Music for Hunting: Animals, Aesthetics, and Adivāsīs in Rajput Culture

Williams, Richard David

Abstract

This chapter explores early modern understandings about the relationship between music, sound, and nature by examining the place of music in Rajput hunting practices, and imagery relating to animals and the forest in musicological literature and poetry. Examining poetic and visual materials relating to deer and musical entrapment, it considers theories of the sonic expression of power and mastery. It then brings images of the hunt into conversation with depictions of hunting, the wilderness, and tribal communities in musical iconography, taking rāginī Āsāvarī as a case study. Retracing the romanticization of tribal women in the Rajput imaginary, it suggests that attending to the relationship between courtly music and courtly hunting sheds light on both aesthetics and social history.

Citation

Williams, R. D. (2024). Music for Hunting: Animals, Aesthetics, and Adivāsīs in Rajput Culture. In I. Bangha, & D. Stasik (Eds.), Literary Cultures in Early Modern North India: Current Research (321-341). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192889348.003.0012

• Publication Date: Jun 26, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jun 27, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 27, 2025
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Pages: 321-341
• Book Title: Literary Cultures in Early Modern North India: Current Research
• ISBN: 9780192889348
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192889348.003.0012