan
(r 1628-58)
andAurangzeb (r 1658-1707).
1 The use of the term "classical music" here is somewhat
problematic.
In the
body
of this
article I have tried to restrict
my
use of the term to references to
acknowledged
"classical"
genres
such as
dhrupad (i.e.,
music which conforms to an authoritative
body
of music
theory
and is
patronized by
social
elites).
In the abstract I am
using
the term in a looser sense,
denoting
music
representative
of centres of
political
and economic
power
such as
royal
courts,
which
may
conform to theoretical norms more or less
closely.
2 See Porter 1993, Teltscher 1997, Introduction and
Chapter
One and Surendranath Sen's
Introduction
(Thevenot 1949)
for a more
in-depth
discussion of the
challenges
involved in
interpreting
travel literature.
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL. 9/ii 2000 pp.1-34
2 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.91ii 2000
Introduction:
recontextualizing
travel literature
Seventeenth-century
travel literature
essentially
tells the
story
of
Europe's
increasing
encounter with India. Earlier travellers had detailed
many important
discoveries
concerning
the nature of human
diversity,
which forced
Europe
to
reassess its
position
in the world
(Rubids 1995:38).
As a
consequence,
new
worldviews were
generated
which influenced the
way
India was
perceived
and
written about in the seventeenth
century
(40).
Thus, the
ways
in which
travellers "read" a music that was
strange
to them were
inevitably
affected
by
contemporary European perspectives,
while still
claiming
to be true. Frank
Harrison's call for
musicologists
to consider the individual biases of earlier
writers when
evaluating
the
reliability
of their musical
descriptions (1973:2)
has
largely
been heeded
by
those
using
travel literature as a source
(e.g.
Woodfield
1995:267). However,
it seems to have been
generally
assumed that the
veracity
of each
journal
can be
judged by assessing
the level of its
apparent conformity
with late
twentieth-century
standards of
"objectivity" (Miller
and
Chonpairot
1994:23).
Once an account has
thereby
been
granted
authoritative status,
it is
arguably
then treated as a mine of raw scientific
data,
from which musical
"facts" can be extracted without need for further textual or contextual
analysis.
The main
linguistic
conventions I have identified as
leading
to the
acceptance
of an account as
"objective"
are a use of
positive
or
non-derogatory
language,
a
non-religious outlook,
and a
distanced,
detailed
approach
in
description.3
On the other
hand,
it seems to be assumed that bias,
or
ethnocentricity,
is
synonymous primarily
with the use of
negative
or
patronizing language
in musical
description (Miller
and
Chonpairot 1994:7-8,
25).
Such a
bipolar opposition
enables an account to be
placed
somewhere on a
scale from
"quasi-fictional"
to
"photographic" (8), depending largely
on
whether the observer seems to like the music or not
(26-9).
This is
overly
simplistic;
as Nettl
points out, appreciation
is not
synonymous
with
understanding (1983:44).4 Firstly,
the
tendency
to
overemphasize
individual
bias,
and to insist on the
unique
nature of both the musical moment and the
attitude of the observer
(Harrison 1973:2)
obscures the
deep,
often
parasitic
relationship
between the travel
writers,
as well as a multitude of common
themes
running through
the travel literature that demonstrate shared
European
presuppositions
about India and music.
However,
the main
problem
with this
approach
is that it is
simply
not valid to use an
interpretative paradigm
that is
3 See for
example
Bor 1988:52-3 and Woodfield 1995:267, 275,
280.
4
Despite
his
considerably
more
dynamic
and
complex approach (see 1973:2),
even Harrison
is not immune from
regarding neutral, positive
or "scientific"
language
as less biased than
supposedly negative description (1971:15-16).
He also seems to subscribe to the
fallacy
that
the world of
travel-writing
divides
neatly
into Christian and secular
halves,
and hence that
religious
conviction is the
single
most
important
factor in
evaluating
whether a traveller has
made an
"adequate"
record of the music described
(1973:2).
A closer
comparison
of the
travels of
Manrique
and Navarette, for
example,
would serve to
dispel
this
myth (see
also
note 3, paragraph 2).
BROWN Reading Indian music: 17th-century European travel-writing and the (re)construction of Indian music
largely reacting against
the
language
of late
nineteenth-century
social
Darwinism to
judge
the trustworthiness of a
seventeenth-century
text. If we
look for
ethnocentricity primarily
in the form of "out-moded"
concepts
of
"purity"
or
"progress",
as Woodfield
suggests
we
ought (1995:267),
we
may
be
tempted
to assume that some texts do not exhibit
bias, simply
because we are
not
looking
in the
right place.
It is
imperative therefore, that we
challenge
our
present-day understanding
of historical
reliability by reading
these texts in the
light
of the
contemporary
culture and circumstances that
produced
them.
Seventeenth-century
travel
journals
were not isolated from each other, but
were
published
in a
specific
context with an
acknowledged
set of aims. Their
primary purpose
was to entertain the
European public
with exotic
curiosities;
indeed,
in the seventeenth
century,
travel
journals poured
off the
printing
presses
of
Europe,
second
only
to
theology
in
popularity (Teltscher 1997:4).
A
second
purpose
was to boost the
prestige
of
individuals,
nations and
trading
companies competing
in the
region.
The
English
East India
Company,
for
example, deliberately published
travel accounts as
propaganda during
this
period (Lach
and van
Kley 1993:302), thereby giving
an
exaggerated
sense of
the influence of various
European powers
in Asia at this time.
Significantly,
the
travel literature also fulfilled the
purpose
of
being
a
major
forum in which the
battle between
competing European ideologies
on a multitude of issues was
played out, using
the
ethnographic
evidence of the travellers' observations as a
weapon (Hodgen 1964:338-42).
For this
reason,
the basic
assumption
of the
above model
-
that it is
possible
to find an account that is almost
entirely
uninfluenced
by
Eurocentric worldviews
-
needs to be
questioned.
Even with a
detailed,
neutral
description
of a musical
instrument,
for
example,
I would
argue
that a
European objective
decided its inclusion in the narrative.
The
European
influences on
seventeenth-century travel-writing
can be
described
simplistically
as a series of dichotomies. The most
important
of these
was that of the medieval worldview of traditional
Christianity
versus the
embryonic
worldview of scientific rationalism. Other
important oppositions
included Protestantism versus Catholicism,
Anglicanism
versus Puritanism,
Royalists
versus Cromwell,
the
Portuguese
versus the other
European traders,
superstition
versus rationalism,
absolute
monarchy
versus
embryonic
democracy,
woman as Madonna or
whore,
and
Europe
versus the
Mughal
Empire.
This is
complicated by
the fact that the
importance
and
emphases
of
these debates
changed
over the
century;
for
example, by
at least the 1670s the
European
traders in India
presented
a united front to the
Mughal
authorities on
matters
affecting European interests, despite
the fact that
they
were often still at
war with each other in
Europe
(e.g.
Carre
1947:149).
It is further
complicated
because a
range
of
viewpoints might
be
expressed
on a
single issue,
which were
not
necessarily consistently defended,
even
by
a
single
author.
The individual
backgrounds
of the travel writers also
played
a role in
increasing
this
complexity; they
came from a
great diversity
of
educational,
philosophical, religious
and national
backgrounds,
and had
very
different
experiences
in India. For
example, many
of the
journals
referred to in this article
were translated into
English contemporaneously
from
Italian, Dutch, German,
3
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.9/ii 2000
French, Portuguese
and
Spanish.
The authors include East India
Company
servants,
noble
ambassadors, intellectuals, Catholic missionaries,
a self-educated
Venetian adventurer, and a French
spy.
Their
positions
between the
poles
of
any
of these issues cannot
necessarily
be inferred from a
superficial glance
at their
background
or
position;
for
example,
some missionaries
produced surprisingly
perspicacious
and
sympathetic
accounts
(Lach
and van
Kley
1993:
xlii).
I think
one needs
firstly
to
compare
the travel literature and determine which issues were
current at the time,
and then decide on the basis of the writer's observations,
which of those were instrumental in his
perception
of Indian music.
The travellers' use of
language
that
appears
to
signify
truthfulness or
objectivity
can also be
misleading.
Claims to be
telling
a true
story,
for
example,
were
commonly
held to enhance the entertainment value of a narrative
(Davis
1987:112).
One of the
major
conventions used to
signify
the
reliability
of a
text,
especially
in the first
quarter
of the seventeenth
century,
was the
repetition
of
observations made
by
earlier travellers. This did not
necessarily
mean that
they
had
actually
seen the same
things;
Teltscher
points
out that
many published
journals
drew
quite blatantly
on the work of
previous
writers for both the form
and content of their narratives
(1997:15-16).5 Moreover, the use of
"objective"
descriptive language
did not
signify neutrality;
on the
contrary,
in the latter half
of the
century
it was used to distance the
European
observer from the Indian
observed in order to buttress the
concept
of
European
distinctiveness and
superiority.
Finally,
the decontextualization of this
paradigm
allows a traveller's
interpretations
of a musical event to be cited as
"fact",
because his
journal
has
been deemed to be reliable. The
practice
of
bestowing
authoritative status on
those whose
language
seems
"objective"
to us can lead to
poor
or
partial
understanding
of the
evidence,
and even
occasionally
false conclusions.6 Not
even the most educated and
sympathetic
observers were able to avoid the
influence of
European concepts
on the conclusions
they
drew about Indian
music. One
major
obsession of the travel
writers,
for
example,
was the
sexuality
5 While this
practice
decreased as the
century progressed,
it is still evident in the work of such
writers as the self-educated Niccolao Manucci, who
copied extensively
from the earlier
journal
of Fran9ois Bemier, despite
the fact that he was himself an
eyewitness (Maiello 1984:625-7).
6
Wade, for
example,
is
particularly
uncritical when it comes to Niccolao Manucci's Storia
do
Mogor.
Written from
memory
several decades after the events it describes
(Manucci
1907:lxxii),
not
only
does Manucci's life
story
read like a
Boys'
Own adventure, but his
hatred for
Aurangzeb verges
on the
irrational,
and his reliance on "bazaar
gossip"
is
proverbial (Maiello 1984:625).
Wade's reliance on his evidence of
Aurangzeb's opposition
to
music
(apparently
on the basis of his
lengthy stay
in the
Mughal Empire,
and the
agreement
of his sentiments with those of one
particular anti-Aurangzeb
faction of Indo-Persian
writers)
leads her to make a most basic mistake with the
contradictory
evidence of another
European
traveller, Jean-Baptiste
Tavemier. He describes the
performance
in the divan of "sweet and
pleasant"
music when he was
presented
to
Aurangzeb
at
Shahjahanabad
on 12
September
1665
(1925:xxi).
Wade ascribes Tavernier's
description
to the
reign
of Shah Jahan twice
(1998:135, 165).
As Shah Jahan had been ousted
by Aurangzeb
seven
years previously,
her
subsequent
conclusions
(165)
must be erroneous.
