Musical Instruments Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The Ravanahattha is associated with Rajasthan.

It is a bowed string instrument with a body made of a coconut shell and a bow, played by folk singers of Rajasthan.

Madhya Pradesh, Bengal and Uttar Pradesh have other folk instruments and are not linked with it.

The Ravanahattha is held to be one of the oldest bowed instruments, and it is the ancestor of the violin family in a popular account.

Answer: B

The Nagaswaram of the Karnatak system corresponds to the Shehnai of the north.

Both are double-reed wind instruments played at festivals and temples, the nagaswaram being larger and louder.

The Bansuri is a flute, the harmonium a keyboard instrument, and the Sarangi a bowed string instrument.

Both instruments are played at weddings and temple processions, in the open air, with a drone, and are set in a similar range.

Answer: D

The dundubhi is an ancient drum.

It is a large kettle drum of the avanaddha (membrane) class, mentioned in the old texts as the drum of battle and ceremony.

A harp, a wind instrument and a bell belong to the string, wind and ghana classes, and the dundubhi is not one of them.

In the old four-fold classification into tata, sushira, avanaddha and ghana the dundubhi sits with the drums covered by a skin.

Answer: C

The old name for the group of percussion instruments before the later classification is Pushkara.

In the Natyashastra the drums covered with skin are called pushkara vadya, and they include the mridanga, panava and dardura.

Dundubhi and nakkara are names of individual large drums, and patah is a drum of the old texts, but they are not the name of the group.

Later texts group the instruments as tata, sushira, avanaddha and ghana, with the skin-covered drums in the avanaddha class.