The earliest musical instruments of the Hindus on record have, almost all of them, remained in popular use until the present day scarcely altered. Besides these, the Hindus possess several Arabic and Persian instruments which are of comparatively modern date in Hindustan: evidently having been introduced into that country scarcely a thousand years ago, at the time of the Mahomedan irruption. There is a treatise on music extant, written in Sanskrit, which contains a description of the ancient instruments. Its title is _Sângita râthnakara_. If, as may be hoped, it be translated by a Sanskrit scholar who is at the same time a good musician, we shall probably be enabled to ascertain more exactly which of the Hindu instruments of the present day are of comparatively modern origin. The _vina_ is undoubtedly of high antiquity. It has seven wire strings, and movable frets which are generally fastened with wax. Two hollowed gourds, often tastefully ornamented, are affixed to it for the purpose of increasing the sonorousness. There are several kinds of the _vina_ in different districts; but that represented in the illustration is regarded as the oldest. The performer shown is Jeewan Shah, a celebrated virtuoso on the _vina_, who lived about a hundred years ago. The Hindus divided their musical scale into several intervals smaller than our modern semitones. They adopted twenty-two intervals called _sruti_ in the compass of an octave, which may therefore be compared to our chromatic intervals. As the frets of the _vina_ are movable the performer can easily regulate them according to the scale, or mode, which he requires for his music. [Illustration] The harp, _chang_, has become almost obsolete. If some Hindu drawings of it can be relied upon, it had at an early time a triangular frame and was in construction as well as in shape and size almost identical with the Assyrian harp.