4
BROWN
Reading
Indian music:
17th-century European travel-writing
and the
(re)construction
of Indian music
of Indian
women,
which as Teltscher
demonstrates, was
heavily
influenced
by
the current
European
debate on the virtue and vice of women.
(1997:37-9).7
Musical stories: a different
approach
to
interpretation
This is not to
suggest
that
seventeenth-century
travellers'
descriptions
of music
are
historically
worthless. I would
argue
that a musical
reality
-
the "facts"
-
did once exist beneath the rhetoric of the travel literature.
By
this I mean
that,
by
and
large,
the travellers were not
just making things up wildly
in order to
deceive.
Descriptions
of music and musicians can
usually
be assumed to reflect
actual musical events or social
phenomena
-
a dance
performance during
a
banquet,
a
parade
witnessed in the
street,
the naubat or the music of the
women's
quarters
overheard at
night.
This is
particularly
so when
they
are
located in the context of a
temporal
event
personally
attended or overheard
by
the observer, and even second-hand
descriptions
or those
presented
as
normative or essentialist are
likely
to retain
something
of the
original
musical
reality. However,
it is
impossible
for us to
comprehend
this
reality fully
and
exhaustively,
not
merely
because it is multi-faceted and
complex,
but because
we are
irrevocably separated
from it
by time,
and twice
by
culture. As Partha
Mitter
argues,
"the
past,
however
recent,
is a form of otherness"
(1994:8).8
In
her
study
of
pardon
tales in
sixteenth-century France,
Natalie Zemon Davis
suggests
a
possible way
in which we can reconstruct and
explain
at least some
aspects
of that reflected musical
reality.
Rather than
"[peeling] away
the fictive
elements in our documents so we
[can] get
at the real
facts", we should "let the
'fictional'
aspects
of these documents be the centre of
analysis" (1987:3).
She
argues
that not
only
are the
shaping
elements of true stories of interest in
evaluating
their truth
claims,
but that a
study
of the construction of stories can
in fact reveal
other, equally important
historical truths about the
society
under
consideration
(4).
If we therefore think of both the travel
journal
and the
musical
description
embedded in it as true stories with individual morals
reflecting contemporary European
ideas about
India,
we
may
be able to
comprehend
better some of the functions of music in India
through
the author's
choice and
interpretation
of musical events.
Because these individual narratives were
shaped by
the
required
perspectives
of travel literature as a
genre,
in order to
attempt any
reconstruction of Indian music
history
it is
necessary
to
study general
trends in
7 This
usually
manifested itself as a Hindu-Muslim
dichotomy
As an
example,
the musical
descriptions
of Pietro della Valle, highly
educated and himself a
composer
and music theorist
(Bor 1988:53)
are some of the most informative of the
period. However, he was convinced
that Hindu women were "modest and honoured", whereas Muslim women were lewd and
licentious
(1989:216).
This
prejudicial
distinction seems to have coloured his view of
"Mohammedan" female musicians and dancers
(1989:206, 224).
8 As an
example, contrary
to
postmodern dogma
that there is no such
thing
as
truth, it is a "fact"
that
you
are at the
present
moment
reading
this article.
However,
the
meaning,
or the
quality
of remembrance of this "fact" in later
years may
be
contested, obscuring
the "fact" itself.
5
6 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.91ii 2000
musical
description during
the seventeenth
century.
In this
paper,
I have chosen
to concentrate
primarily
on what I think are the two most
important
issues
influencing
the construction of musical stories in this
period:
the
development
of a scientific worldview, and the
increasing strength
of the
European powers
in
India. These are both reflected to a
greater
or lesser extent
mainly
in the choice
of material for inclusion in the
narrative,
and the
type
of
language
used.
I will first demonstrate how the
rising power
of the scientific worldview
influenced a
change
in
descriptive language
over the
century. Although
the
genesis
of modem science occurred
earlier,
it was in the seventeenth
century
that the decisive battle was
played
out between a literal Biblical
understanding
of the world and its
origins,
and a new
approach
to these issues based on
scepticism, rationalism,
and the observation of evidence. The
picture
is in fact
more
complicated
than
this,
as almost all subscribers to the new scientific
position
were also Christians
(Munck 1990:290-9).
On the other hand,
proponents
of both sides had
already
succumbed to the
philosophical necessity
of
arguing
on the basis of evidence. This evidence was
largely supplied,
and
often
interpreted, by
the travel writers.9
I will then show how the
rising
tension between
Europe
and India due to
increased contact,
and the ambivalence this created in the
European
mind
between fascination and
fear, was reflected in the choice of musical subject
matter.
Interestingly,
a
comparison
of
European
and
Mughal
sources
provides
an
insight
into the
way
music was used
by
both cultures to
convey specific
messages
to each other. In the case of
military
and ceremonial bands,
I
argue
that on the whole their
symbolic meaning
was
mutually
understood. However,
with
respect
to women
musicians,
I contend that the
message being conveyed
by
the
Mughals
was
consciously
or
unconsciously misinterpreted by
the
Europeans.
It is therefore
important
to note that while the musical world
described
by
the travellers intersects with the world described in Indian
sources,
it is not the same.10
Nevertheless, they
have an
interesting,
if
partial, story
to
tell about music in
seventeenth-century India,
valuable in
itself,
which must be
incorporated
into
any
reconstruction of Indian music
history.
Tradition versus reason: the
literary
use of music as
evidence
Christopher
Farewell
(1613)
observed at the
beginning
of the
century,
that:
The Moors ... drink wine
liberally,
and
strong waters, yet
never drunk
but in the
night,
and then their
women,
their wives and concubines ...
9 See
Hodgen
1964 and Rubies 1995 for
comprehensive
discussions of this
development.
10 It is
important
to note that with one
exception,
there are no incontrovertible
descriptions
of the most
prestigious genres
of Indian classical music in the
journals published
in the
seventeenth
century, despite
the fact that some of the
travellers,
Manucci for
example,
must
have been
exposed
to it at the
Mughal court,
or at least known about it.
BROWN
Reading Indian music: 17th-century European travel-writing and the (re)construction of Indian music 7
sing
most
melodiously,
with such elevated and shrill
voices, strained
unto the
highest, yet
sweet and
tuneable, rising
and
falling according
to
their art and
skill, (for every country
hath his own, and more or less
excelling)
...
[they] sing
aloud to God our
strength,
make a
joyful
noise unto the God of
Jacob,
take a
psalm
and
bring
hither the timbrel,
the
pleasant harp
with the
psaltery,
blow
up
the
trumpet
in the new
moon, in the time
appointed
on our solemn feast
day
...
(Farewell 1971:41-2; my spelling)
It would be unwise to
interpret
this
passage,
with its
flowery
rhetoric and
Biblical overtones, as an accurate
description
of
performance practice
inside the
zanana
("women's
quarters").
However,
it does tell us
something
about the
original
event. In
context, although
Farewell states that the
participants
"constantly
thus celebrate" the
change
of lunar
month,
this
particular
new moon
festival seems to have been no
ordinary
celebration
(41-2).
References to a
"feast
day",
the
putting
on of
costly perfumes
at the first
sight
of the new
moon,
and
joyous
acclamations of its
appearance
- "a reward for our watchfulness or
good tidings" (42-3),
seem to indicate that this event occurred at the end of
Ramazan. Hence women's music
may
have
played
a distinctive
part
in the
family
celebration of this
important
festival. This
passage
also demonstrates
that Farewell
appreciated
this music, and understood that it
required
skill.
However,
these were
arguably
not the
points
Farewell wanted to make with
this anecdote. His use of Old Testament
language
to
identify
this music
suggests
he
thought
that
European
and Indian Muslim culture had a common
Biblical
origin.
One of the main
consequences
of contact with non-Christian
cultures was to enhance
European
awareness of the
huge
amount of
diversity
between human societies
(Rubies 1995:38-9).
The Church's traditional
understanding
of
diversity
was based on a literal
interpretation
of
Genesis,
an
understanding
which was
challenged during
the Renaissance
by
a
growing
number of
sceptics,
who
questioned
the
logic
and
inerrancy
of the Genesis
account. Differences and similarities between various cultures were used
by
proponents
of both
positions
to
challenge
or defend the traditional view that all
societies had
originated
in
Eden,
and
subsequently degenerated.
It was therefore
common to
compare newly
discovered cultures with the Old Testament
(Hodgen 1964:230-68). Farewell,
a devout
Christian, might
have been
implying
that because the Islamic music he heard was similar
(in
his
mind)
to
the music described
by
David in the
Psalms,
this was definitive musical
evidence for the literal truth of the Biblical view of human
diversity.
John
Fryer (1672-81),
on the other
hand, although
also a Christian
(1909-15:xxxii),
was
representative
of the new scientific
community.11
This
extract,
written more than
seventy years later, comes from a section of his
journal
which
attempted
to
arrange
the various sciences of the
Indians, and
describe them
objectively using straightforward language:
11 John
Fryer
became a member of the
Royal Society
in 1697
(first
established in
1662).
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.9/ii 2000
In what Perfection Musick stands
(as
I am no
competent Judge)
I could
never
give my
Ears the trouble to examine, it
seeming
loud and
barbarous; yet they
observe Time and Measure in their
Singing
and
Dancing,
and are
mightily delighted
with their
Tumbling
and Noise.
They
as much dislike our shriller
Musick, hardly allowing
our
Wayts12
fit to
play
to
Bears,
and our
Stringed
Instruments strike not their hard-
to-be-raised
Fancies; but our
Organs
are the Musick of the
Spheres
with them, charming
them to listen as
long
as
they play.
(1909-15:103)
Here, Indian music was no
longer equated
with
recognizably European
concepts (such
as the Psalms of
David). Rather, Fryer
was able to
perceive
Homo
sapiens
1. Wild man: four-footed, mute, hairy
2. American:
copper coloured, choleric, erect. Paints self.
Regulated by
custom.
3.
European: fair, sanguine, brawny.
Covered with close
vestments. Governed
by
laws.
4. Asiatic:
sooty, melancholy, rigid.
Covered with loose
garments.
Governed
by opinions.
5. African: black, phlegmatic,
relaxed. Anoints himself with
grease. Governed by caprice.
Homo monstrous
1. Mountaineers: small, inactive, timid.
2.
Patagonians: large,
indolent.
3. Hottentots: less fertile.
4. American: beardless.
5. Chinese: head conic.
6. Canadian: head flattened.
Figure 1 The
genus
of Man divided into two
species by Linnaeus, the father of
botany,
in the
System of nature, 1735. Linnaeus'
system
of classification builds on the
foundation of late
seventeenth-century systems,
such as Dr
Petty's
Scale of creatures
(1670s),
and the observations of travel writers
(Hodgen 1964:422-5).
12 The word
"waytes [waits]"
in this context most
likely
refers to the bands of shawms and
sackbuts
(and possibly
other instruments such as viols and
recorders) employed by
civic
corporations
such as the East India
Companies, mainly
for
processional/heraldic purposes.
