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M. A. Dhaky
SAMBODHI
composition, were looked upon as desirable objects, and proper means and channels of enjoyment, of which music was an important part.
Excepting the Anuyogadvāra-sūtra (c. early 5th cent. A.D.), no other Nirġrantha agama speaks about the foundational elements of Indian music. More information, however, is available on the traditional four classes, and types within them, of Indian musical instruments, in the books on monastic conduct and in the later Prākrta and Sanskrit commentaries on them. The Acārārga-sūtra Skanda II consists of five cūlās or appendices of which the premier two (c. 1st cent. B.C.) relate to monastic rules; four passages therefrom forbid the friars and nuns to listen to, or go to listen to the sound of musical instruments of the four categories, vitata (percussion, drums of many sorts), tata (string), ghana (solid beat-keeping) and sușira (wind). The text also lists a few instruments that fall under each category.?
Vitata : mrdanga, nandi, jhallari; Tata: Vinā, vipanci, babbisaka, tuna. tumba-vīnā, dhakuna; Ghana :tāla, kāṁsya-tāla, lattika, godhikā, kirikiri; Susira: samkha, venu, vaṁsa, kharamukhi, piripirīyā or piripirikā.
The Ācārānga passages in question include some instruments that are untraceable in the standard pre-medieval and medieval works on music in Sanskrit, on which I shall focus in the sequel. Incidentally, this data is important in that they predate those given within the gāndharva literature including the earliest text, namely the Nātyaśāstra of Bharat (c. 2nd 3rd cent. A.D.). The tumbu-vīna (in those days possibly ekatārā like string instrument) existed in the early centuries. It was called brahmavīnā in the medieval Sanskrit literature and its earliest instance of sculptural representation is known from a grille of one of the walls (now. fallen) of the Gupta temple at Naccanā Kuthārā (c. mid 5th cent. A.D.) in Madhya Pradesh. The lute type vīņas figure in several carved instances from at least the 7th-8th cent. A.D.
The next work is the Niśītha-sūtra (c. 1st-2nd cent. A.D.): whose rules of prohibition and expiation of the Nirgrantha recluses include a rather large number of musical instruments in addition to those that figure in the Acāranga Book II.
Vitata: bheri, panava, pataha, muraja, mrdanga, nandi, jhallari, vallari, (vallaki?)", damaruka, mattaka, dhuttunga(?), goluki:
Tata: vīnā, vipanci, tunava, babbisaka, vīnaiga(?), tumba-vīnā, jhondya (?), dharkuna (or dhakula), kacchapi, mahati;
Ghana: tāla, kāṁsya-tāla, littika (lattika, godhika), makarika;
suşira: samkha, srnga, saṁkhikā, vamśa, venu, kharamukhi, pirilī, or pairipirikā (piripirīkā), pāvā or parva.
The increased length of the list in the Niśītha-sūtra is due in part to its relatively later age as compared to the Acārānga Book II, but may also in small part be due to
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