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Indian music traces its origin from the dawn of human settlement in the Indian subcontinent. The 100000 year old Bhimbetka caves near Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh show advanced rock painting dating back to 10000 BCE or earlier. Several of these paintings depict the playing of musical instruments together with dancing.
From myriad folk traditions of music evolved more formal, structured and sophisticated Indian classical music. Today a wide variety of folk, devotional, classical, film and popular music styles co-exist in India.
One of the earliest widespread musical instruments in India is the Dhol, variations of which arose independently in the Indus Valley civilisation in the north-west to the plains and hills of the north-east. That is why we have used a North-Eastern Dhol as the background of our Indian music web page.
The north-western variant made its way through Gandhara (Afghanistan), as shown in the 4th century sculptures above from Swat valley, to Central Asia and then the Caucasus as far as Armenia.
The most famous drum nowadays in traditional Indian music is the tabla which has two pieces one played by the right hand and the other the left. It was derived from the dhol by natural evolution. The carvings in Bhaja Caves near Pune, Maharashtra, give evidence of the tabla having been played in India for at least 2300 years.
Raga:
Raga:
The centrepiece of Indian music is the concept of raga. To understand the concept of raga, consider this little story.
As a child grows up, she learns songs from her surroundings. She learns both the lyrics as well as the tune. After a few years, she realises that some two different songs have different lyrics but the same tune. Consider the example below where the tune is essentially the same between the two songs though the tempos are vastly different.
Mexican Hat Dance vs Jeevan ke safar mein raahi
So she realises that the tune is one level of abstraction above the song. After a few more years, she starts realising a similarity amongst some tunes. Two tunes may be different, but they evoke the same emotion! For this the two tunes should have the same notes, similar patterns of ascending and descending and some common key musical phrases which seem to capture the heart of the common emotion. This is a high level of abstraction, higher than going from song to tune. Consider the example below:
Hum ko mun ki shakti denaa vs Bekas pe karam kijiye
The songs are of course different, with different lyrics and different tunes. But concentrate on the main melody of both the songs. Do you feel a similarity in the tunes? Do they have the same notes, same pattern of ascending and descending, common musical phrases? Do you feel a similarity of emotion (for this pay attention to the tune only and not to the lyrics)?
If the answers to the above questions is yes, then Hearty Congratulations!! You have just appreciated the concept of Raga.
A raga is the next level of abstraction above tunes. It consists of a set of notes, a suggested pattern of ascending and descending and some key musical phrases which form its heart. It should allow many tunes to emerge from its prescription, but they all should convey the same emotion! So not every scale, ascending and descending pattern, set of key musical phrases qualifies to be called a raga. It must convey a precise and unique emotion, distinct from other ragas.
Some ragas have been created by abstracting out folk tunes from a tribe, culture or region. Some ragas have come from research and experimentation. Some ragas have been derived by playing around with other existing ragas. With all this research into melody and emotion over millenia, there are now more than a thousand ragas that have been listed and described in the text.
The common raga in "Hum ko man ki shakti denaa" and "Bekas pe karam kijiye" is Raga Kedar. It is best performed in early evening, and evokes an emotion of prayer and supplication.
Here are some links below to help us get started on this exquisite journey of songs of the soil, folk music, raga and emotion.
Raga Bhupali:
Raga Bhupali:
It is also called Bhoop, and is believed to have been developed by abstracting out folk tunes. It is an early evening raga which only five notes (1, 2, 3, 5, 6) in its scale. Chinese classical music uses only five notes and those notes are precisely the notes of Bhupali!
Zindagi dene waale soon (by popular demand)
Raga Yaman:
Raga Yaman:
This is an early evening raga and is considered one of the great ragas of Indian music coming down from antiquity. It is also known as Kalyan raga. It lends itself to a very wide variety of moods in its lighter film interpretations and many movie songs are based on this raga, though they may be very different from each other. Even fully classical treatments show more variations than classical treatments of most other ragas.
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