Shehnai: India musical instruemnt

The shehnai is a wind musical instrument, a double reed conical oboe instrument that is common in the northern part of India, Eastern part of India, Western part of the country, Pakistan and Iran. The musical instrument is produced out of wood, with a metal flare bell at the extreme. The sound of the musical instrument is thought to manufactured and maintain a sense of auspiciousness and sanctity, so because of that the instrument is commonly used during marriages, processions and in the temple, but is it also performed in concerts. The musical instrument is analogous to the southern Indian Nadaswaram.

source of picture: lokvani.com

The musical instrument that is like the tube simultaneously broadens towards the lower extreme. The musical instrument often has from about 6 to 9 holes. The instrument employs one set of quadruple reed, making the instrument a quadruple reed wood wind musical instrument. Many tunes can be played on the musical instrument by controlling the breath. The musical instrument has a range of 2 octaves from A below middle C through the A one line above the treble clef.

The ancestor of the north Indian version of the musical instrument t is said to be from the Persian zurna. The shehnai is thought to have been fabricated by improving upon the pungi, which a wood wind folk musical instrument used mainly for snake charming.

There are different stories about the musical instrument’s origin. In one of these, a shah initially banned the performing of the pungi in his court because of the shrill sound of the instrument. A barber, who is of the family of musicians improved on the instrument, and manufactured the shehnai. As the instrument was played in the court of shah and giving required reference to the nai or barber, the new musical instrument was named shehnai.

In other versions of the story, the musical instrument was

1.    Named after the player of the instrument called shehinaia

2.    Derived from sheh meaning breath and nai meaning flute.

3.    Derived from the combination of the shah meaning king and nai meaning reed or flute to give the meaning of the instrument to be ‘the king’s flute’.

Another theory of the instrument’s origin is that the name of the instrument is a modification of the word ‘sur-nai’. The word nal/nail/nad is used in several Indian languages to mean pipe or reed. The word sur implies tune or tone – musical note or simply music – and the word is used as a prefix to the names of several Indian musical instrument. The sur-nal is believed to have given its name to the musical instrument called zurna, which is the name by which the reed-pipe is called throughput the middle east and the Eastern Europe.

The musical instrument is often played at traditional North Indian weddings and is linked with the bride leaving her parental home for her newly wedded husband’s home. Sometimes two versions of the musical instrument can be tied together, making the instrument a double shawm instrument analogous to the ancient Greek instrument called aulos.