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By Padmanabha.Bapu
Apart from its aesthetic and artistic value, this wonderful art of music had always held for the Indian mind, a clarion call to spiritual development, and had been widely cultivated and had attained a high level of perfection in India, at least some three thousand years ago.
It was in fact one of the unmistakable indications to us of the high state of civilisation which the people of the land had reached even in those early times.
What distinguished Indian Music, however, from its prototypes in other climes was its outlook and tendency: it was never regarded in India as a mere lay art, as a mere system of pleasing the sensuous part of man. It was always held to be but an extension and outward symbolisation of the Omnipresent Pranava Sound - OM - and utilised only for purposes of God attainment - a feature it has retained to the present day, as will be evident from the fact that, up to the end of the last century, the subject of musical compositions has rarely been anything but God and His glories.
Classical music of the Indian subcontinent has a rich history of being one the most developed expressions of our cultural heritage. Its foundations pre-cede 5000 years, going back to the ancient Indus civilisation. Many instruments such as harps, flutes and percussion instruments were found during the excavations at Harappa and Mohenjo Daro, the centres of the Indus valley situated in present day Sindh, Pakistan.
The earliest form of Indian music was based on chants or recitation of hymns, found in scriptures or Vedas, the earliest of which were the Rig Veda and Sama Veda. The music of the Vedic era was of a simple nature, yet it retained a systematic order, the basis of which is still in existence today.
The earliest musical treatise, the Natya Shastra was written 2000 years ago and gave details on dance, vocal and instrumental music. In this treatise differentiation between classical music and folk music was made using the terms Marga and Deshi.
The next important treatises on music of the early period were the Brihaddeshi and Sangeet Ratnakar. Development of Indian music... Even as it is the case with other arts, the art of Indian Music too was for a long time confined to its practical and operative or expressive aspect.
As soon as practice reached a certain height of development and gathered growth and variety, theoretical expositions of the subject began to appear. These were, of course, something in the nature of a necessity, if the practical secrets of the art, garnered by centuries of experience, were to be preserved from oblivion and corruption. These treatises on Music were accordingly a record of the practices up to their respective dates and functioned naturally as a grammar of rules on that basis for subsequent guidance.
Narada, Bharata, Sarangadeva, Purandaradasa, Venkatamaki and a host of others, form a galaxy of musician-grammarians who earned immortal names for themselves by leaving to posterity rich treasure-troves of musical knowledge. In the treatises left by them, we have clear and accurate expositions of the principles governing musical practice the differentia and genius of the various Ragas and Melas, the nature and operation of the distinctive Gamakas and other important points calculated to give a practitioner a firm and comprehensive grasp of his chosen field.
These, therefore, served both as a record of the achievements up to their time in the theory and practice of Indian Music, as well as a stimulant to further research and progress.
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About Padmanabha.Bapu
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