HOW DID SCOTTISH PIPE MAKING COME TO THE EAST?

Obviously we can never know the exact time that the craft of Highland pipemaking  took root in the east, but since my visit to Meerut I have engaged in a bit of creative speculation.

In the early 1800's in India a Scottish highland piper in the British Army stumbles, falls and shatters a section of his drones beyond repair. For a regimental piper this is a catastrophe as he is 5000 miles from any Scottish pipe maker. Someone tells him that in the 'native quarter' there is someone who makes shehnai; an instrument that our piper may never even have even encountered. Clutching his damaged pipes he is shown the way down a maze of narrow streets to the local wood turner.  The wood turner has never seen such a complex and confusing jumble of pieces of wood in his life, but using his natural ingenuity and his simple bow lathe he eventually finds a way to make an effective replacement out of a local hardwood.

But, to quote the wisdom of Jon Swayne, there are a lot of things we just don't know!