The South Asian Double-Reed Aerophone Reconsidered

Since the publication of my "A Preliminary Survey of the Oboe in India" (1970), an article that was largely based on a paper read at the Royal Anthropological Institute symposium in London ("Music and History," 196%2), there has been a direct response from B. C. Deva, "The Double-Reed Aerophone in India" (1976), and other informative publications such as T. S. Parthasarathy's "Nagasvaramthe South Indian Shahnai" (1973). Debate being one of the most important aspects of scholarship, this reconsideration is offered, not as the final word on the subject, but in the hope that it will provoke further discussion. In my previous paper, I had presented the hypothesis that the Indian oboel was an extension of the Near and Middle Eastern surnay, which had been imported into India by the invading Muslims. I discussed the Indian oboe in terms of three basic types: the shahndior surnft, the ncgasvara, and the mohorf.2 There seemed to be little doubt that the first of these, the shahnif/surna-, was connected with the Near and Middle Eastern tradition involving the surnay and the accompanying double-headed drum, duhul, since the Indian shahn-i is often associ-