Greatness of Indian Music

Indian Music possesses a special character of its own and it differs from music of other countries in its structure, temperament and method of improvisation and has the most striking feature of being a synthesis between Philosophy, Psychology, Spirituality and Aesthetics.

The precursor for the Indian Raga System originated in the Vedic period (Rig Vedic Period) which is believed to precede the pre historic Indus Valley Civilisation. The vedic hymns of the vedic period were meant for yajnas and were called Yajur Vedas and the hymns that was meant for singing were called samaveda. Music was evolved out of stanzas of Rig Veda set to tunes and tones in the form of samaganas, cultured with a religious motive and a spiritual purpose. Indian tradition had a great intuition about the power of sound and intonation and that the science of sound was very important for use in every condition of life in healing, in teaching, in evolving and accomplishment. The vedic chants and music were intoned with utmost care as each intonation and inflection of voice could have beneficial or adverse effects. The Vedas and Upanishads had more of sound and rhythm and were used as a source of healing and upliftment.

The tones used in the samagana were five, six and seven and were in downward movement and emphasized on the harmony between speech, tune and rhythm. These vedic songs were used by the people to please the presiding deities of different vedic sacrifices or Yajnas to get benedictions of brilliance, power, beneficence and wisdom. It is only from this samagana, that seven notes were evolved which formed the basis not only for the raga system of India, but also what is known as world music.

After the Vedic music, Gandharva or Marga music evolved, and then the formalized regional or Desi music which enriched the treasury of Indian classical music in the form of ragas and gitis. The present system of raga music is somewhat a different approach followed in more systematic and scientific manner by 72 melakarta scheme devised by Venkatamakhi with various permutations and combinations of swaras under mela karta and janya classifications in South Indian Music and 10 basic thatas or melas in North Indian Music contributing to the raga composition and raga development.

Nada according to Indian Philosophy is sound vibrations and Nada yoga, an ancient healing practice, views music as a universal force (and not just a resonance) and also considers that the entire universe is made of nada, the sound vibrations consisting of two forms ahata (Struck Sound) and anahata (Unstruck Sound). This system of using nada as a healing system has been an ancient Indian tradition but the practices are lost in time due to want of codification and proper preservations.