Buddhist music is music (, ) created for or inspired by Buddhism and includes numerous ritual and non-ritual musical forms.Mross, Michaela (2022). Memory, Music, Manuscripts: The Ritual Dynamics of Kōshiki in Japanese Sōtō Zen, p. 7. Michaela Mross University of Hawaii Press. As a Buddhist art form, music has been used by Buddhists since the time of early Buddhism, as attested by artistic depictions in Indian sites like Sanchi. While certain early Buddhist sources contain negative attitudes to music, Mahayana sources tend to be much more positive to music, seeing it as a suitable offering to the Buddhas and as a skillful means to bring sentient beings to Buddhism.Mabbett, Ian W. (1993-1994). 'Buddhism and Music'. Asian Music, 25(1-2), 9–28. Doi:10.2307/834188
Buddhist music retains a prominent place in many Buddhist traditions, and is usually used for ceremonial and devotional purposes. Buddhist music and chanting is often part of Buddhist rituals and festivals in which they may be seen as offerings to the Buddha.
Most Buddhist music includes chanting or singing, accompanied by instruments.Van Khê, Trân. “Buddhist Music in Eastern Asia.” The World of Music, vol. 26, no. 3, 1984, pp. 22–32. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43561005. Retrieved 18 Dec. 2023. The chanting is often of traditional texts which include: sutras, mantras, dharani, parittas, or verse compositions (such as gathas, stotras, and caryagitis). Buddhist instrumental music does exist, though it is less commonly heard in temples.
Examples of Buddhist musical traditions include the Chinese Buddhist fanbai, Newari Buddhist Gunlā Bājan, Tibetan Buddhist music, Japanese Buddhist shōmyō, modern Indian Buddhist bhajans, and Cambodian Smot chanting. As there are many different traditions of Buddhist music and chanting, the musical instruments used vary widely, from solely relying on the human voice, to many types of classic instruments used in Asian music (such as the ancient Indian veena) as well as modern instruments (keyboards, guitars, etc.).
In the modern academy, the study of Buddhist music, sometimes known as Buddhist musicology, has become its own field of academic research.
In doctrine and scriptures
In Buddhism, chanting is a traditional Buddhist devotional practice, as well as a means of enhancing and preparing the mind for silent meditation.Sturman, Janet (2019). The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture, p. 415. SAGE Publications. It is a common part of formal group practice, in either a lay or monastic context. Some forms of Buddhism also use chanting for ritualistic, apotropaic or other magical purposes.
In Mahayana Buddhism, the offering of music is a traditional part of devotional offerings to the Buddhas (others include water, flowers, and light).Kubo, Tsugunari; Yuyama, Akira (translators) (2007). The Lotus Sutra, Translated from the Chinese of Kumārajiva, p. 158. Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. The offering of music is thus considered to bring good merit. The idea of music as an offering to the Buddhas can be found in various Mahayana sutras. Common instruments included the veena, drums, and flutes (venu).
Furthermore, in some Mahayana sources, Buddhist music is considered to be a skillful means (upaya), a way to guide people to the Buddhist path and to teach them the Buddha's teachings. Some Mahayana sutras also depict the Pure Lands as filled with divine music.
In the early Buddhist sources Various passages from the early Buddhist texts contain criticisms of musical performance directly from the Buddha. The main criticism is that music leads to sense desire and attachment, and is thus a hindrance to meditative concentration (samadhi), and to peace of mind. However, there are other passages in which the Buddha praises music and chanting.
Aside from textual sources, there are numerous depictions of musicians and musical instruments at ancient Indian Buddhist sites like Sanchi, and Amaravati, as well as at various Greco-Buddhist sites in Buddhist Gandhara, such as Chakhil-i-Ghoundi.
Against music In the Ghitassara Sutta (Anguttara Nikaya 5.209), the Buddha admonishes Buddhist monks for reciting the teaching (Dhamma) in a musical way:
Monks, there are five dangers of reciting the Dhamma with a musical intonation. What five? Oneself gets attached to the sound, others get attached to the sound, householders are annoyed, saying, "Just as we sing, these sons of the Sakyan sing", the concentration of those who do not like the sound is destroyed, and later generations copy it. These, monks, are the five dangers of reciting the Dhamma with a musical intonation.Gītassara Sutta (A.iii.250) from "Association for Insight Meditation" at . Meanwhile, in the Sigalovada Sutta, a sutta addressed to laypersons, music is included as a negative sense desire: There are these six drawbacks of frequenting festivals. You're always thinking: 'Where's the dancing? Where's the singing? Where's the music? Where are the stories? Where's the applause? Where are the kettledrums?'Early Buddhist sources include the practice of uposatha, in which laypersons observe a set of eight precepts. The seventh of these states one should abstain from wordly entertainments, shows and music.Carrera, Oscar 2019, Liberation through Hearing? Perceptions of Music and Dance in Pāli Buddhism, Thesis at University of Leiden The Uposatha Sutta asks Buddhists to reflect how noble disciples "have given up singing and dancing, the playing of musical instruments and the watching of entertainments, which are stumbling blocks to that which is wholesome."
