Mayuri

Additional Images (2)

Mayuri

Date: 19th century

Geography: India

Medium: Wood, parchment, metal, feathers

Dimensions: L: ±115.5 cm (45 1/2 in.); W: Body incl. side pegboard 14 cm; with peg 15 cm (5 7/8 in.); Fingerboard 6.3 - 6 cm; D: Peacock 44 cm (17 5/16 in.); Pegblock 4.6 cm

Classification: Chordophone-Lute-bowed-fretted

Credit Line: The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889

Accession Number: 89.4.163

Not on view

Description Object Information Related Objects Online Resources Video Audio

Popular at nineteenth century Indian courts, this bowed lute borrows features of other Indian stringed instruments, such as the body shape of the sarangi and the frets and neck of the sitar. There are four melody strings and fifteen sympathetic strings that sound when the instrument is played to accompany popular religious song. The peacock is the vehicle of Sarasvatî, the goddess of music, and it appears in Indian poetry as a metaphor for courtship.

Provenance

Rajah Sourindro Mohun Tagore (1840-1914)
References

Ed. Barbara Burn. Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Revised Edition 1997. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pg. 163, ill.

"Musical Instruments in The Metropolitan Museum." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (1978), Vol. XXXV, No. 3, pg. 14-15, ill.

Pleasing Eye and Ear Alike. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1971, Vol. XXX, No. 2, pg. 66-67, ill.

"The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments: Its Origin and Development." Metropolitan Museum Journal (1970), vol. 3, pg. 346, ill.

Catalogue of the Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments: Asia, Gallery 27. 2. Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1903, vol. II, pg. 64.

Catalogue of the Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments: Gallery 27. 1. Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1901, vol. I, pg. 64.