Music composer Shail Vyas is on a mission to recreate the music of the Indus Valley civilisation. Over the past five years, he has revived around 40 extinct instruments.
Vyas was speaking at an event organised by the Audio Engineering Society India in Andheri recently.Mohenjo Daro: A Song of Mystery, a short music video recreating possible musical instruments and their sounds from that period, was released by Vyas in August.
“There are 10 instruments that my research has suggested belong to the Indus Valley period,” he said.
Mr. Vyas’s quest began after reading a book about music that was played in 300 BC. He went online to find out more, but found very little material. So he embarked on a years-long, labour-intensive project to bring alive the sounds of the past. “It took me months to arrive at the design for each instrument ,” he said.
Sound engineers at the event quizzed Vyas on ragas mentioned in the Vedas, the difference between music and sound and what defines an instrument.
As part of his project, Vyas has consulted archaeologists and art historians, visited museums and read vastly on the subject. Vyas’s next challenge is to find funding from the government. His efforts have been completely self-funded till now. “The project is an effort to bring back [the ancient instruments],” he said. “I don’t want them to rot in museums.”
The writer is a freelance journalist
