Essays on Indian Music

Know India through its Music (604 Words)

Music tells us everything about the soul of the music-maker, said an ancient guru once. Learning Indian music helps one learn more about the people, their temperament and also about the Indian culture.

Indian music is as old as its civilization and culture, and goes back thousands of years; among the oldest in the world.

Music in India has been grouped by the ancient scripts into two main streams known as “margi” and “desi” which roughly translate as “classical” and “folk”. The Vedas, among the ancient recorded literary masterpieces known, also talks greatly about Indian music.

The two main streams of classical music are Hindustani and Carnatic. Both have the same origins and sources according to ancient scripts, although they are distinct from each other with Hindustani more prevalent in North India and Carnatic more popular in South India .

A new form of Hindustani classical music emerged in the 13th and 14th centuries, known as “khayal” which means imagination, and brought an entirely new approach to Hindustani classical music.

Today, India’s contribution to the world of music is “Raga” which means melody. “Raga” is the foundation of Indian classical music and is made of seven notes (Sa, Re, Ga, etc.), just like the notes in western music (do-re-mi, etc.).

For comparison, the octave is composed of 12 notes in western classical music. In Indian classical music, the octave has 22 notes, or “shrutis”. Swara is considered a note, whereas the shruti is the microtonal intervals between two swaras.

India’s great diversity of traditions also spawned a variety of musical instruments, which further evolved through the ages; the evolution can be seen in ancient cave paintings and sculptures in historic temples.

Some of these instruments can be played solo while the others are used to accompany singers and dancers. Some of the instruments are strictly for devotional and ritualistic purposes, like the conch.

The instruments are broadly grouped into four types: strings, wind, percussion and bells, and cymbals and gongs.

String instruments vary according to the complexity of how they are played. The simplest is the single-string “ektara”. The most popular are the sitar, veena, sarangi and sarod. All of them are made out of dried hollowed gourd acting as the round resonator at one end.

The sitar is the most well-known Indian instrument all over the world, thanks to famous Indian player, Pandit Ravi Shankar. The sarod is another popular string instrument, while the sarangi is played with a bow. A very popular Indian wind instrument is the Shahnai, a double-reed flute.

The drums are important instruments in Indian music, and there are many types. The dholak and pakhawaj are double-faced types which are struck at both sides. The tabla is known and sometimes used in Western music. The chenda are large drums that accompany religious festivals in Kerala. The little bells, clappers, cymbals and gongs (collectively called ‘ghana’) supply the rhythmic functions in Indian music and just as vital as the other instruments.

If you belong to the western world, getting exposed to Indian music will definitely be an enriching experience, a pleasure and a privilege for any music student.