The canonical Buddhist Vinayas (monastic codes) generally reject the use of musical chanting and singing for reciting the Buddhist scriptures, since it was seen as a sensuous distraction.Cuilan Liu, "Reciting, Chanting, and Singing: The Codification of Vocal Music in Buddhist Canon Law," Journal of Indian Philosophy 46, no. 4 (Sept. 2018): 741-44, doi:10.1007/s10781-018-9360-8 They are prohibit monks and nuns from listening to or performing music since it is connected with sensual pleasure.
Positive passages
Certain passages in the early Buddhists are much more positive about music. Digha Nikaya sutta no. 21 (Sakka's Questions) and its Chinese parallel at DA 14, contains a passage in which a gandharva (a celestial musician) named Pañcaśikha sings some verses to the Buddha accompanied by a lute, and the Buddha approves of it. In the Dirgha Agama version, the Buddha listens and praises Pañcaśikha saying: Good, Pañcaśikha, good! You're able to praise the Tathāgata with your clear voice and harmonious cymophane lute. The sound of both your lute and voice are neither long or short. Their compassion and gracefulness moves people's hearts. Your song is replete with many meanings and explains the bonds of desire, the religious life, the ascetic, and Nirvāṇa!The Mahaparinibbana sutta states that before the death of the Buddha, "heavenly music played in the sky in honor of the Realized One. And heavenly choirs sang in the sky in honor of the Realized One." After the Buddha's death, laypeople venerated the Buddha "with dance and song and music and garlands and fragrances". In the Chinese version of the Mahaparanirvana sutra, the Buddha approves of devotional practices through music when he states "there are four kinds of people in the world who should be memorialized by building a shrine and providing incense, flowers, silk canopies, and music there". These four types of people are said to be: tathāgatas (Buddhas), pratyekabuddhas, sravakas (disciples) and noble wheel-turning kings.
The Mahāli Sutta (DN 6) mentions that through a certain samadhi, one may hear heavenly sounds from the deva realms.
Other sources, like the Jatakas, and Avadanas, contain various stories which depict music in a positive light. For example, in one story, a bird named Cittapatta sang songs to the past Buddha Vipassī, and he eventually gained a good rebirth and became a god, and then an arahant. Another story about a bird singing to a Buddha is found in the Theragāthā commentary (aṭṭhakathā), this time, the past Buddha Krakucchanda is featured. Similarly, when Sikhī Buddha died, a tree dwelling spirit offered flowers and instrumental music, and this contributed to his future nirvana (Therapadana 118).
In later sources One Indian Buddhist figure who was well known as a musician was the 2nd century poet Aśvaghoṣa. Both Tibetan (Taranatha) and Chinese sources mention that he was also a great musician and traveled with a choir.Young, Stuart H. (2015). Conceiving the Indian Buddhist Patriarchs in China, p. 81. University of Hawaii Press.Biswanath Bhattacharya (1976). Aśvaghoṣa: A Critical Study of His Authentic Kāvyas, and the Apocryphal Works, with Special Reference to His Contributions to the Classical Sanskrit Literature, and His Doctrinal Standpoint as a Buddhist, p. 12. Santiniketan Press. Xuanzang (7th century) mentions that when he traveled to India, the music of Aśvaghoṣa was still remembered as having the power to impress upon people the truth of impermanence.Urgyen Sangharakshita (2016). The Essential Sangharakshita: A Half-Century of Writings from the Founder of the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, p. 343. Simon and Schuster.
One of his musical hymns, the Gaṇḍīstotragāthā (Chinese: Kien-ch'ui-fan-tsan, Hymn on the Bell), has survived in Chinese transliteration and Tibetan translation (which also include some musical notation).Garg, Gaṅgā Rām (1992). Encyclopaedia of the Hindu World, Volume 2, p. 754. Concept Publishing Company.Thomas, F. W. A New Poem of Asvaghosa. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1914, 07, pp.752--753. Musical references are also quite common in the Buddhacarita, which indicates the author was knowledgeable about Indian music, its styles, instruments, notes, and so forth.Kulshreshtha, Sushma R. "Glimpses of Music in the Buddhacarita of Asvaghosa", in Filliozat et al. (1994). Pandit N.R. Bhatt Felicitation Volume, pp. 107-119. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers.
According to the Theravada commentary to the Long Discourses, the Dīgha-nikāya-aṭṭhakathā (Sumaṅgalavilāsinī), king Aśoka's consort Asandhimittā attained stream entry when she listened to a kalavīka bird's song and imagined that it was the sweet voice of the Buddha (DA ii.453). One Theravada commentary on the Subhāsita Sutta (Sn 3.3) contains a story about sixty monks who attained arahantship in Sri Lanka after hearing a slave woman sing a song about birth, old age, and death. According to the Theravada commentator Buddhaghosa, adapting songs to the Dhamma is proper. His Vinaya Commentary also mentions certain 'songs of sacred festivals' (sādhukīḷitagītaṃ) which sing of the qualities of the Three Jewels (Vinaya Commentary iv.925).
In the Theravada tradition, chanting of certain texts called parittas are considered to have the power to "avert illness or danger, to ward off the influence of malignant beings, to obtain protection and deliverance from evil, and to promote health, prosperity, welfare, and well-being." There are several reasons that chanting these texts have power. Firstly, they are considered to be an "act of truth" (saccakiriya). According to this theory, words which speak of the truth of the Dharma are considered to have magical power. Furthermore, parittas are also connected with morality (sila) and kindness (metta) and the very sound of their chanting is said to calm the mind.
In Mahayana sources