Vadya (Sanskrit:वाद्य,vādya), also calledvadyaka oratodya, is one of the three components ofsangita (musical performance arts), and refers to "instrumental music" in the Indian traditions.[1][5][6] The other two components ofsangita aregita (vocal music, song) andnritya (dance, movement).[1][7][4] In the general sense,vadya means an instrument and the characteristic music they produce, sound, or play out.[8][9]
The termvadya in the sense of "music, sounded, played, uttered" appears in Vedic literature such as theAitareya Brahmana, and in early post-Vedic era Sanskrit texts such as theNatya Shastra,Panchatantra,Malvikagnimitra, andKathasaritsagara.[5] These texts refer to the musician or instrumental performer asvadyadhara.[5] A stringed instrument is described with proportional lengths inJaiminiya Brahmana andAitareya Aranyaka, and these are compared to poetical meters.[10] The 17th-century textSangita Darpana definessangita (musical arts) as "gītam vādyam tathā nrityam trayan sangīta muchyate", meaningsangita comprisesgīta (vocal music),vādya (instrumental music), andnritya (dance).[11]
The chapter 14 of theSaṅgītaśiromaṇi describes musical ensembles based on a collective performance ofvadya instruments by musicians, and it calls such a band orchestra as akutapa.[13]
The termvadya also appears in the Buddhist Sanskrit textSukhavativyuha, influential in the Chinese and Japanese traditions, which Luis Gomez translates as "instrumental music".[14]
^Dona, Lasanthi Manaranjanie Kalinga (2012). "On the Therapeutic Aspects of Indian Classical Music".Musik-, Tanz- und Kunsttherapie.23 (1). Hogrefe Publishing:8–14.doi:10.1026/0933-6885/a000069.
^Luis Gómez (1996), The Land of Bliss: Sanskrit and Chinese Versions of the Sukhāvatīvyūha Sutras, University of Hawaii Press,ISBN978-0-8248-1760-2, page 72 (verse 28.23)
^Roger Blench (2014), Using Diverse Sources of Evidence for Reconstructing the Past History of Musical Exchanges in the Indian Ocean, African Archaeological Review, Volume 31, Issue 4 (December), pp 675–703
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