Vadya (, ), also called or , is one of the three components of (musical performance arts), and refers to "instrumental music" in the Indian traditions. The other two components of are (vocal music, song) and (dance, movement). In the general sense, vadya means an instrument and the characteristic music they produce, sound, or play out.
Indian musicology The term in the sense of "music, sounded, played, uttered" appears in Vedic literature such as the , and in early post-Vedic era Sanskrit texts such as the , , , and .Monier Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary with Etymology, Oxford University Press, page 940 These texts refer to the musician or instrumental performer as . A stringed instrument is described with proportional lengths in and , and these are compared to poetical meters. The 17th-century text Sangita Darpana defines (musical arts) as "", meaning comprises (vocal music), (instrumental music), and (dance).
Classification of instruments
Sanskrit literature describes four types of : : stringed musical instrument (chordophone) : hollow musical instrument (aerophone) : solid musical instrument (idiophone) : covered musical instrument (membranophone)
Ensembles and orchestras The chapter 14 of the describes musical ensembles based on a collective performance of instruments by musicians, and it calls such a band orchestra as a .
Cultural exchange The term also appears in the Buddhist Sanskrit text , influential in the Chinese and Japanese traditions, which Luis Gomez translates as "instrumental music".Luis Gómez (1996), The Land of Bliss: Sanskrit and Chinese Versions of the Sukhāvatīvyūha Sutras, University of Hawaii Press, , page 72 (verse 28.23)
In Hindu-Javanese music tradition, is called . According to Roger Blench, most scholars consider the term valiha (a Madagascar tube zither instrument) to be rooted in the Sanskrit term , reflecting a period of cultural exchange over the Indian Ocean.Roger Blench (2014), Using Diverse Sources of Evidence for Reconstructing the Past History of Musical Exchanges in the Indian Ocean, African Archaeological Review, Volume 31, Issue 4 (December), pp 675–703
See also Indian classical music List of Indian musical instruments Natya shastra Tala Udaka vadya
References