Indian Music: Carnatic music and instruments

The mridangam is a double-headed barrel drum played horizontally with both hands, and it is the main rhythmic accompaniment in Carnatic concerts and in Bharatanatyam. Palghat Mani Iyer and Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman are famous players. The tabla is the main drum of Hindustani music, the dholak is a folk drum, and the nagara is a large kettle drum used in temples and ceremonies.

The santoor is a hammered dulcimer: a trapezoid wooden box with many strings that the player strikes with two curved mallets. In Kashmir it accompanied Sufiana kalam, the region's Sufi devotional music. Shivkumar Sharma adapted its tuning and technique so that it could present a full raga, bringing it to the Hindustani concert stage. The sarangi is bowed, while the sarod and rabab are plucked.

Statement 1 is correct: the Saraswati veena, the main veena of Carnatic music, has 24 brass frets fixed on a bed of wax. Statement 2 is correct: the chitra veena, also called gottuvadyam, has no frets; the player slides a smooth cylinder over the strings, as on a slide guitar. Ravikiran is a leading player. Statement 3 is incorrect: the vichitra veena is a Hindustani instrument, a fretless slide veena related to the dhrupad tradition. Hence 1 and 2 only.

The Natyashastra groups instruments into four classes: tata (stringed), sushira (wind), avanaddha (membrane-covered drums) and ghana (solid instruments struck together). Pair 1 is correct: the sitar is a plucked string instrument. Pair 2 is correct: the shehnai is a double-reed wind instrument. Pair 4 is correct: manjira are small metal cymbals, a ghana instrument. Pair 3 is incorrect: the santoor has strings struck with light hammers, so it is tata vadya, not a wind instrument.

The sarangi is the classic bowed instrument of Hindustani music. The esraj, popular in Bengal and at Santiniketan, is also played with a bow; it has frets like a sitar but is bowed like a sarangi. The sarod is plucked with a plectrum made of coconut shell or bone, and the santoor is struck with mallets. So only two are bowed.

The jaltarang ('waves of water') is a set of bowls arranged in a semicircle. The amount of water in each bowl sets its pitch, and the player strikes the rims with light sticks to play a raga. It is a ghana vadya and is heard in both Hindustani and Carnatic music. The ghatam is a single clay pot, the kanjira is a small frame drum with a lizard-skin head, and the morsing is a jaw harp.

Statement 1 is correct: the ghatam is a specially fired clay pot played with the fingers, palms and wrists, and is a common secondary percussion instrument with the mridangam. Statement 2 is correct: the nadaswaram, a long double-reed instrument, is considered auspicious and is played in temple processions and at weddings in Tamil Nadu. Statement 3 is correct: the thavil, a barrel drum played with a stick on one side and capped fingers on the other, is the nadaswaram's standard partner. Hence all three are correct.

Pair 1 is correct: Asad Ali Khan (1937–2011) was one of the last great rudra veena players of the Khandarbani dhrupad style. Pair 2 is correct: Sultan Khan (1940–2011) was a leading sarangi player and singer. Pair 3 is correct: Hariprasad Chaurasia is the best-known Hindustani flautist. Pair 4 is incorrect: Zakir Hussain was a tabla maestro; the santoor's great exponent was Shivkumar Sharma, with whom Hariprasad Chaurasia composed film music as 'Shiv–Hari'. Hence 1, 2 and 3 only.

Dheera Shankarabharanam matches Raga Bilawal (d). Bilawal is the Hindustani thaat with all seven notes natural (shuddha), the same scale as the Western major scale. Its Carnatic twin is Dheera Shankarabharanam, the 29th melakarta. Option (a) is wrong: Nat Bhairavi matches Asavari. Option (b) is wrong: Kamavardhini (Pantuvarali) matches Purvi. Option (c) is wrong: Hanumatodi matches the Hindustani Bhairavi.

Notice the two systems: Hindustani music has ten thaats, classified by V.N. Bhatkhande, while Carnatic music has 72 melakartas, organised by Venkatamakhin. Another easy pair: Kalyan (Yaman) matches Mechakalyani (Kalyani). Trick: match the notes, not the names, since some names, like Bhairavi, mean different scales in the two systems.

Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.

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