RHYTHMS & RECITATIONS
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This paper examines the curious intersection between Indian music and Sanskritic Hindu values, texts, and ritual by looking at the ways in which the Vedic origins of India’s music are reified in modern-day classical music practice. Focusing specifically on the music practices of Karṇatak percussion artists in South India, I demonstrate how the verbalization of rhythmic patterns and processes of rhythmic improvisation performed by these percussionists are congruent with the methods used by Hindu priests to aid in the transmission, memorization, and recitation of ancient Vedic texts.