Encyclopedia
List of Indian musical instruments
Musical instruments of the Indian subcontinent can be broadly classified according to the Hornbostel-Sachs system into four categories: chordophones (string instruments), aerophones (wind instruments), membranophones (drums) and idiophones (non-drum percussion instruments).
01Chordophones
Plucked strings
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Bowed strings
- Chikara
- Dhantara
- Dilruba
- Ektara
- Esraj
- Kamaicha
- Kingri
- Mayuri veena or Taus
- Onavillu
- Behala
- Pena
- Pinaka veena
- Pulluvan veena - one-stringed violin
- Ravanahatha
- Sarangi
- Sarinda
- Tar Shehnai
- Villu - arched musical bow
Other string instruments
02Aerophones
Single reed
Double reed
- Kuzhal
- Mukhavina
- Nadaswaram
- Shehnai
- Sundari
- Tangmuri
Flute
Bagpipes
Free reed
Free reed and bellows
Brass
03Membranophones
Hand drums
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Hand frame drums
- Daf, duf, or dafli, medium or large frame drum without jingles, of Persian origin
- Dubki, dimdi or dimri, small frame drum without jingles
- Kanjira, small frame drum with one jingle
- Kansi, small drum without jingles
- Patayani thappu, medium frame drum played with hands
Stick and hand drums
Stick drums
- Chande
- Davul
- Kachhi Dhol
- Nagara, pair of kettledrums
- Pambai, unit of two cylindrical drums
- Parai thappu, halgi, frame drum played with two sticks
- Sambal
- Stick daff or stick duff, daff in a stand played with sticks
- Tamak'
- Tasha, type of kettledrum
- Thavanadai, Davandai
- Timki
- Urumee
04Idiophones
- Chimta, fire tong with brass jingles
- Chengila, metal disc
- Elathalam
- Geger, brass vessel
- Ghanti, Northern Indian bell
- Ghatam and Matkam (Earthenware pot drum)
- Ghungroo
- Khartal or Chiplya
- Manjira or jhanj or taal
- Nut, clay pot
- Sankarjang, lithophone
- Thali, metal plate
- Thattukazhi mannai
- Yakshagana bells
Melodic
- Jal tarang, ceramic bowls with water
- Kanch tarang, a type of glass harp
- Loh tarang (लोह तरंग), a set of tuned gongs
- Kashtha tarang, a type of xylophone
05Hand harmonium
Dwarkanath Ghose (Dwarkin) modified the French pedal harmonium.
06Electronic
- Roland HandSonic
- Electronic tanpura
- Electronic (digital) tabla
- Talameter
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “List of Indian musical instruments”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Pulluvan pattu in Ashtamudi temple1.JPG by Kannanshanmugam,shanmugamstudio,Kollam, CC BY 3.0
- Amber Fort-Jaipur-India0001.JPG by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Dms7s5(1).jpg by Musicalsindia, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Learn To Play Tabla.jpg by Pandit Sudarshan (Tablalahara), CC BY-SA 3.0
- Perc-tumbak.jpg by Jonlut, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Peruvanam Kuttan Marar IMG 3074.JPG by Manojk, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Chandeboy.jpg by Raguks, CC BY-SA 3.0
- 12th-century sculpture at Belur Hindu temple, musician with drum musical instrument fingers in string.jpg by Ms Sarah Welch, CC BY-SA 4.0
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