Indian Music

Indian music can be broadly classified into three categories, namely classical, western and folk. Classical music has two classifications namely : Carnatic music and Hindustani music.

Carnatic Music:

Carnatic music known as karṇāṭaka sangīta is the form of  Indian classical music that had its origins in South India.

History of carnatic music:

Carnatic music developed gradually from the ancient musical traditions of South India, upon which Samavedic learning had an important influence. The Yajur-veda, which mainly consists of sacrificial formulæ, mentions the vīna as an accompaniment to vocal recitations during the sacrifices. The chants evolved into two main notes with two accents forming the first concept of the tetrachord (four notes). Three more notes were added to the original tetrachord resulting in the first full scale of seven notes. There is also a long tradition of music in ancient Tamil literature which had the system of pans, a precursor to the raga system. From the thirteenth century Carnatic music began to evolve into its current form. Unlike Hindustani music, Carnatic music was not influenced by the Islamic invasions of North India, rather it assimilated the centuries old traditions of Tamil Music. The pan-Indian bhakthi movement also laid a substantial basis for carnatic music as far as the evolution of kirtanas & kritis in various ragas were concerned.

The name 'Carnatic Music' is the anglicized form of Carnataka Sangeetham (in Sanskrit for music from the carnatic region, although it had a base throughout the south), the traditional name of the classical music of South India. The great Kannada composer Purandara Dasa is known as the Sangita Pitamaha or 'Patriarch of Carnatic music'. Carnatic music saw renewed growth during Vijayanagar Empire by the Kannada Haridasa movement of Vyasaraja, Purandara Dasa, Kanakadasa and others. Purandara Dasa, laid out the fundamental tenets and framework for teaching carnatic music. The learning structure is arranged in the increasing order of the complexity. The lessons start with the learning of the Solfege (sarale varasai).

Great composers

Purandara Dasa

One of the earliest and prominent composers in South India was Purandara Dasa (1480 - 1564), who was a wandering singer. Purandara Dasa is said to have composed around 475,000 compositions. Most of these songs, written in Kannada, have been lost. Purandara Dasa's compositions were a source of inspiration to the later composers such as Tyagaraja. Purandara Dasa defined the basic lessons of Carnatic music by structuring Swaravalis (graded exercises), Alankaras (exercises based on the seven talas) and composed several Gitas or simple songs for novice students. He introduced the Raga Mayamalvagowla as the first scale to be learnt by a beginner. However, the original tunes of his compositions are currently unavailable. Owing to his contribution to Carnatic Music he is referred to as the patriarch of the Carnatic Music tradition or Karnataka Sangeethada Sampradaya Pitamaha.

Tyagaraja (1759? - 1847), Muthuswamy Dikshithar (1776 - 1827) and Syama Sastri (1762 - 1827) are regarded as the Trinity of Carnatic music. Prominent composers prior to the trinity include Vyasatirtha, Purandaradasa, Kanakadasa, Gopaladasa. Other prominent composers are Annamacharya, Ootukkadu Venkata Kavi,Swathi Thirunal, Narayana Teertha, Mysore Sadashiva Rao, Patnam Subramania Iyer, Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar, Mysore Vasudevacharya, Gopalakrishna Bharathi and Papnasam Sivan.

Composers of Carnatic music were often inspired by religious devotion and were usually scholars proficient in one or more of the following languages Kannada, Sanskrit , Tamil, Malyalam and Telugu. They usually included a signature, called a mudra, in their compositions. For example, all songs by Tyagaraja have the word Tyāgarāja in them, all songs by Muthuswami Dikshitar (who composed in Sanskrit) have the words guru guha in them, songs by Syama Sastri have the words "Syama Krishna" in them and Purandara Vitala, who composed in Kannada, used the signature 'purandara vitala'.