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History of Indian Music |
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The History of Indian Music dates back to the prehistorical times. It is, in fact, regarded as one of the oldest musical tradition of in the world.Experts arrogate that the origins of Indian music dates back to the era of the Vedas. It does not matter what time and age maybe associated with the history of Indian music, but there is no doubt that it has always played an important part in the rich cultural and traditional heritage of the country. Indian music has always been a combination of vocal and instrumental music and dance.
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The combination of these three is popularly known as sangeet. According to the recorded history of Indian music, performances were completely based on the combination of these three. The different performances include performance in the temples, royal court during celebrations and festivals and also in villages as part of their entertainment program, etc.
One of oldest music forms of Indian music is known as Sama. This was developed during the Vedic period and stretched from 1500 to 500 BC. The hymns that were composed by the learned men of that age were put to melody. Ever since the history of Indian music saw continuous development from the traditional devotional folk to the present day structural form of music based on the melody and rhythm. These two aspects of Indian music, melody and rhythm is also called raga and taal, respectively. The records showing the origin and development of music in India prior to the 13th century show that in India there was promarily only one type of music. But with the invasion of the Mughals, the music of north and central India underwent a significant makeover.
The changed music shows a unique blending of the Mughal influences of Arabic and Persian music. This gives a new identity to the Hindustani music. On the other hand the Carnatic music of the south India has remained untouched by any kind of external influences. According to the oldest scriptures, the origin of Indian classical music or marga sangeet is the oldest in the history of Indian music. Even the four Vedas and Samadeva describe music at length. The two main streams of Indian classical music are Hindustani music, from North India, and Carnatic music from South India.
The Hindustani music is preponderantly more than its south Indian counterpart. The prime themes of Hindustani music are Rasa Lila of Krishna and nature in all its splendour. These are generally the hindu devotionals songs. Carnatic music also known as the Karnatak music is the classical music of South India. Carnatic music is also largely devotional but most of the songs are directed to the Hindu deities. There are a lot of songs stressing love and other social issues. As with all North Indian music and all other Indian music, the two main components of Carnatic music are raga, the melodic pattern and tala, the rhythmic pattern.
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