It
may
also refer to the distinctive
"signature
tunes"
played by
these bands
(Sadie 1980:154-5).
8
BROWN
Reading
Indian music:
17th-century European travel-writing
and the
(re)construction
of Indian music
Indian music as an abstract
object
of scientific
enquiry,
with its own internal
logic
that he was able to
recognize,
but not understand. He had therefore
progressed
from Farewell's
recognition
of its
uniqueness,
to
being
able to
put
Indian music on a
seemingly equal footing
with
European
music
by admitting
their mutual
incomprehensibility.
However,
in context this also served to stress Indian
inferiority, by
emphasizing
their absolute otherness to the
European observer,
who
simultaneously
claimed omniscience
concerning
Indian likes and dislikes.
Fryer's journal generally displays
utter
contempt
for the Indian
people, despite
his
appreciation
of their scientific achievements. He
regarded
the Indian
merchants of
Surat,
for
example,
as "the absolute
Map
of Sordidness ...
Lying,
Dissembling, Cheating,
are their
Masterpiece",
and
equated
them with fleas
(1909-15:212). Hodgen argues
that some
supporters
of the scientific
worldview, lacking
the belief in a common human descent from
Adam, were
increasingly willing
to
classify non-Europeans
as
superior
animals rather than
humans
(1964:408;
also Rubies
1995:37) (see Figure
1 for an
early eighteenth
century example
of
this).
John
Ovington,
for
example, travelling
in India and
Africa from 1689, regarded
the Hottentots as "the
very
Reverse of Human
Kind,
Cousin German to the Helachors
[Indian untouchables]
... so that if there
is
any
medium between a Rational Animal and a
Beaste,
the Hotantot
lays
fairest claim to the
Species" (in Hodgen 1964:422).13
While it was
probably
coincidental,
it is
interesting
that this attitude became more
prevalent
at the
same time as the travel literature
began
to reflect a
growing
fear of a
Mughal
threat to the
increasing power
of
Europe
in
India,
and a desire to
strengthen
ties
with
European
interests
(see Figure
2 for an
example
of a
classificatory system
tailored for an
imperialistic mindset).
The main
way
in which the latter was
demonstrated, however,
was in the travellers' choice of
subject
matter.
The Ihabitants and Natives of India are divided into Five
Sects, to wit;
I. Gentues; the first Possessors,
Aborigines,
or
Natives.
II.
Moguls;
the next Invaders or
Conquerors by
Land.
III.
Portugals;
the first Discoverers or
Conquerors
by
Sea.
IV. Dutch, English.
&c.
Strangers; partly by Conquest
partly by
Trade.
V.
Parsies, by
Permission.
Figure
2 John
Fryer's
classification of the residents of India
(1909-15:100).
13 Classifications of humankind into more than one
species
were
being published, using
travellers' tales as evidence, from at least the 1670s
(Hodgen 1964:422).
9
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.91ii 2000
Engaging
the other: musical
power struggles
and
mutual
appreciation
In her book
Imaging
Sound
(1998),
Bonnie Wade discusses the use
by
the
Mughals
of the ceremonial and
military band,
the naubat ensemble,14 as a
symbol
of
power
and status. Her conclusions, which are
largely
confined to the
Mughal context,15 will not be discussed at
length
here.
However, the narrative
function of the naubat in the context of the travel literature is an
interesting
example
of communication between rival cultures
using
musical
symbols.
Such
a
highly
"visible and audible
presence
of
power" (Wade 1998:4)
was
unlikely
to
go
unnoticed
by European travellers, and in
my estimation, nearly
all the
travellers
surveyed
here mentioned the naubat ensemble.
Many
of the
early
references were confined to
description, taking
either a
neutral or
occasionally
a
positive
stance on
Mughal
ceremonial music
(see
Figure
3 for an excellent
pictorial description
of the naubat in
procession).
However,
as the
century
drew to a
close,
most references to the naubat
ensemble became more
antagonistic
in
tone,
and
emphasized
the
symbolic
importance
of
military
music in India.
By
the late seventeenth
century,
the
European
colonies in India were well
established,
and
European
trade was
beginning
to have a more
significant impact
on the
Mughal Empire (Richards
1993:198).
The first half of the
century during
the
reigns
of
Jahangir
and Shah
Jahan saw a
mainly encouraging
attitude towards
European
involvement in
Figure 3 The naubat ensemble in Shah Jahan's entourage,
en route to "Darreecabaag"
from
Burhanpur
in 1632.
(Mundy 1914-36, vol. ii:195).
14 According to the A 'in-i-Akbari, 'Abul Fazl's chronicle of Akbar's reign (1556-1605),
the
naubat ensemble consisted of 18 pairs of large kettle-drums (kuwarga or damama), 20 pairs
of small kettle-drums
(naqqara),
4 barrel-shaped drums
(duhul),
3 pairs of cymbals (sanj),
4
metal trumpets (karna), an unspecified number of Persian, European and Indian trumpets
(nafir), 2 curved trumpets (sing), and 9 reed instruments (surna) (Wade 1995:98).
15 See Wade (1995) and (1998), Chapters One and Six.
10
BROWN
Reading
Indian music:
17th-century European travel-writing
and the
(re)construction
of Indian music
India
(203),16
a trend that continued to an extent under
Aurangzeb. However, as
European power
and
autonomy increased, and the
Mughal empire began
to
expand
into South India where the
majority
of the
European trading
stations
were located,
a more confrontational attitude towards those who
posed
a threat
to
European
interests became
apparent
in the travel
journals.
For this reason, a
metaphorical
battle between
European military
music and the naubat seems to
have been
fought through
the medium of the late
journals. Paradoxically,
the
growth
in
diplomatic
relations and trade in the seventeenth
century
also
produced
a certain amount of musical
rapprochement
between
Europe
and
India. At the end of the
century,
when fear of the Muslim threat was reflected
more
strongly
in the travel literature than ever before, this musical encounter
became somewhat controversial.
Musical
rivalry
Judging by
the
frequency
with which the Indo-Persian authors mentioned the
naubat as a
symbol
of
imperial might
and
victory
in
battle,
the
Mughals
were
fully
aware of the
implications
of
power
contained in this
particular
use of
music. Taken with the
Emperor
wherever he
went, the naubat was allocated its
own room situated
prominently
at the entrance to the
imperial
fortress or
camp
(Wade 1998:5).
In
addition,
as
representatives
of the
Emperor, regional
governors
were
provided
with their own set of instruments as a
sign
of
delegated
authority (Bruton 1812:262),
which were used in
maintaining
law and order
(Fryer 1909-15:246).
The
granting
of the kettle-drum
(naqqdra) represented
the
particular
favour of the
Emperor,
and was bestowed
only by
his
express
command
(for example
Khafi Khan
1977:57; Nagar 1978:94).
In a letter to one
of his
sons, Aurangzeb
demonstrated an almost
superstitious
belief in the link
between the
naqqara
and the inheritance of
imperial qualities:
"Issue an order
that the drum of
victory
will be beaten in
your
own name. You
may
remember
the words uttered
by you
in
your
childhood
'Babaji,
dhun,
dhun"'
(1972:45).
The
Mughal general
Mirza
Nathan,17
himself a
recipient
of the
imperial
kettle-
drum,
described at
length
a
struggle
for
precedence
between himself and
Mukarram Khan, the commander-in-chief of the
army.
While Mukarram Khan
was
legally
entitled to sound drums and
trumpets
to announce the start of the
march,
he had not himself been
personally
favoured
by
the
Emperor.
Mirza
Nathan therefore demanded that honour. It
appears
from Nathan's account that
all
parties
involved in the
dispute
were aware that this battle was a
metaphorical
power struggle
between the
protagonists (1936:224-8).
In the first
part
of the
century,
the travel writers were
certainly impressed
by
the
grandeur
and
symbolic might
of the naubat:
16
Although
Shah Jahan
expelled
the
Portuguese
from
Hughli
in 1631, the Dutch, English
and French
quickly replaced
them
(Richards 1993:202).
17
Mainly during
the
reign
of
Jahangir,
but also under Shah Jahan.
11
12 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.9/ii 2000
In the
night, particularly,
when in bed and
afar,
on
my
terrace this
music sounds in
my
ears as
solemn, grand
and melodious. This is not to
be
altogether
wondered at, since it is
played by persons
instructed from
infancy
in the rules of
melody,
and
possessing
the skill of
modulating
and
turning
the harsh sounds of the
hautboy18
and
cymbal
so as to
produce
a
symphony
far from
disagreeable
when heard at a certain
distance.
(Bemier 1891:260)
As the
century progressed, however, in
response
to the
signal they
were
receiving
from the
Mughals,
the
Europeans began
to use their own
military
bands as a
symbol
of an alternative
authority.
It would seem that these had an
identical function to the
naubat,
and that the
Europeans
even
adopted
Indian
instruments:
[The Mughal] way
of
living
is
truly Noble, having
a Retinue which
bespeaks
their Greatness as
they
rise in Fortune or the
King's
Grace ...
However, for the
English
Honour be it
spoke,
none of them
surpass
the
Grandeur of our East-India
Company,
who not
only command,
but
oblige
their utmost
Respect;
none of their Servants
showing
themselves in Publick without a
Company
answerable to theirs ...
When the Chief made his
Entry
at his Return from the
Fort,
it was
very
Pompous,
all the Merchants of Esteem
going
to meet him with loud
Indian Musick and Led-Horses: Before his Palankeen an Horse of
State, and two St
George
'
Banners,
with
English Trumpeters.
(Fryer 1909-15:87)
That the
Europeans
were
perceived by
the
Mughals
to be a threat is
demonstrated
by
the fact that the Governor of Surat in the 1670s
"actually
forbad our three
agencies
to blow
trumpets,
as was the
custom, during
their
meals,
or even in the streets when the chiefs of the
Company
went into the
town"
(Carre 1947:149).
As the
European companies
colluded in
ignoring
this
ban,19
I would
argue
that
they
now
perceived
themselves as rivals to the
Mughals,
not
only
in cultural
supremacy,
but also in
political
stature in India.
This is seen further in the difference between the two official embassies to
Jahangir
and
Aurangzeb, by
Sir Thomas Roe
(1615-19)
and Sir William Norris
(1699-1702).
As Woodfield has
demonstrated,
music was used
by
Roe
mainly
as a
diplomatic
tool in order to win
trading
favours
(1990:54-7).
In
contrast,
nearly
a
century later, Norris
engaged
in a battle with the
Mughal hierarchy
to
18 In this context, Bernier is
referring
to the karni,
a
large
brass
trumpet (1891:260).
Hautboy
in
descriptions
of the naubat often refers not to the wooden shawm
(shenai
or
surna)
as would be
expected,
but to the
karnd, mainly
because of its similar
shape
to the
European hautboy (Brown, 1999:16-17).
