Music and musicians in late Mughal India : histories of the ephemeral, 1748-1858 / Katherine Butler Schofield.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schofield, Katherine Butler, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

East India Company--History--18th century.

East India Company.

East India Company--History--19th century.

Hindustani music--India--18th century--History and criticism.

Hindustani music.

Hindustani music--India--19th century--History and criticism.

Hindustani music--Iranian influences.

Musicians--India.

Musicians.

Hindustani music--Social aspects--India--History--18th century.

Hindustani music--Social aspects--India--History--19th century.

Mughal Empire--Court and courtiers--History--18th century.

Mughal Empire.

Mughal Empire--Court and courtiers--History--19th century.

India.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History

Physical Description:

xxv, 315 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2024.

Summary:

"Based on a vast, virtually unstudied archive of Indian writings alongside visual sources, this book presents the first history of music and musicians in late Mughal India c.1748–1858 and takes the lives of nine musicians as entry points into six prominent types of writing on music in Persian, Brajbhasha, Urdu and English, moving from Delhi to Lucknow, Hyderabad, Jaipur and among the British. It shows how a key Mughal cultural field responded to the political, economic and social upheaval of the transition to British rule, while addressing a central philosophical question: can we ever recapture the ephemeral experience of music once the performance is over? These rich, diverse sources shine new light on the wider historical processes of this pivotal transitional period, and provide a new history of music, musicians and their audiences during the precise period in which North Indian classical music coalesced in its modern form"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Chasing Eurydice : Writing on music in the late Mughal world

The Mughal Orpheus : Remembering Khushhal Khan Gunasamudra in eighteenth-century Delhi

The rivals : Anjha Baras, Adarang and the scattering of Shahjahanabad

The courtesan and the memsahib : Khanum Jan and Sophia Plowden at the court of Lucknow

Eclipsed by the moon : Mahlaqa Bai and Khushhal Khan Anup in Nizami Hyderabad

Faithful to the salt : Mayalee dancing girl vs. The East India Company in Rajasthan

Keeper of the flame : Miyan Himmat Khan and the last of the Mughal emperors

Orphans of the uprising : Late Mughal echoes and 1857.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-284) and index.

ISBN:

9781316517857

1316517853

9781009048521

100904852X

OCLC:

1375548669