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

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. 00. 9781009048521 01.0_pp_i_ii_Music_and_Musicians_in_Late_Mughal_India 02.0_pp_iii_iii_Music_and_Musicians_in_Late_Mughal_India 03.0_pp_iv_v_Copyright_page 04.0_pp_vi_vi_Dedication 05.0_pp_vii_vii_Contents 06.0_pp_viii_x_Figures 07.0_pp_xi_xi_Tables 08.0_pp_xii_xii_Boxes 09.0_pp_xiii_xiii_Examples 10.0_pp_xiv_xvii_Acknowledgements 11.0_pp_xviii_xx_Notes_on_the_Text 12.0_pp_xxi_xxi_Additional_material 13.0_pp_xxii_xxiv_Ruling_Dynasties 14.0_pp_xxv_xxvii_Genealogies_of_Principal_Musicians_and_Music_Treatises 15.0_pp_xxviii_xxviii_Additional_material 16.0_pp_1_19_Chasing_Eurydice 17.0_pp_20_48_The_Mughal_Orpheus_Remembering_Khushhal_Khan_Gunasamudra_in_Eighteenth-Century_Delhi 18.0_pp_49_78_The_Rivals_Anjha_Baras_Adarang_and_the_Scattering_of_Shahjahanabad 19.0_pp_79_116_The_Courtesan_and_the_Memsahib_Khanum_Jan_and_Sophia_Plowden_at_the_Court_of_Lucknow 20.0_pp_117_146_Eclipsed_by_the_Moon_Mahlaqa_Bai_and_Khushhal_Khan_Anup_in_Nizami_Hyderabad 21.0_pp_147_179_Faithful_to_the_Salt_Mayalee_Dancing_Girl_versus_the_East_India_Company_in_Rajasthan 22.0_pp_180_218_Keeper_of_the_Flame_Miyan_Himmat_Khan_and_the_Last_of_the_Mughal_Emperors 23.0_pp_219_247_Orphans_of_the_Uprising_Late_Mughal_Echoes_and_1857 24.0_pp_248_256_Glossary 25.0_pp_257_284_Bibliography 26.0_pp_285_295_Tazkira_List_of_Names 27.0_pp_296_316_Index