19 "Our three nations
[English,
Dutch and
French]
resolved not to send him
any
more
presents,
nor to visit him,
nor show him
any courtesy" (Carrd 1947:149).
BROWN
Reading
Indian music:
17th-century European travel-writing
and the
(re)construction
of Indian music
be
permitted
to
display
and sound
English military symbols
in his state visit to
the Grand Wazir, Asad Khan. In
correspondence
conducted via the Wazir's
Secretary,
Norris
stipulated
that he must be attended
by
his own kettle-drums
and
trumpets.
This
request
was refused. Furious, Norris
replied
that the
Mughals
were
ignorant
of the honour and
respect
due to him, as he was
subject
only
to the
King
of
England.
Asad Khan
pointed
out that even the
Emperor's
sons were not
permitted
to sound the drums. This matter was never
resolved,
and Norris left without
visiting
Asad
Khan,
instead
going directly
to the
Emperor's camp (Das 1959:270-4).
An astute and
culturally
sensitive
diplomat,
it is difficult to believe that Norris was not aware of the
potential
offence of his
stand. There are numerous
descriptions
of Norris
adopting Mughal
customs in
order to
please
his host
country (136),
even
celebrating
the
birthday
of
King
William III in
Mughal style (174). Moreover,
in an earlier incident Norris
showed that he was
fully
aware that he had been accorded a
higher
status than
the Dutch Chief when he
cunningly negotiated permission
for his
military
band
to attend him on a visit to Nawab Mahdi Khan
(150-1).
These battles over
musical
symbols
can be construed as
being symptomatic
of the
growing power
of
Europe
in India and the
consequent
rise in tension.
Musical
rapprochement
Musical encounter between
Europeans
and Indians was not
always conflictual,
especially
in the first half of the
century.
It must be remembered that the
number of
Europeans
in India was still
relatively
small
throughout
the
century.
However,
their numerical
strength
was
arguably outweighed by
their influence
as a
comparatively wealthy
and
potentially powerful
elite. There are numerous
appreciative descriptions
of musicians and instruments in the context of
wedding processions, religious festivals, funerals, temples
and
especially
court
entertainments. Skilled courtesans and
accompanists
in
particular appear
frequently
in the travel
literature, suggesting
that the Indian elites used them as
well as the naubat to
impress
their
guests.
Even a traveller as
ill-disposed
towards the Indians as Abbe Carre
(1672-4)
was able to
appreciate
this music:
[After
supper]
a
troop
of
instrument-players
then entered,
and sat down
in a comer of the room,
while at the same time came a dozen of
courtesans ... Their agility and
charm,
the
rhythm
of their
voices,
and
their skill in
showing
their
passions by
their
gestures,
were all
absolutely
perfect. They
were
really wonderful,
and were much
applauded by
the
guests
and
praised by
the Governor
[of Hukeri, Bijapur].
(Carre 1947:232)
The
European
ambassadors often returned the musical
compliment
of their
Muslim hosts. To entertain the Persian Governor of "Schamachie" in
1637,
Adam Olearius
(1636-8) provided
a
violinist,
a bass viol
player,
and a
singer.
The Governor was
apparently
"so taken
therewith,
that he
importuned
the
Ambassadors to
go
&
sup
with him at the
castle,
and to
bring
their Musick
13
14 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.911i 2000
along
with them"
(Olearius 1669:157).
Further evidence of a musical
rapprochement
between the Indo-Muslim and
European
cultures is found in a
number of references to
European patronage
of Indian music, both in India and
Persia. On 25
September 1637, the
English
ambassadors in Esfahan entertained
the ambassadors of the Duke of Holstein with Indian instrumentalists and
women dancers
(Olearius 1669:206).20
John Albert de Mandelslo
(1636-8)
was
entertained in the same
way, again by
the
English,
in Surat in 1638
(1669:22),
and
implied
that it was common in
European
circles to
patronize
both
English
musicians and Indian courtesans
simultaneously (47).
Perhaps
more
significantly,
Pietro della Valle's account
(1622-4) provides
the
only
incontrovertible evidence of which I am aware that
Europeans
were
also
patrons
of Indian classical music. In the late 1620s, at the house of Dutch
merchants in
Surat, Pietro della Valle was entertained
by
the excellent music of an Indian who
sang quite
well and
played
on a
certain odd instrument of his, used in India. This
pleased
me
greatly,
because it was not strident music like the
ordinary playing
of the common
Indians, but low-voiced and
very soft; and the musician was skilful
according
to the mode of the
country,
since for
many years
he had been at
the courts of
Bijapur,
in the service of 'Adil Shah ...
[there
follows a
remarkable
description
of a
bTn, included in Bor's
catalogue (1988)]
(della
Valle
1989:243-4)
This
passage
demonstrates that some of the
European
residents of
India,
with
their wealth and
perceived status, were
fulfilling
a social role in India
approaching
in
importance
that of a noted connoisseur of music such as 'Adil Shah of
Bijapur.
Furthermore, by mentioning
the musician's skilfulness
"according
to
the mode of the
country"
and
comparing
the music of a
royal employee
with
that of the "common
Indians",21
it indicates that
they
were
clearly capable
of
discriminating
between different
genres
and statuses of Indian music.
This
appreciation
of
foreign
music extended further to the
patronage
of
European
musicians
by
the Indian elites
(for example
Woodfield 1990:48, 56).
In Norris's
dealings
with
Aurangzeb,
the
English
ambassador used as a
20 Della Valle also records
being
entertained
by
Indian musicians, specifically
women
dancers,
in Persia
(1989:206).
It is
important
to note that out of a
population
of
500,000
in
Esfahan in the
1630s, 12,000 or 2.5% were
Indians, according
to Olearius
(1669:200).
This
would have been a substantial
community,
and
given
that
they
were
mostly
traders
(della
Valle
1989:128), they
would
certainly
have had the means to maintain a number of
musicians. Given also that there was still a
large
and influential Persian
community
in
India,
especially
in the
Deccan,
I would
suggest
that some sort of
dynamic
musical
rapprochement
between the Persian and Indian communities continued well into the seventeenth
century.
It
is
likely
that contact between Persian and Indian musicians was reduced from the 1640s
when relations between India and Persia soured
(Ahmad 1964:40).
21 This comment about the "strident music" of the "common Indians" refers to an earlier
incident: "after
nightfall
that
evening,
we heard music at
home, provided by
some
Mohammedan women
singers
and dancers ... their
music, being
so loud,
was distasteful
rather than
delightful" (della
Valle
1989:224).
BROWN
Reading
Indian music:
17th-century European travel-writing
and the
(re)construction
of Indian music
translator "Johannes Pottvleet a
ffleminge
Musitian to Osman Dara"
(Das
1959:211). Moreover, it seems that this extended to the
learning
of
European
instruments
by
Indian musicians.
Jahangir,
for
example,
was most
impressed
with the cometto
playing
of Robert
Trully,
and ordered him to teach one of his
own musicians how to
play
it
(Woodfield 1990:52). Furthermore, bands of
Indian musicians
playing
in
(what they perceived
to
be) European style
were
also established
by
the 1670s:
The Dutch
[in Golconda] employ
... a fine
troop
of musicians. These
are
poor
Christians from
Kanara,
near Goa.
They
had
passed
their
youth
in
slavery
with some
Portuguese nobles,
where
they
had learnt to
strum a
guitar
and
sing
some
airs,
almost as melodious as
penitential
psalms
... I had this diversion at all our meals. One tortured a
harp,
another strummed a
guitar,
a third
scraped
on a
violin,
and two
others,
having
no other instruments but their
voices, joined
in with the rest in
such a
way
that one could not listen to their harmonies without
pity
and
compassion.
There was
nothing
but
repetition
of helds, haa, hins, hus,
and such like sounds,
which lasted about
quarter
of an hour. After the
meal, they
came and asked me
proudly
what I
thought
of their fine
concert,
and
enquired
if we had
anything
so
charming
and
agreeable
in
our
European
countries. 'No,'
I
replied,
'we
certainly
have
nothing
like
it, and I can assure
you
that,
if in France we had a
troop
like
yours,
we
would
enjoy
it with much more
pleasure
and amusement than all the
tunes we use. But what of it?
Every country
has its own modes.'
They
were so
delighted
at
hearing
me
speak
in this manner that
they
imagined they
were the best musicians in the world.22
(Carrd 1947:350-1)
It had been
quite
common at the
height
of
Portuguese power
in the
sixteenth
century
to teach
European
instruments and
styles
to Indians under
Portuguese rule,
and the most
straightforward reading
of this anecdote would be
that the musicians were
performing European
music. However, Carrd's
description
of the music
strongly suggests
that he did not
recognize
it as
European.
The distinct
possibility
of an Indian band
performing
a
hybrid
22 It is a little difficult to determine in context whether these musicians were in fact Indian,
as the
passage
follows on from a
description
of the Christians in
Golconda,
who were
apparently "mostly Portuguese". However, Carrd seems to have
regarded
Goa as
part
of
Portugal,
and therefore all Goans as
Portuguese;
hence the musicians
"finding nothing
to
attract them in their own
country [i.e. Goa/Europe], they
visit the oriental courts
[i.e.
Golconda/India]" (350). Moreover, he
pointed
out that the musicians were
originally
from
Kanara,
not Goa, and he
certainly
did not refer to the musicians as
being European.
On the
contrary,
he refused to
"grant
them a favour for one of their own
countrymen
... the
miserable Canarin,
who had occasioned such a turmoil
by
abandoning my baggage" (351).
Lach and van
Kley
argue
that Hindus who converted to
Christianity through
the
Portuguese
were
regarded
by
other Indians as
Parangis
-
foreigners
-
and
especially
as
Portuguese
(1993:150).
I have thus surmised that the musicians were Indian.
15
16 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.9/ii 2000
Europeanized
music would be a further twist in the tale of musical
entanglement
between the two cultures. All the evidence of the travel
journals
thus seems to indicate a
widespread
musical
rapprochement
between India and
Europe throughout
the
century.
However, there is an alternative
explanation
for Carre's inference that this
music is not
European.
It also
provides
a
fascinating
demonstration of the
reason for
choosing
a
particular
musical
story,
as well as the means of
constructing
it to make a non-musical
point.
Even if the music did conform to
the norms of
contemporary European performance practice,
the
nationality
of
the musicians
might
have disturbed Carre's sense of the
separateness
and
superiority
of
Europeans.
For this reason, he made it clear to his readers that an
unbridgeable
distance existed between himself and the
indigenous
musicians.
The inflection of the
passage
is
highly ironic, even sarcastic, suggesting
the
utter
contemptibility
of the
subjects
of the
story.
This sarcasm is focused on the
quality
of the music
produced by
the
subjects,
a music that is
"piteous", causing
the music to become an
analogy
of
supplication.
