Reading Indian music: The interpretation of seventeenth‐century European travel‐writing in the (re)construction of Indian music history

Abstract

Reconstructing the history of an art as elusive as Indian classical1 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 I998: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) and Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707).