Musical traditions

Music and dance-drama have been part of Indian culture since ancient times. Each region had its own forms, even when the stories were shared.

The Nātyaśhāstra set out these arts long ago. It brought together dance, drama, music, science, mathematics, aesthetics (beauty) and mythology, yet stayed flexible, with many regional styles.

Stories were told with song, dance and drama:

• puppetry in Rajasthan;
• paṭṭachitra (paṭṭa = cloth, chitra = picture) in Odisha, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, used by travelling singers at village gatherings.

Everyday feelings, such as love, grief, pain and longing, became part of these arts too.

Indian classical music grew in two related streams:

• Hindustani in the North;
• Carnatic in the South.

In the late 15th century, Raja Mansingh Tomar of Gwalior, himself a fine composer, helped raise dhrupad to new heights. Dhruva means fixed, pada means verse. Dhrupad is a very old style.

Tansen, born Rāmtanu Pandey, went to Akbar's court at the emperor's request and became one of its nine ratnas (nine jewels).

Tansen shows the chapter's idea in one person. He was influenced by a Sufi saint, and that shows in some songs, while he kept composing songs in praise of Kṛiṣhṇa and Śhiva.

Amīr Khusro, an Indo-Persian Sufi poet and singer of the 13th–14th centuries, developed the qawwālī by mixing Indian, Persian and Arabic singing styles.

Carnatic music grew on its own, largely untouched by Persian and Arabic influences.

Instruments like the sitar and tabla developed in these centuries. But the tabla's set of rhythms (its repertoire) came from the much older pakhāwaj drum.