ABSTRACT
This paper studies the transformations in Hindustani music by looking at music as a specific site of production of pleasure and enjoyment. It follows certain specific events to understand how the discourse of music is constructed through a certain management or through governing this production of pleasure. This is what we are calling economy of pleasure. The danger that music poses and its symbolic prohibition in the nature of a ban in Aurangzeb’s court is not merely an ethico-religious problem. We will argue that as an aesthetic question, this problem is that of desire and enjoyment of music. Subsequently, the changing patronage in the 18th century indicates a new economy of pleasure based upon different power relations. With the late 19th century, when the discourse shifts towards creating a modern identity of music, the question of pleasure can be understood as translating into a certain passion for finding a scientific basis for music. The transition in music history from the pre-colonial to colonial period unfolds through changing sites of patronage and formation of new musical tastes, repertoires and audiences. In this context, this paper surveys the changes in musical styles and forms by constantly being attentive to this latent economy of pleasure that determines new artistic relations.
