🎼 History of Indian music
From the chanting of the Samaveda to the seven notes, the idea of raga, dhrupad and qawwali, the two streams of Hindustani and Carnatic music, and the composers and masters who shaped them.
🕉 The roots: notes, raga and tala
How three Vedic tones became seven notes, and how the old texts defined musical sound and raga.
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Vedic period
From the Samaveda to seven notes
The notes of Indian classical music evolved from the ritual chanting of the Samaveda. The Vedas were first chanted with three notes — udatta, anudatta and svarita — which gradually became the seven notes (sapta swara).
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The seven notes of the Natyashastra
The Natyashastra (28.21) names the seven notes: Shadaj, Rishabh, Gandhar, Madhyam, Pancham, Dhaivat and Nishad.
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Matanga’s definition of raga
Matanga’s Brihaddeshi defines raga as a sound pleasant to the ear, aesthetically structured with swara and varna.
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Nada in the Sangita-ratnakara
Sharangdeva’s Sangita-ratnakara explains nada (musical sound) as born of ‘na’, prana (life force), and ‘da’, agni.
🎶 Two streams: Hindustani and Carnatic
Indian classical music grew in two related streams, Hindustani in the north and Carnatic in the south.
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13th–14th centuries
Amir Khusrau and the qawwali
The Indo-Persian Sufi poet and singer is credited with developing the qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional song fusing Indian, Persian and Arabic singing traditions.
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Late 15th century
Dhrupad at Gwalior
Under the patronage of Raja Mansingh Tomar of Gwalior, himself an accomplished composer, dhrupad (dhruva, fixed; pada, verse) — a genre of great antiquity — rose to new heights.
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15th century
Annamacharya
The Telugu musician, composer and saint is said to have composed 32,000 sankirtanas, and was among the earliest to oppose social stigma against untouchables.
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15th–16th centuries
Purandaradasa, father of Carnatic music
He may have composed as many as 4,75,000 kirtanas; his fame reached Krishnadevaraya’s court at Vijayanagara.
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16th century
Tansen at Akbar’s court
Tansen (Ramtanu Pandey) went to Akbar’s court and became one of its nine ratnas; he was influenced by a Sufi saint and also composed in praise of Krishna and Shiva.
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Carnatic music, independent
The Carnatic stream continued to develop independently, largely unaffected by Persian and Arabic influence. Its compositions are usually in Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil.
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The Trinity of Carnatic music
Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Shyama Shastri are known as the trinity of Carnatic music, its pioneer composers. Tyagaraja’s songs were mostly in praise of Rama; Shyama Shastri composed on Goddess Kamakshi.
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Hindustani music today
Hindustani music uses instruments like the tanpura, sitar, sarod, sarangi, santoor, tabla and pakhawaj; its songs are usually in Hindi, Sanskrit and Brijbhasha.
📻 Notation and the modern masters
Writing music down, and the masters whose names are known across the world.
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Bhatkhande’s notation
Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande developed the notation system of Hindustani classical music, toured the country to collect compositions, and documented them in the Kramik Pustak Maalika.
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Masters honoured with the Bharat Ratna
Among musicians honoured with the Bharat Ratna, NCERT names Pandit Ravi Shankar (sitar) and Ustad Bismillah Khan (shehnai).
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Pannalal Ghosh and the flute
Pannalal Ghosh was the first to introduce the seven-hole flute.
How we check: every entry is from NCERT’s Kriti and Exploring Society textbooks; our build fails unless its key phrases are found in the chapter itself. For the instruments, see Musical instruments.