Page 4 - SOUND ... MUSIC II- MODULE

unpleasant: something that you dislike

Pungi was a musical instrument, the predecessor of the shehnai. When the Mughals ruled India,
before the Britishers came, there was a very famous Mughal ruler named Aurangzeb. He did
not allow the pungi be played in his royal residence because he felt that it had a shrill, unpleasant
sound.

Pungi became the generic name for reeded noisemakers.

generic name: a name given to a class or group as a whole
Generic name means the scientific name or a broad classification of something
reeded: wind instruments which have reeds like the flute, the clarinet, etc.

So, any musical instrument which is made with reeds like we have flutes, clarinets, they all are
classified as „pungi‟. So pungi is a broad term for any type of instrument which uses wind to
produce sound.

Few had thought that it would one day be revived.

revived: brought back to life.

As Aurangzeb has banned all these reeded noisemakers, he had banned pungi in his royal
residence, no one thought that one day such noisemaker, such instrument which made
unpleasant sound would be played and its sound would be liked by the audience.

A barber of a family of professional musicians, who had access to the royal palace, decided to
improve the tonal quality of the pungi.