Carre further
emphasized
the
musicians' role as
despicable supplicants
and his own as
omnipotent
benefactor
by using
music as a rhetorical device to describe their
requests
to him on behalf
of a friend:
Never had
they played
a tune with more
vigour
than that which
they
now
employed
in
importuning
me to
grant
their
supplications
... He
himself also took a
part
in this concert ... he cried and wailed in such a
way
that at last,
to
get
rid of this
music,
I was
obliged
to tell him that he
could come with us if he liked.
(352)
Whether or not the music
performed by
the
"poor
Christians from Kanara"
was
recognizably European
in
style,
the
import
of Carre's musical anecdote
seems clear. In his
eyes,
it was
unacceptable
for Indians to
attempt
to
perform
European
music.
Presumably many Europeans disagreed
with this
-
the Dutch
patrons
of the
musicians,
for
example. However, Carrd's
antagonism
towards
this music and its
performers suggests
that musical interaction between Indians
and
Europeans
in the last
quarter
of the seventeenth
century
was at the
very
least controversial. I would further
suggest
that his
jeering
indicated a fear of
blurring
the distinction between the two communities. This tension between
curiosity
about and enthusiasm for Indian
culture,
and the need to bolster a
sense of identification with
European interests,
became a more strident theme in
the
portrayal
of Indian women musicians.
Fear and
fantasy:
Indian women musicians
The names of
important
male musicians such as Khushhal Khan Kalawant
found their
way
into
many seventeenth-century
Indo-Persian chronicles
(Khafi
Khan
1977:161). However,
written references to female musicians and dancers
BROWN
Reading
Indian music:
17th-century European travel-writing
and the
(re)construction
of Indian music
seem to treat them as little more than
metaphors
for wealth or celebration. It is
perhaps surprising
therefore that
they
should be so
prominent, compared
with
male
musicians,
in the
European
travel literature. From the travellers'
observations,
it seems that female dancers and musicians
performed extensively
in
public throughout
the seventeenth
century.
In
fact,
it
may
be that for
Europeans,
women
performers
formed the main
point
of close encounter with
Indian culture.
However,
we need to be
very
careful that we do not
place
too
much
importance
on the role of women musicians in
Mughal society
on the
basis of the
frequency
of their
appearance
in the travel literature. Suleri
argues
that the
European
"will to cultural
description"
was in fact an
attempt
to control
the threat of India to
European identity (1992:7).
This can be seen in the
ambivalent
portrayal
of the woman musician or dancer in
travel-writing.
On
one
hand,
she was the
subject
of
detailed,
often
admiring,
observation. On the
other,
the writers were often
repelled by her, regarding
her almost
invariably
as
a whore from whom
they
needed
aggressively
to distance themselves. This
extreme reaction to the female Indian musician
may partially
have been caused
by
a fear of her
symbolic power
to subvert the dominant
position
of the
observer and to threaten his
identity (Suleri 1992:2-6)
-
firstly
as a
woman,
and
secondly
as a
symbol
of India.
The
problem
of women's music
Throughout
the
Renaissance,
and
particularly
in
England
and France c.
1550-1640,
the so-called "Woman
Question"
debate
produced
hundreds of
publications arguing
the relative virtue or vice of women. In this
debate,
both
women and music were
usually
linked
inextricably
with the arousal of
love,
human and divine
(Austem 1994:52).
Because it was deemed
possible
for
music to have
spiritual benefits,
the
performance
of music in woman's
approved sphere
-
the
private
domestic
setting
under the control of her husband
-
might
be considered an
acceptable
female
activity. However, woman's
irrational and sensual nature meant that a woman who
performed
music in
public
became enhanced in her sexual
power,
and was therefore a moral threat
to the men who observed her
(58).
Teltscher
argues
that the "Woman
Question"
was a
major
factor in the construction of
European
travellers'
conceptions
of
Indian women's virtue or
vice,
their
chastity
and
submission,
and their sexual
appetite (1997:37).
This has obvious
implications
for the
portrayal
of Indian
women musicians in
published
travel accounts.
Kanchani, domni,
and the intersection of male and female
spheres
The association between
women, music and love was
prevalent
in
Mughal
thought
as well
(Khafi
Khan
1977:19). According
to al
Faruqi,
the dual nature
of women's music
(domestic
versus
sensuous)
also
appears
in Muslim tradition.
Genres associated with the
family,
such as
wedding music,
have
traditionally
17
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.9/ii 2000
been
regarded
as
legitimate; however, any
music
performed
in a sensuous
context such as those of
"drugs, alcohol,
lust or
prostitution"
has
usually
been
censured
(1985:10-12).
A link between the music of
courtesans, lust, drugs
and
alcohol was
widely
drawn in Indo-Persian sources. The
Mughal Emperors
before
Aurangzeb, however, being
less strict in their
application
of Muslim
traditions and law,
were enthusiastic
patrons
of courtesans:23
[Nauruz 1606:] Dancing
lulis
[lalni]
and charmers of India whose
caresses would
captivate
the hearts of
angels kept up
the excitement of
the assemblies. I
gave
orders that whoever
might
wish for
intoxicating
drinks and
exhilarating drugs
should not be debarred from
using
them.
(Jahangir 1909:48-9)
Nevertheless,
it seems that the courtesan remained a controversial
figure:
[Dara]
was
very
fond of music and
dancing,
and once fell in love with
a
public dancing-girl
named Ranadel
(Ra'na-dil).
His love was so
violent that when his father
[Shah Jahan]
refused his consent to a
marriage
with
her,
the
prince began
to
pine
to death ...
Seeing
this ...
Shahjahan
was
obliged
to accord
permission
for the
marriage.
(Manucci
1907: vol. iii, 222)
There are a number of stories about forbidden love for
dancing girls
in the Indo-
Persian chronicles
(Wade 1998:84-6)
which corroborate the
suggestion
here
that the
Mughals perceived
it to be scandalous to
actually marry
a
practising
courtesan.
The
dancing girl's
controversial status
may
have led
Aurangzeb
to decree
that all
"dancing-women"
must
give up
music and
marry, according
to the
account of Niccolao Manucci
(1653-1708).
This
story
forms
part
of
perhaps
the
most famous musical anecdote of the seventeenth
century. According
to
Manucci's version, Aurangzeb, being
a
sternly
devout
Muslim,
ordered that all
music be banned
throughout
the
Empire.
In
protest,
"one thousand" musicians
organized
a funeral
procession
for Music.
"Report
was made to the
king,
who
quite
calmly
remarked that
they
should
pray
for the soul of
Music,
and see that
she was
thoroughly
well buried"
(1907:
vol.
ii,
8). According
to Khafi Khan in
the Muntakhab-al-Lubab,
the
banning
of music was decreed in the tenth
regnal
year,
i.e. c.
1668,
while others
(e.g.
Wade
1998:187) suggest
the ban occurred
some time after this. The usual
interpretation
-
that "the
prohibition against
music
applied
to all" for the duration of
Aurangzeb's reign (Wade 1998:187)
-
is
naYve
according
to
Delvoye (1994:117-18).
Manucci and Khafi Khan were both
23 I will use the term "courtesan" in this
paper
to refer to women who
provided
both musical
and sexual
entertainment;
all other
terms,
such as "women musicians" I will use
inclusively
to cover both those who were courtesans and those who were not. The term
"prostitute"
I
would
usually
construe as
referring
to women who derive their main income from sexual
entertainment
-
in the minds of the
travellers,
a woman's
musicianship
alone
might
warrant
her such a
(pejorative)
label.
18
BROWN
Reading
Indian music:
17th-century European travel-writing
and the
(re)construction
of Indian music
fiercely antagonistic
towards
Aurangzeb.
That some sort of ban occurred seems
the most reasonable
explanation
of the number of times this anecdote is
repeated. However, according
to Khafi Khan's own
account, the ban was
very
inefficiently policed,
and does not seem to have lasted
long (Lari
"Azad"
1990:210). Although
I do not have
space
to
present
a full rebuttal, my
contention
is that
Aurangzeb
withdrew
only
his
personal patronage
of music for
religious
reasons
(although
this would have had
important symbolic significance).24
Confusingly,
Manucci himself later described in
great
detail the role of
women musicians and dancers in the
imperial
court
after
the
supposed
ban
(1907:
vol. ii, 336).
The most
likely explanation
of this
apparent
contradiction is
that the women who
performed
inside
Aurangzeb's
harem and outside it were
functionally distinct, maintaining
the
separation
of domestic/female and
public
/
male
spheres. Despite
Wade's assertion that female dancers
customarily
"crossed
the
gender
boundaries"
(1998:84),
there is considerable evidence to
suggest
that
this role was
ordinarily
confined to a
particular
caste of female
musician,
the
domni,
who was not a sexual
entertainer,
who entered the
public,
male
sphere
from the female
sphere
and not vice
versa,
and even then
only
at
specific
times
of celebration
involving
both
sexes,
such as
weddings
and birth festivities.
Fran9ois Bemier
(1656-68) suggested
that:
Shah Jahan ...
transgressed
the bounds of
decency
in
admitting
at those
times
[birthday weighing]
into the
seraglio singing
and
dancing girls
called Kenchens ...
Aurang-Zebe
is more serious than his
father;
he
forbids the Kenchens to enter the
seraglio;
but
complying
with
long
established
usage,
does not
object
to their
coming every Wednesday
to
the Am-Kas
[throne room].
(Bemier 1891:273-4)
The
primary profession
of kanchani in Lucknow after
Aurangzeb's death,
according
to
Sharar,
was
prostitution (1989:146).25
Hasan states
unequivocally
that in Awadh "the
entry
of the courtesan was banned in the female
quarters".
The
domni,
on the other
hand,
were not courtesans until at least the late
eighteenth century. Moreover,
"whenever there were
any joyous celebrations,
ceremonies or
festivals,
the domni was the chief
performer
inside the female
quarters
whereas the courtesan was the main entertainer in the male
apartments." (Hasan 1990:74-6)
This seems to have been the case even in the
1620s, according
to Francisco Pelsaert
(1620-7):
24 This is the
interpretation
offered
by
the
Mughal
historian Bakhta'war Khan in the Mir-A 't-i
'Alam
(Elliott
and Dowson
1877:157-8);
it is
interesting
also that one of
Aurangzeb's
own
sons, Mohammed 'Azam
Shah, was famous for his
musicianship (KBOPL
1977: vol. xiii,
no.
690),
and that his
long-standing
Grand Wazir, Asad Khan, was also a noted music-lover
(Khan 1911:279).
I intend to
argue
this
subject
at
length
in
forthcoming
work.
25 Courtesans from Delhi and the
Panjab.
Kanchani are still active in the
Panjab
as
courtesans
today (Manuel 1989:48).
19
20 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.9/ii 2000
[The women] go
into the female
apartments,
where there is
music,
singing,
and
dancing,
as there is before the men ... It is the custom at all
weddings
and feasts to call in these
people
for the
guests'
entertainment.
