Reading MMD 000203 and speculation about MMD 0888.08.08, I remembered
what my wife and I discovered during a five months trip through India
two years ago.

The year 888 was about 1400 years after Buddha was teaching in India,
and we visited many beautiful temples from these times.  In some of
these temples we saw mechanical music instruments which we never have
seen before, and never have I read about these type of automatophones.

You may know that drums and bells (and the nadasvaram, a woodwind
instrument belonging to the family of shawns) are most important
instruments to support the Hindu's temple ceremonies.  But obviously
the musicians to play these important instruments are not always
available.

What did the temple priests do?  They invented and constructed
mechanical drums and bells.  These mechanical music instruments are
located at the entrance hall of the temple, they are driven (nowadays)
by an electrical motor (provided there is none of these very oft-
happening power failures) and they make such a terrible noise that
everybody knows that it's time to make a sacrifice to the deities.

I do not know whether these automatophones were playing when Buddha
was teaching, but I am sure at that time they were not driven by an
electric motor.

Does anybody know the name of these mechanical temple music
instruments?

Best regards

Christian Greinacher