MUSIC,THE  LIFE  GIVER.

Love, humour, pathos, anger, heroism, terror, disgust,
wonder and serenity are the navarasas or nine basic
emotions which are fundamental to all Indian aesthetics.
Sage Bharata, the earliest Indian musicologist said to
have lived in the 1st or 2nd century AD, enunciated
these moods and believed that it was the musician's task
to evoke a particular emotion or mood. The classical
music tradition in India is based on the principles
enunciated by sage Bharata and continues to be a form
of meditation, concentration and worship.

The Raga, or musical mode, forms the basis of the
entire musical event. The Raga is essentially an
aesthetic rendering of the seven musical notes and each
Raga is said to have a specific flavor and mood.

Tala is what binds music together. It is essentially a
fixed time cycle for each rendition and repeats itself
after completion of each cycle. Tala makes possible a
lot of improvisations between beats and allows complex variations between each
cycle.

With the help of the Raga, Tala and the infinite shrutis or microtones, Indian
musicians create a variety of feelings. The melodious sounds of a musical rendition
can evoke the innermost emotions and moods of the audience, connoisseurs and
non-connoisseurs alike.

        THE   TRINITY

                                       

Today, the Indian Musical tradition has two dominant strains: the Carnatic or South
Indian music and the Hindustani or North Indian music. The Carnatic and the
Hindustani music have some features in common as their heritage and philosophy is
essentially the same. However their ragas and their articulation are usually distinctive.

The Northern school of Indian Music can boast of names like Amir Khusro (13th
century) and Miyan Tansen who lived in the court of the Mughal Emperor Akbar in
the 16th century. The great musicians of the Southern style include Venkatamakhi
(17th century), Thyagaraja and Shyama Shastri.


All Indian musicians belong to a particular gharana
(house) or school. Each gharana has its own traditions
and manner of rendition and these styles are fiercely
guarded and maintained. Some of the well-known
gharanas are those of Delhi, Agra, Gwalior and Jaipur.

Today, there is a lot of interaction and concourse
between music from the north and that from the south.
Both styles are influencing each other and this can only
lead to an enrichment of the great musical tradition of
India.


The musical instruments of India have a captivating beauty of their
own. There are four types of instruments, or vadya that are used in
Indian music. Tantu or stringed, Susir or wind, Avanada or
percussion, and Ghana comprising bells, cymbals and gongs.

The commonly heard and used stringed instruments include the
veena, the sitar, the sarangi and the sarod. Veena or the lute was
used by Sage Bharata for his musical studies. It has changed
considerably since then and has 24 fixed frets on a hollow wooden
fingerboard which is attached to two gourds. The veena strings can
produce the most delicate nuances and are plucked with either one
or two fingers.

Sitar or seh-tar meaning "three-stringed" is said to have been invented by Amir
Khusro. A seasoned gourd is used as a resonating chamber in the sitar and the rest of
the body is made of teakwood. There are seven main strings and nine sympathetic
strings. The main strings are plucked by a plectrum worn on the index finger.

The sarod is smaller than the sitar and has two resonating chambers. There are ten
main playing strings and fifteen sympathetic strings. The main strings are plucked with
a piece of coconut shell.

The sarangi is a fretless stringed instrument which is played by a bow. The whole
body is carved out of a single block of wood and the hollow is covered by parchment.
The sarangi can produce a wide variety of sound and its playing technique is
somewhat unusual.

Other stringed instruments which are used in India comprise the dilruba, esraj,
tanpura, ektara and the mayuri.

Shehnai, a double-reeded flute is the most
common susir instrument in India. The bansuri,
nadswaram, ninkirns and pongi are other sister
instruments of the shehnai.

Common percussion instruments include the tabla,
played in north India and mridangam, played in
the south. Pakhavaj, dholak, ghatam, kanjira
are other percussion instruments. Most of these
are made of wood and produce a deep mellow
sound.

Manjiras are small brass cymbals generally used in temple prayers. Jhanj, kartal
and the jal-tarang which is a water xylophone are other Indian instruments.