There are
many
classes of
dancers, among
them
lolonies,26 who are
descended from courtesans who have come from Persia to India, and
sing only
in
Persian;
and a second class, domnis, who
sing
in
Hindustani, and whose
songs
are considered more beautiful, more
amorous, more
profound
than those of the Persians, while their tunes
are
superior; they dance, too, to the
rhythm
of the
songs
with a kind of
swaying
of the
body
which is not
lascivious,
but rather modest.
(Pelsaert 1925:81)
Unless Pelsaert was
repeating
second-hand information, it would
appear
that he
was an
eyewitness
to a celebration
including
domni. This would have been
impossible
if
they
were
always
confined to the zanana. As
performers
for the
harem, however,
and
particularly
as
possible
residents in
Aurangzeb's
zanana
(Manucci
1907: vol. ii, 336),
it is
unlikely
that domni in the seventeenth
century performed
a sexual function.
European perceptions
and the confusion of the
spheres
I would
suggest
that their
public
status
might explain why
Peter
Mundy
(1628-34)
classed the domni as courtesans.
Apparently,
"Lullenees
[lalni],
Harcanees
[harakni],
Kenchanees
[kanchani]
and Doomenees
[domni] (all
whores
though
not in soe
publique
a
manner) beinge
of several Castes and use
different manner of
musicke", performed
"at solemne feastes" in
Agra (Mundy
1909-36: vol. ii, 216).
The social distinction between different
types
of female
musicians was also denied
by
the other travel writers.
Despite
their awareness
of several different castes, most of them
argued
that all women
performing
music were
basically prostitutes. Moreover,
in
sharp
contrast to the role of the
woman musician in Indo-Persian
accounts,
where she often
represented
liberality, strength
and
prosperity,
some
writers, Manucci in
particular,
had a
vested interest in
portraying
all women musicians as
sexually
available in order
to reinforce the
stereotype
of the
Emperor
as a weak and
hypocritical
Oriental
ruler.
According
to Manucci, Aurangzeb, apparently "good
and
holy
to look
at,
but in
reality
an ill-doer and devil"
(1907:
vol.
iii, 253):
grew very
fond of one of the
dancing-women
in his harem, and ...
neglected
for some time his
prayers
and his austerities, filling up
his
days
with music and
dances;
and
going
even
farther,
he enlivened
26 These would
appear
to be the musicians referred to
by Jahangir above,
and their name
(Persian meaning "public singer") suggests they performed
music
primarily
in the
public
(masculine) sphere,
and almost
certainly provided
sexual entertainment as well. It is less
likely
that
they
were in fact incumbents of the harem,
with
Jahangir ignoring
the conventions.
BROWN
Reading
Indian music:
17th-century European travel-writing
and the
(re)construction
of Indian music
himself with
wine,
which he drank at the insistence of the said
dancing
girl.
The dancer
died,
and
Aurangzeb
made a vow never to drink wine
again
nor to listen to music.27
(1907: vol. iii, 231)
Manucci in fact used his
description
of the women musicians in the zanana
deliberately
to make the
point
that "their
only occupation,
outside the duties of
their
office, [is]
lewdness"
(1907:
vol. ii, 336). Many
other observations were
unreservedly prurient:
[In Shahjahanabad there]
is a Maumetan
College
for
whores,
with four
hundred Prostitutes as
professors,
who
carry
on the infamous
practices
enjoined by
their obscene Alcoran
[Qur'an!],
also
performing
as
singers
and dancers for the recreation and
enjoyment
of that Maumetan
barbarity [the Mughal court].
(Manrique 1926-7:161)
This seems
explicitly designed
not
just
to denounce the weakness of the
Mughal rulers, but in addition to associate Muslim
government
and law with
lasciviousness and decadence. Thus, by
the first half of the seventeenth
century
the
figure
of the woman musician
began
to
represent
the essence of Muslim
India in
European thought.28
The
quintessential
other: India as courtesan
The Oriental woman in the
harem,
with all the attendant illicit male fantasies
she
conjured up,
had been
stereotypical
shorthand for the Orient since the
Renaissance
(Teltscher 1997:40). According
to
Said,
the
language
used
by
Europeans
to describe the
Orient, trying
to control cultures it found difficult to
understand,
sexualized the Orient
by putting
it in the
subordinate, feminine
position,
but
making
it
simultaneously seductive, mysterious
and
promising
(1978:222).
The Oriental woman thus became a matter of both obsession and
identity
crisis for the
European
travel writer. Her
presence
in the
harem,
hidden
from the
European gaze,
subverted his traditional means of
retaining
his
dominant
position
-
his
right
as a man to observe the
woman,
and as a
European
to observe the Indian
(Teltscher 1997:38).
The conundrum of an Indian woman
performing
music in
public
made such a
figure doubly dangerous. Through
her
public sexuality
and her
foreignness,
her dual
"otherness",
she threatened the
traveller both as a man and as a
European
at the same time. She was thus an
27 This anecdote most
probably
refers to the courtesan Hira Bai "Zainabadi", with whom
Aurangzeb
fell in love when
they
met in
Burhanpur
in 1653. It seems she died nine months
later
(Sarkar 1912:170-1).
Manucci's inclusion of this
piece
of
gossip
-
to
explain Aurangzeb's
supposed antipathy
towards music
-
is
clearly misleading,
as there is
independent
evidence of
Aurangzeb listening
to music
long
after this event took
place (see
notes 5 and
20).
28 See also Farrell
(1997).
21
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.91/i 2000
obvious
target
for an
attempt
to contain the Oriental threat
by describing
her
and
dismissing
her via the medium of travel literature.
The female musician was
clearly
an
enticing
character for the
European
traveller. In a number of
journals,
the frustration caused
by
the lack of access to
the forbidden
pleasures
of the harem is evident in the
language
used to refer to
the music of other men's wives:
I have been ravished in those silent seasons with the sweet echo, or
reflection thereof from a fair distance, and
kept waking
hours
together,
listening
to them, anticipating (in my desires)
the new moons, which
they constantly
thus celebrate
[see p.
12 of this
article].
(Farewell 1971:41)
The
public courtesan,
on the other hand, resident "in
every
Town"
(Navarette 1960-2:319),
and
patronized by Europeans,
Indian merchants
(Das
Jain
1981:12), independent
rulers
(Carre 1947:232),
and lesser servants of the
Mughal Empire (Nathan 1936:626),
must have
provided
much more blatant
proof
of "Maumetan
sensuality
and wickedness"
(Manrique 1926-7:219).
The
fact that she was
fully
on
display
meant that the writers could describe her and
"possess"
her
(Teltscher 1997:38)
in obsessive detail. However, many
accounts
demonstrated a
degree
of awkwardness about the encounter. In some
cases,
this
appears
to have been due to a
particular
traveller's
professional
status:
As an
agreeable
and
cheering
form of dessert to this feast,
twelve
dancing girls
now came in,
whose lascivious and
suggestive dress,
immodest behaviour and
posturing,
were suited to Maumetan
sensuality
and wickedness ...
[A] pretext
served to excuse me from
joining
those Maumetan feasts
where,
in some of them one witnesses
sights
little suited to
Christians,
and still less to
priests.
(Manrique
1926-7:219, 222)
Often an
apparently admiring description
ends
dismissively: "Though
this
entertainment was most
sumptuous
and conducted with much eclat and
magnificence,
I have never
enjoyed
a feast less"
(Carre 1947:232). Perhaps
many
of the travel writers felt the need to stress to their readers their
physical
and
symbolic
distance from the women
they
were
describing
because "the loss
of self in sex
[or
even the
suggestion
of sex
through music]
with a
foreigner
would become a loss of national
identity" (Teltscher 1997:50).
Furthermore,
more than one writer referred to the
presence
of "husbands"
who
played
instruments to
accompany
the
dance,
thus
symbolizing
masculine
control over this
dangerous juxtaposition
of women and music
(Austem
1994:57).
One account, however, suggests
a subversion of masculine control in
the context of the
performance:
There were
brought
six
young Women,
whereof some had their
Husbands with
them,
who also either Danc'd or
Play'd upon
Violins ...
[the women]
had above the
instep
of the foot a
string, ty'd
with little
22
BROWN
Reading
Indian music:
17th-century European travel-writing
and the
(re)construction
of Indian music
Bells fastened thereto, whereby they
discovered the exactness of their
Cadence,
and sometimes corrected the Musick
itself; as
they
did also
by
the
Tzarpanes
or
Castagnettes,
which
they
had in their hands.29
(Olearius 1669:206)
Hence,
the
performance
of music and dance
by
Indian women before a
European
audience was both
ambiguous
and
threatening because, although
the
women were under the observation of
men,
their
performance
subverted the
norms of masculine control
through
a combination of feminine control of the
musical material, and the
open representation
of their sexual
power.
Because
the
figure
of the woman musician to some extent
represented India, her
performance may
have
suggested subliminally
the
possibility
of Indian
power
over
Europe,
if
Europe
were to succumb to her exotic charms.
Using
musical stories to reconstruct musical
history
When musical
descriptions
are viewed in the
light
of the circumstances of their
construction,
certain
interpretative guidelines
can be
developed.
The first is that
we have to be
very
careful not to read the
frequency
with which a musical
subject
was mentioned
by European
travellers as an indicator of its
indigenous
importance.
The second is that we must be cautious in our treatment of
European interpretations
of cultural
meaning,
or even the function of what
they
saw and heard.
Instead,
we must use our
knowledge
of
seventeenth-century
worldviews and the conventions of
story-telling
in the travel literature to
guide
our
analysis.
It is
thereby possible
to establish whether and how their
perceptions
conflict with or
complement indigenous
sources.30 While this will
inevitably expose
some of the travellers'
misreadings
of musical
meaning,
fortuitously
the travel writers' obsession with
particular
musical
subjects
also
provides
us with
unique
details that
might
assist a
partial
(re)construction
of the
musico-cultural
complex
of
seventeenth-century
Indian music. I will
briefly
demonstrate this with
regard
to female dancers and musicians.
In the travel literature there is some indication of the extent to which
Persianate culture continued to influence and
synthesize
with Indian musical
genres. Using only pictorial evidence,
Wade
suggests
that "the Turki female
dancers constitute a
presence
which is
entirely
different from that of the Indian
dancers ... While the Indian dancers are
likely
to wear
ankle-bells,
the Turki
dancers almost
always
use castanets for
rhythmic punctuation" (Wade
1998:86-7).
Olearius's
description
of a dance
performance
in the 1630s
(above)
29 Male instrumentalists
accompanying
female dancers are a common feature in
Mughal
miniature
paintings (see
the
"Gallery
Section" of Wade
1998).
30 Which, incidentally,
need to be
subjected
to the same
interpretative process
as the
European sources, as the Indo-Persian sources were also
inevitably
affected
by
the
circumstances of their
production.
In other words, the Indian sources are
just
as "biased" as
the
European sources, but
reflecting
a different set of worldviews.
