Epistemological Jugalbandī: Sound, Science, and the Supernatural in Colonial North India

Williams, Richard David

Abstract

In the late nineteenth century, Indian scholars embedded elements of European science in new works on the nature of sound and music. Exploring a range of genres and languages, this chapter examines moments of enquiry into the physics and experience of sound, and considers points of continuity, transition, and departures in new directions. Far from a single arena of global debate, nineteenth-century books, manuscripts, and newspapers in Indian languages indicate an enormous diversity of ideas, arguments, and sonic practices, many of which intersected with ideas from Europe, but selectively and often unexpectedly. This chapter also examines sonic practices relating to medicine, healing, and divination, and interrogates how French history and British philosophy became entangled with Hindustani music and tantric hymnology. I argue these entanglements gestured to an epistemological jugalbandī—borrowing a term in Hindustani music for a creative dialogue—that is, a contrapuntal, selective, and adaptive conversation between knowledge systems.

Citation

Williams, R. D. (2024). Epistemological Jugalbandī: Sound, Science, and the Supernatural in Colonial North India. In P. McMurray, & P. Mukhopadhyay (Eds.), Acoustics of Empire: Sound, Media, and Power in the Long Nineteenth Century (134-155). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197553787.003.0006

• Acceptance Date: Nov 20, 2023
• Publication Date: Jul 7, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jun 29, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 27, 2024
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Pages: 134-155
• Book Title: Acoustics of Empire: Sound, Media, and Power in the Long Nineteenth Century
• ISBN: 9780197553787
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197553787.003.0006
• Keywords: history of science, Indian music, colonialism, Bengali, Urdu, sound
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/book/57636/chapter/469345209