Foundations, Hindustani and Carnatic classical music traditions and their forms
Indian Music Fundamentals
The Basics
Indian tradition holds that the sage Narada brought music to earth. He also taught people about Nada Brahma, the sound said to pervade the universe. Archaeology supports a very old musical practice too. A seven-holed flute has been recovered from Indus Valley Civilisation sites. Over centuries this instinct for sound was organised into a precise science. It rests on three elements, swara, raga and tala. These three still underlie both the Hindustani and Carnatic systems.
The earliest traces of Indian music appear in a book of chants meant for sacrifice. The Sama Veda, compiled roughly between 1200 and 1000 BCE, takes most of its verses from the Rig Veda. It arranges these verses into musical patterns called Saman, meant to be sung during Vedic rituals called yajnas.
By the time the Delhi Sultanate was established, Indian classical music already had a long common tradition built on Natyashastra categories. The Turks who came to India from the 12th century brought with them the rich musical heritage of the Arab world, further developed in Iran and Central Asia.
After Hindustani and Carnatic music took separate shapes, both faced an old problem. There were no printed textbooks for classical music. Every raga had to be heard, imitated and corrected many times. The answer, inherited from ancient India, was the guru-shishya parampara, meaning the teacher-student tradition. In this system, a student lived with and served the master to absorb musical knowledge directly.
Dhrupad is the oldest surviving form of Hindustani classical vocal music. It traces its roots to older forms called Prabandha and Dhruvapada, and is even mentioned in the Natyashastra (c. 200 BCE to 200 CE). Its name comes from 'dhruva' and 'pada', meaning a fixed verse form. It has roots in temple worship, so it remains austere and devotional rather than light or romantic.
The word Khyal comes from Persian and means "idea or imagination". Its origin is attributed to Amir Khusrau, a poet-musician at the Delhi Sultanate court, though the style took centuries to mature into a full concert form.
As Khyal singers built gharanas around their voices, instrumentalists built similar schools around their instruments. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, sitar, sarod, tabla and bansuri each had its own family traditions.
By the 18th century, Carnatic music in the Thanjavur region of present-day Tamil Nadu had become a fully formed classical system, distinct from the Hindustani stream of the north.
Classical music followed fixed rules found in the Natyashastra, an ancient text on performing arts. It was passed down through the guru-shishya parampara, a close teacher-student training tradition. Folk music grew differently. It is the music of ordinary people, without fixed rules. It is shaped by region, occasion and community. It is almost always sung with rhythm, and often with dance.
Classical-Folk Music Fusion and Sufi/Qawwali Music
The Basics
Qawwali is a devotional Sufi music form sung at dargahs. Amir Khusrow (1253-1325) was a disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi. He is called the Father of Qawwali. He introduced Persian and Arabic elements into Indian classical music. He originated the khyal and tarana styles. Bhajans are a separate North Indian devotional genre, rooted in the Bhakti movement.