23
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.9/ii 2000
contradicts her
conclusion, observing
that Indian dancers in Persia used both
ankle-bells and castanets at the same time. While this
may
have been a
specific
response
to the
exigencies
of
having
to earn a
living
in a
foreign country,
it is
conceivable that these musicians would have
transported
this
synthesized
form
of dance back to India. Another
example
of the
increasing synthesis
of
Persianate and Indian culture was in the
decreasing popularity
at Muslim
celebrations of the Persian
songs
of the "Lolonies" described
by
Pelsaert in the
1620s, and the
heightened desirability
of the Hindustani
songs
of the domni.
From the
European
travellers we leam
something
about the social customs
and status of courtesans. A number of
journals
observed that certain castes,
rather than
being paid by
the local ruler, were
obliged
to
"pay
him a
yearly tax,
which
they
extract from others who wish to
employ
them"
(Carre 1947:232).
Courtesans were
clearly important
to the local
economy
on a wider scale. Jean-
Baptiste
Tavemier
(1641-67)
observed that the Shah of Golconda allowed
courtesans to remain in the
city
at least
partially
because the
popular
drink
associated with their entertainments, tart, was
subject
to a
large
tax from which
the Shah derived considerable revenue
(1925:128).
Certain castes of courtesans,
in
particular kanchani, also received
payment
from the
Emperor (Aurangzeb)
for their
performances (Manucci
1907: vol.
i, 189),
and did not
necessarily
engage
in extra-musical activities
(Navarette 1960-2:319).
There are a number of invaluable detailed
descriptions
of women musicians
during celebratory events, including instruments, dance movements, costume,
and
setting. Tavernier, for
example,
wrote that the courtesans in the service of
the Shah of Golconda:
have so much
suppleness
and are so
agile
that when the
King
who
reigns
at
present
wished to visit
Masulipatam,
nine of them
very
cleverly represented
the form of an
elephant,
four
making
the four feet,
four others the
body,
and one the
trunk,
and the
King,
mounted above
on a kind of
throne,
in that
way
made his
entry
into the town.
(Tavemier 1925:128)
However, the most
important piece
of musical information taken from a
European
source of this
period
lies in Peter
Mundy's
sketch and
eyewitness
account of a
"banquett"
in
Agra
in 1632
(see Figure 4).31
The musical ensemble
described here
-
frame
drum,
a
singer clapping
the tal, barrel drum,32 and small
tal-keeping cymbals
-
is consistent with the evidence of
seventeenth-century
Mughal paintings (see
Wade
1998:89-90).
What is most
important
to note is
Mundy's
reference to the
Diapason. My interpretation
of this scene is
that, apart
31 It is
important
to note that this sketch
may
not have been taken from life
(Mundy
1909-36: vol. i, 4)
32 This is
being played standing up, hanging
around the neck of the drummer. It is most
likely
that the
barrel-shaped
drum mentioned so
frequently
in the travel accounts is the
pakhawaj;
for
example
"The Indian Timbrels are two foot
long,
but broader in the middle
than at the
extremities, much after the fashion of our Barrels.
They hang
them around their
Necks,
and
play
on them with their
fingers" (Olearius 1669:206).
24
BROWN Reading Indian music: 17th-ceury Euroean travel-wring and the (re)consbucuon of Indian music
A. A Table Cloth
layed
on the Ground.
B. The
guest[s]
sittinge
on the
ground
also, with
great
Cusheons
behind them.
C. A servant
beatinge
away
the
flyes
with a Chewra
[chauhril,
which is a horse taile on a handle.
D. Another with a
puncka [pakiaj]
(or
leather
fanne) makes
wynd.
E. The
datmuncinge
wenches.
F. One that
playes
on a Tabor or litle Drurnmme.
G. An old woman which doth
only singe
and
clapp
her hands
keeping
a kinde of
tyme.
H. A fellow
beating
on both sides of a
Drumme,
in fashion like the
Barricas
[water-cask]
wee have aboard the India
shipps.
I. A woman
clappinge
two
things
like Sawcers of brasse,
keeping
tyme
also.
K. Girls or slave wenches
sitting
behinde the rest.
L. A
learge
Carpett
whereon
they
all eat, sitt and daunce, It is to
bee understood
they
all
singe,
aswell those that daunce as those
that
playe,
all of one note,
except
the man who is the
Diapason.
Noe thirds nor fits in Musick as I could heere.
Figure
4 Peter
Mundy's
sketch and
description
of a
"Mimmannee",
or
banquet, Agra,
1632
(Mundy
1914-36:
vol.ii, 217)
25
26 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.911i 2000
from the
Diapason,
the musicians and dancers
sing
in unison.
According
to the
Concise Oxford
Dictionary,
the
secondary
definition of
diapason
is "a fixed
standard of musical
pitch".
In other
words,
it is
probable
that the
Diapason
is a
drone instrument. While Wade
extrapolates
from
Mughal
miniatures the
widespread
use of a
pitch
referent
by
the
reign
of Shah Jahan, she offers no
documentary
evidence to
support
her conclusions
(1998:195-8).
If I have
interpreted Mundy correctly,
this is one of the earliest known
pieces
of written
evidence for the use of the drone in Indian music.33
Conclusions
In this
study
of Indian music seen
through European eyes
in the seventeenth
century,
I have
argued
that stories were constructed around Indian music as
part
of a
European attempt
to understand their
place
in the world. Because of this, it
is
necessary
to
question
the
ethnographic assumptions
of the travellers in order
for our own
(re)constructions
of Indian music
history
to relate
meaningfully
to
the musical
reality
of the
period.
Attracted
by
the
country
he
encountered, and
afraid of the threat it
represented,
the traveller chose to describe the naubat and
the female musician in his musical stories, both
public
musical
representatives
of
Mughal
wealth and
power.
Stories about music could be used to assert the
cultural and
political superiority
of
Europeans,
and the vast distance that
lay
between them and the Indians. On the other
hand,
both the Indians and
Europeans
used music to
impress
one
another,
and thus music could be a
metaphor
for mutual
appreciation
and the
mingling
of cultures.
Eventually,
India would itself become
symbolized by music,
as the exotic
figure
of the
Oriental
dancing girl.
Taken as a
whole,
the travel literature also tells us a
great
deal about the
instruments used in the naubat ensemble and to
accompany
women
musicians,
including construction, sound,
the context and content of
performance,
and
their
reception. They
also reveal valuable information about the social status
and economic
importance
of
courtesans,
and
especially
the
existence,
popularity
and functions of different castes of female musicians and dancers. It
would seem that the
patronage
of Indian musicians
by Europeans
and vice versa
was
widespread,
and that Indian musicians at least
began
to
play European
instruments, possibly
even
developing hybrid styles.
On the other
hand,
Indian
instruments were
adopted
into the
military
bands of the
Europeans,
which were
used in
Mughal style.
The travel literature also
provides documentary
evidence
of the
continuing
contact between Indian and Persian
musicians, especially
in
Esfahan.
Moreover,
it also confirms that music continued to be
important
in the
33 It
may
be the earliest known so far from
any source, Sanskrit,
Persian or
European.
According
to John
Greig
in his
study
of Sanskrit and Persian treatises from the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, "At no time is a drone mentioned
anywhere
in theoretical treatises on
music, and, in fact, there is no
indigenous
word to describe the
phenomenon" (1987:16-17).
BROWN Reading Indian music: 17th-century European travel-wifting and the
(re)construction
of Indian music 2 7
Mughal sphere right through Aurangzeb's reign, contrary
to
popular belief,
particularly
in the Deccan.
This small
study
of
European perspectives
on
seventeenth-century
Indian
music, by focussing solely
on
published
travel literature, has done little more
than scratch the surface of the available documents. The case of Francisco
Pelsaert's account
opens up many
new
possibilities.
Unlike
nearly
all the other
literature
surveyed
here
(see below),
his
private report
did not enter the
public
domain until after his
death,
and much of it remained
unpublished
until the
twentieth
century.
It was therefore not
"improved"
for
public consumption by
the author.
Although
the musical content of his
journal
is small,
it contains a
unique
and most valuable detailed
description
of the role of different classes of
women musicians at
wedding
celebrations. It
may
be that other
unpublished
documents, perhaps
written
by European patrons
of Indian music with
significant experience
of its cultural context,
still exist in the archives. In
combination with much-needed critical studies of the
indigenous texts,
these
would
certainly
alter
significantly
the
partial,
but nevertheless valuable, picture
of music in
seventeenth-century
India
presented
in this article.
The travellers
Unless otherwise stated,
the information
presented
here is taken from editors'
introductions to the travel
journals,
and the travellers' own
writings.
Dates in
round brackets indicate the duration of their travels in
India;
those in
square
brackets indicate the date of first
publication.
Fran;ois
Bernier
(1656-68) [1670-1]
was a French
physician, intellectual,
and
independent traveller,
and a
disciple
of the
philosopher
Pierre Gassendi. In
India he was
employed by
Dara Shikoh as his
private physician,
and then
by
Aurangzeb's secretary
of state for
foreign affairs,
Danishmand Khan,
to instruct
him on
philosophical
and
political developments
in
Europe.
Bernier's
journal,
almost
certainly
written
up
on his return from
India,
is one of the most
important
of the entire
century,
but is of
marginal
relevance to
musicological
study. According
to Teltscher, many
of his observations were
designed
to
influence the internal
policies
of Louis XIV. She
argues
that his mistaken ideas
about
Mughal
land
policies
influenced the theories of oriental
despotism
propounded by
Karl Marx and others. He was also
largely responsible
for
turning Aurangzeb
and Dara Shikoh into "villain" and "hero"
stereotypes
in the
European imagination (1997:28-34).
William Bruton
(1630-7/8) [1638]
was a
quartermaster
with the
English
East
India
Company
in
Bengal.
His sole claim to
musicological
fame was his statement
that the Indians
"play
most
delicately
out of
Tune,
Time and Measure"
(1812:261)!
Abb6 Carr6
(1672-4) [1699],
the son of a French nobleman,
was sent to India
not in his
professional capacity
as a
priest,
but as a
spy
on the new French East
India
Company.
He
spoke Latin, Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic,
Persian and Urdu
fluently,
and
probably
Dutch and
English
as well. His factual
28 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.911i 2000
observations are
regarded
as accurate and
detailed,
but
unfortunately
he is
prone
to
exaggeration
and I think shows little interest in
anything
that does not
affect
European
interests. It seems that Indians in
positions
of
authority
are
contemptible
and to be
disregarded,
and those that are not are
irritants, jokes,
or
interesting parts
of the
scenery
when
travelling.
The
journal
entries were
written
up
at the earliest months after the events
they described, and the whole
manuscript may
have been written after his return to France. It went
through
at
least two versions
(1689 unpublished; 1699), seemingly
with the intention of
making
it more
entertaining.
Pietro della Valle
(1622-4) [1650]
was a Roman nobleman and
philosopher.
He
was a
highly
cultured
man, knowledgeable
in Italian literature and
law, and had a
passion
for music and
letters; according
to Bor he was a
composer, poet
and
writer on music
(1988:53).
