Music and Musicians in Late Mughal India : Histories of the Ephemeral, 1748–1858

Based on a vast, virtually unstudied archive in Indian languages and Persian, this book reawakens the lost voices of celebrated Indian musicians, men and women, who endured the momentous transition from Mughal to British rule. It will appeal to readers interested in Indian music, global music history, South Asian history, empire and colonialism.

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.