Hinduism and Musicology of Religion

This bibliographic essay engages the theories and methods of musicology of religion as they relate to Hinduism. Applied broadly, musicology of religion focuses on the subject area of religion and music in a comparative context across cultures and time periods. The immense historical record of data collected on the relation of music and religion, along with the rising discussions of the role of music in various religious traditions, points to the growing need to identify religion and music as a singular unit of study and research. The principal object of study for the musicology of religion is thus the visible or invisible connections between religion and music in the broadest sense, with the methods necessarily geared toward finding cross-cultural patterns and insights about religion that may be concealed or less obvious. Musicology of religion is designed to rise above the empirical and culture-specific methods and findings of the social sciences and ethnomusicology to incorporate philosophical, phenomenological, theological, and cognitive dimensions. Research in the history of religions, musicology, aesthetics, and cognitive studies has identified human nature as homo religiosus (“religious human”) and homo musicus (“musical human”), that is, predisposed to act religiously and to make music. These two natures are linked together in two ways, one externally as homo ritualis (“ritual human”), covering the tendency to act ritually or liturgically, and the other internally as homo aestheticus (“aesthetic human”), the ability to experience beauty and the arts. The latter terms exemplify the application of musicology of religion to the study of Hinduism and music, for Hindu practitioners exhibit one of the most enduring senses of the primacy of religious ritual and its association with the arts and music. The approach of musicology of religion widens the scope for the study of music in Hinduism so that the educated world can benefit from placing the Hindu musical experience in conversation with religious studies, theology, phenomenology, cognitive studies, and aesthetics. It thus aims to bring Indian or Hindu music into further dialogue with many of the developing fields of discourse in the humanities and social sciences, stimulating new directions in research and teaching. Acknowledging the established field of Indian music studies, this article complements the separate Oxford Bibliographies in Hinduism article “Hinduism and Music” and the Oxford Bibliographies in Music article “Music in India.” Somewhat different from these entries, however, this article, rather than compiling descriptive sources for the study of music in Hinduism and India, draws together a variety of theories and methods from other disciplines that will hopefully provide more fertile ground for comparative studies on the role of music in Hinduism. Musicology of Religion presents the sources for the approach of musicology of religion, and Hinduism and Music identifies new sources for the study of specific Hindu traditions of music as well as important works in Indian aesthetics.