Tā’ūs or Mayūrī (`Peacock vina')

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Alternative Title

Dilrubā. ; Mayuri ; Taus

Instrument

Dilruba/Fiddles/Strings/Musical Instrument ; Dilruba

Instrument Family

Strings

Place Made

Asia ; India

Date Made

Probably late 19th century

Description

Wooden neck and resonating chamber; gourd at neck end; 2 melodic strings, 3 drone strings, 14 sympathetic strings (all metal); curved ivory bridge, perforated for sympathetic strings; 22 brass frets; height 490mm (to top of peacock's head); width of resonating chamber 166mm. The instrument is shaped and decorated like a peacock, the resonating chamber (painted with plumage) forming the body, with carved wings and underbelly feathers tapering into carved legs to form part of the stand; a cobra rears up from the stand from between the peacock's legs; the strings are attached to the base of the bird's neck and head, which are separate in construction from the body; the mouth holds a pearl; the neck of the instrument is painted on top and bottom as the tail of the bird, and the edges are inlaid with fine bone decoration; the gourd is painted with a leaf pattern in red, green and gold. Additional comments: Tā’ūs (Urdu) or Mayūrī (Hindi) is a type of Dilrubā, a bowed necked lute in North India; what is special here is this taus has no narrow plank of wood running down the bass side of the neck in which the pegs of the resonating strings are inserted into. Exceptional too is the fastening of the frets. Normally frets are bound with a string around the neck. Here the frets are clamped to the neck with wing bolts. Therefore, small indentions had been drilled into the metall edge bar into which the tip of the bolts can slip.

Notes

P.R. Cooke, 1995.

Measurements

1180.

Provenance

on loan to the Collection.

Collection

MIMEd

Accession Number

0515

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