Page:The Music of India.djvu/141

 fourteen catgut strings merely tied round the bow, so that it would be most difficult to retune them. A later instrument has developed the tuning peg, fitting into a small hole in the bow. Another type is represented in the Gabguki and Ananda lahari from the Dekkan. Here the tambourine-like resonator is held under the right arm, and the left hand holds the strings tight, while the fingers of the right hand twang them. The next instrument has a number of thin bamboo rods, which allow the string to be tightened or slackened, and also a tuning peg. This comes from Chota Nagpur and is called Nandin or Gopichand. A further development in the Thanthona from Tanjore shows a round stick fixed in the hollow walls of the cylinder, and carrying two tuning pegs. The Tsaung from Burma shows another kind of resonator in a hollow piece of bamboo. The strings are narrow strips of bark, carefully sliced off in such a way that the two ends remain attached. They are tightened by pushing a small piece of wood beneath them, and are struck with a plectrum in the right hand. In the middle of the flattened side of the bamboo, there is a rectangular hole covered with a small board of similar shape. This board the player beats with his left thumb, and thus obtains a kind of drum accompaniment. This instrument is still used by the primitive tribes of the Malay Peninsula. Next we see the development of the Vina. Here the strings are stretched over a finger-board and kept tight by pegs. This finger-board rests on two or three hollow bodies and the strings are supported on frets. The Kinnarl is one of the more primitive instruments of this group.

It was soon found that stringed instruments were too weak for open air work, and so for this purpose wind instruments came into existence at a very early date. The oldest of all these was probably the buffalo horn,