The
original publication
was an unrevised
compilation
of his
private letters, which were not
designed
to
impress
a
popular
audience.
However, according
to Lach and van
Kley,
these letters became one of the most
popular
and influential accounts of the
century (1993:380).
His text is
very
informative, and
although
he is sometimes defensive about
religious matters, his
descriptions
are more often than not detailed, fair and
discriminating.
He was also
admitted to the
highest
levels of
society, including
into the
presence
of the Shah
of Persia.
(See Gumey
1986 for a discussion of his
limitations.)
Christopher
Farewell
(1613) [1633]
was
briefly
a merchant with the
English
East India
Company.
It was his stated intention even before
setting
sail for India
to
publish
an account of his adventures which would
support
and contribute to
the
growing
canon of travel literature
(1971:1-2).
John
Fryer (1672-81) [1698],
a
surgeon
in the
employ
of the
English
East
India
Company,
was a member of the
upper
middle class. He obtained both an
ordinary (1664)
and a medical
degree (1683)
at
Cambridge,
and became a
member of the
Royal Society
in 1697.
Upon
his
return,
after
reading
several
published accounts,
he was
prompted
to
improve
and
publish
as a narrative
various letters he had sent home from
India,
in order to bolster the
general
impression
of India
given by
earlier travellers. A staunch
royalist, apart
from
the Hindus his
particular
bete noir seems to have been
Puritanism,
with which
he associated Islam. He
spoke
no Indian
languages
and never visited the
Mughal heartlands;
thus
any
references to events outside his immediate
experience
must be treated with caution. His scientific
observations, however,
are considered to be accurate
by
Lach and van
Kley (1993:581).
John Albert de Mandelslo
(1636-8) [1645]
was a
page
in the ambassadorial
party
of
Frederick,
Duke of Holstein to Persia and
India,
and a fluent Turkish
speaker. According
to Sen
(the
editor of Thevenot's
travels),
Mandelslo relied
on the
Empire
of the Great
Mogul by
de Laet
-
who had never been to India
-
for his
descriptions
of
things
outside his
personal experience,
without
checking
facts or
acknowledging
his source
(1949:xxx).
Lach and van
Kley,
on the other
hand, argue
that Olearius
(see below)
added
substantially
to Mandelslo's
account, making
it
impossible
to tell which sections are
original, especially
in
the
English
translation
(1993:522).
BROWN
Reading
Indian music:
17th-century European travel-writing
and the
(re)construction
of Indian music
Fray
Sebastien
Manrique (1629-41/3) [1649]
was a
Portuguese
Jesuit based
in India from 1604. An educated
man,
he understood
Latin, Spanish
and Urdu
at least, and was held in some esteem
by
the
Mughal
establishment
(he
was
entrusted
by
Asaf Khan,
Shah Jahan's
father-in-law,
with
important Mughal
business in
Sind). Paradoxically,
this is a
fairly
inconsistent account that was
written
up
some time after the events it
describes, borrows from other
published
accounts
indiscriminately
without
acknowledgement,
and relies somewhat on
hearsay.
He was also
very antagonistic
towards
religions
other than
Catholicism,
and towards the
Mughal Emperor.
Niccolao Manucci
(1653-1708) [1699-1709],
who died in India in
1717, was a
self-educated Venetian adventurer whose life
story
sounds almost fantastic. He
stowed
away
on a
ship
bound for India in
1653, aged fourteen,
and was taken
into service
by
the
English Royalist,
Viscount Bellomont. In 1656 Manucci
enlisted in Dara Shikoh's
army
as an
artilleryman,
later
becoming captain
of
artillery
for
Raja
Jai
Singh
of Amber. Somewhere
along
the
way
he
picked up
some medical
knowledge
and set himself
up
as a
physician
in
Lahore,
c. 1670.
In 1678 he returned to the
Mughal Court,
became
physician
to Shah Alam's
wife, and returned to the Deccan in her
employ,
where he
fought
in
Aurangzeb's
army,
and went from thence to the
European colonies, eventually settling
in
Madras. He was not, as he seems to have told John
Fryer,
chief
physician
to
Aurangzeb
for
forty years (Teltscher 1997:42).
His account of the
Mughal
court,
written several decades after the events described and full of
unsubstantiated
gossip,
is well worth
reading,
but he locates himself
firmly
at
the centre of the
Empire,
when
really
he was a
very marginal figure
in
Aurangzeb's
court for
only
a small
proportion
of his
long stay
in India. A
reading
of his
interpretation
of musical events
requires great
care.
(See
notes
5,
6,
and
27;
and Maiello
1984.)
Peter
Mundy (1628-34) [1909-36]
was a
ship's captain
in the
English
East
India
Company. Distantly
related to the minor
English aristocracy,
he was an
educated and well-read
man,
and his
journal
reveals that he was an amateur
musician.
Mundy's journal
is
perhaps
the
very
best in terms of the wealth of
detail in his musical observations,
his
honesty
and
transparency,
and his desire
to be
open-minded
and fair in his
portrayal
of Indian
culture;
the authorial voice
is
rarely
obvious.
Nevertheless, although
it remained in
manuscript
form until
the twentieth
century,
he
always
intended to
publish
his
adventures,
and his
travels were "written
up"
for
publication
in 1650 and 1654 from
journal entries,
his
memories,
and other
people's writing. Moreover,
this was a conscious
contribution to the
genre
of
travel-writing,
as he himself made clear in his
introduction. The
Hakluyt
edition includes certain
journal
entries made after his
return to
England
that demonstrate a
willingness
to
accept totally
false rumour
as fact
(1909-36:
vol.
v, 97, 107),
and Sen
points
out a number of
borrowings
and inaccuracies in his
account,
such as
excluding
the Deccan from India
(in
Thevenot
1949:xxix).
Domingo
Navarette
(1670) [1675],
a
Spanish Dominican, was a
university
lecturer before
becoming
a
missionary
to China. Renowned for his
learning,
he
29
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.9/1i 2000
was
greatly respected by
the Chinese for his
understanding
of their culture and
his humble and humane nature.
Although
he was
dogmatic
in his
religious
beliefs, he was
rarely patronizing,
and had a
great
deal of
respect
for the Indians
he met on his brief visit. His travels were written
up
as
part
of a
longer
polemical
work in Madrid, based on notes made
previously.
There is
apparently
a constant undercurrent of censure towards what Navarette saw as
royal
anarchy
in
Spain,
which is often
unfavourably compared
with Asia.
Sir William Norris
(1699-1702) [1959]
was an
English aristocrat, a classicist
who, as a Fellow of
Trinity College, Cambridge
from
1681,
was the
envoy
between the
University
and the
King.
He became MP for
Liverpool
in 1695 and
was sent
by King
William III as ambassador to
Aurangzeb
in order to secure
more favourable
trading
conditions for
English merchants, a task in which he
failed. The 1959
publication
is in fact a
twentieth-century analysis
of William
Norris's letters and
journal by
Harihara Das, with extensive
quotations
from the
original
sources. Norris's
writing
is
complex; although
he is sometimes
contemptuous
of
aspects
of
Mughal
life and
policy,
he is
culturally
sensitive
and often
appreciative
of
Mughal
culture.
Adam Olearius
(1636-7) [1645]
was the librarian and mathematician of
Frederick,
Duke of
Holstein,
and was the
secretary
of the Duke's
embassy
to the
King
of Persia. He never went to
India,
but his excellent
descriptions
of Indian
musicians in
Persia,
and the Persian musical context, are
important.
John
Ovington (1689-92/3) [1696]
was ordained as a
priest
in the Church of
England
after
completing
his education at Dublin and
Cambridge,
and took
up
a
casual
post
as
chaplain
to the
English
East India
Company.
He seems also to
have been a
proponent
of the new natural sciences.
Ovington's
travels in India
were confined to
Bombay
and
Surat,
and his
writings
on
things
he had not
experienced
were
heavily
criticized
by
more
experienced
travellers. His
account,
which was
paid
for and
approved by
the
Company,
was
compiled
and
published
on his return.
Francisco Pelsaert
(1620-7) [1627?]
was a
low-grade
merchant in the Dutch
East India
Company
who rose to become senior factor in
Agra.
His
journal
was
compiled
as a commercial
report
towards the end of his
stay, possibly going
through
two
versions,
and was not intended for a
popular
audience.
However,
the
cultural information it
contains,
based on extensive travel and
personal
contact
with Indians,
is substantial. Two thirds of the
report
were
published by
the uncle
of Jean de Thevenot,
and
extensively quoted by
other travellers at the time.
Sir Thomas Roe
(1615-19) [1625]
was a courtier of Elizabeth
I,
and MP for
Tamworth, becoming
the ambassador of James I and the
English
East India
Company
to
Jahangir.
As Indian music is almost
entirely
absent from his
narrative,
this
journal
is of
only marginal
relevance to this article.
Jean-Baptiste
Tavernier
(1640-67) [1676-7]
was a
Franco-Belgian jewel
merchant whose uncle and brother were
distinguished cartographers. Although
he was
widely
travelled and
spoke many European languages,
he is not known
to have
spoken any
Indian
languages,
and he was not as well educated as some
of the other
independent
travellers such as
Bernier,
who was at one
stage
his
30
BROWN Reading Indian music: 17th-century European travel-writing and the (re)construction of Indian music
travelling companion
and a
significant
source of Tavernier's information. He is
likely
to have taken notes
during
his
travels, but the account was
compiled
and
published
on his return to France in two versions, becoming
one of the most
popular
travel
journals
of its
day.
From the
beginning
there has been a
considerable amount of
controversy
over how much of it was
actually
Tavernier's work, and how much should be credited to his
editor, Samuel
Chappuzeau; many
statements are incorrect and others
confusing. However,
according
to Lach and van
Kley,
"modem scholars" have
agreed, by comparing
it with other
contemporary accounts, that it is more
original
and accurate in
point
of fact than
previously thought (1993:417).
Jean de Thevenot
(1666) [1664-84]
the
nephew
of a famous
geographer,
was
himself a student of
geography
and natural
science,
and an
independent
traveller who
spoke Turkish, Arabic and Persian. He died in 1667 on his
way
home from travels in
Gujarat
and the Deccan
(he
was the first
European
to
describe the caves at
Ellora). However, as his
previous
travels had been
published
in 1664 to
popular acclaim,
it can be assumed that he went to India
with the intention of
publishing
his
adventures,
a task later undertaken
by
friends. Thevenot's
descriptions
of his
personal experiences
are
original
and
detailed,
but elsewhere he
occasionally
demonstrates
credulity,
a reliance on
hearsay,
and a
tendency
to borrow from Bemier and Tavernier without
acknowledgement.
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Note on the author
Katherine Brown trained as a viola
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recently completed
her MMus in
Ethnomusicology
at the School of Oriental and African
Studies, University
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London. She is
currently undertaking
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e-mail:
kathie@brownshouse.com.
34